Disclaimer: I don't own the Alex Rider series
Chapter Twenty-One
Sender Unknown
The next morning dawned wet and cold, the oppressive grey clouds bleached heavily with red.
Alex woke early and for a long while he just led in his bed, wondering - dreading - what the day ahead might bring. Finally he forced himself to get up. Opening his door slightly he clarified that Wolf's room was empty. Making a quick decision he shut the door and dragged his laptop out from it's hiding place. Powering it up he opened his inbox. 1 new message. Sender unknown.
Alex considered. Wolf had told him not to open any unknown emails without telling him. But it could be from anyone. But what if it wasn't. Wolf would be furious. But did he even care. The man had lied to him after all. But that wasn't fair. Wolf had just been following orders. He hesitated then hit the 'open' button.
I have a game for you. Click here to play.
Alex swore under his breath. Wolf was going to go mad. He picked up the laptop and reluctantly made his way downstairs.
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Wolf drained the last of his coffee and forced down a yawn as he glanced around the living room. Ben was occupying the second armchair and, as ever, reading a newspaper. Both Snake and Eagle were in the kitchen. He could hear the gentle murmur of their conversation. Suddenly the living room door swung open to reveal a guilty looking Cub, a laptop balanced on the crook of his arm. "I may have accidental opened another email," he explained innocently.
A few minutes later the entire K Unit was grouped around the laptop that Alex had placed on the coffee table.
"This is creepy..." Eagle murmured.
"Tell me about it," Alex replied tiredly.
"What do we do? That link might be important," Ben asked Wolf worriedly.
Wolf closed his eyes, his mouth set in a hard line. When he opened his eyes again a steely certainty had settled over them. He reached out and clicked the link.
The screen went blank.
"What happened?" Eagle whispered.
Then a line of bold white letters flashed up.
I'm sorry. This game is only for Alex.
"Shit!" Wolf exclaimed. "He can see us!"
"Don't worry," Alex answered. "He's just hacked into the web cam. He can't see anything that gives away our location."
The first sentence disappeared to be replaced by five words.
Very good Alex. I'm impressed.
Then the screen flashed bright white before reverting to Alex's inbox.
"Well, that was freaky..." Eagle muttered.
"What do we do now?" Alex said to nobody in particular.
"I'll take the laptop in to the local branch and they can pass it on to the Royal and General," Wolf replied.
"Local branch?" Alex asked confused.
"MI6 has branches all over England. There is one roughly forty minutes away." Wolf explained. "Now, shouldn't you be getting ready for school?"
Alex nodded.
"Remember what I said. MI6 has arranged everything, there are police reports, hospital reports, the whole lot. There is nothing to suggest to Stryker that anything is amiss." Wolf said, possibly trying to sound reassuring but failing.
"Okay. So all I have to do is act my part." Alex replied and Wolf dipped his head in agreement.
"I think someone better walk you to school..." he mused suddenly.
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"Why do we have to do this again?" Alex groaned as he walked through the school car park, Eagle skipping at his heels. He was a hardened SAS operative and he was skipping.
"Because a normal father would not let his son walk to school on his own after being attacked!" Eagle explained in a mock patient voice.
"Yes, but why you! Out of the four of you why did I get landed with Bambi!" Alex complained with a humorless laugh.
"Bambi?" Eagle stopped skipping and arranged his features into a hurt expression.
Alex grinned and continued to walk.
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The school day passed quickly for Alex. There had been an initial interest in the attack on Alex the day before but after Alex had explained what had happened a few times over the interest had thinned out, for which he was grateful for.
After school he made his way over to the playing field.
"Hey Sterling! I heard about what happened yesterday! Are you good to play?" Stryker shouted over to him.
"Yeah! I just have to be careful of my shoulder!" Alex shouted back. He couldn't stop a shadow of fear flutter across his mind as he looked at the man who had ordered the attack on him the day before.
"Good. I've already lost my goalie I don't want to lose my center back as well!" Stryker answered.
Alex jogged towards the changing rooms feeling oddly sick.
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The practise lasted for over an hour despite the slick of rain that pressed down on them. Alex made his way back to the changing rooms with the others but once he was changed instead of going home he made his way over to the school.
He slipped into the unlocked building unnoticed. Despite the fact that is was already 4:30 pm the school was still a hive of activity with students filtering out from extra credit classes and teachers finishing their marking. Alex hurried along the hallway, undisturbed.
He reached a set of stairs leading up to the first floor and thundered up them, there, right in front of him was the door to Stryker's office. He walked forward and tried the door handle. As he had expected it was locked. He slipped something from his pocket. It was a long, slim wire Alex had taken from the DT room scrap box. He knelt to examine the lock and then fed the wire in, twisting and contorting it until he heard the click that signified the door had been unlocked.
He reached out and pushed the door open.
It led into a small simple room with cream walls, cream carpeting, an oak desk, a metal filling cabinet... Alex shut the door and moved over to the desk and opened the first drawer. There was a sheaf of papers inside but flicking through them they all seemed innocent enough. He pulled out the next drawer and found a leather bound notepad. He flipped it open and rifled through the pages. There wasn't much in them apart from a few phone numbers, addresses and names which he memorised before moving on to the third and final drawer.
Before he could examine the contents of said drawer however, the door to the office opened and Stryker walked in.
Yay! Over 1000 words again! Bit more action in this chapter and am trying to move the story foward a bit. Please review and hope you enjoyed! Bye for now! Crystal X