Alex and Shale arrived back at Yassen's place in the Congo for their debriefing seven days after they had left. Alex had slept most of the flight. It wasn't good sleep, but it was rest, and he desperately needed that. That, and about an hour soaking in a bathtub. He really doubted he would get that any time soon.
"Duval's disappearance has been blamed on the French intelligence agencies," was Yassen's first greeting. "You did well."
Something in Alex eased; a tension he hadn't even been aware of. The lingering awareness that it hadn't been enough to kill Duval; they had to have made it look real enough, too. They could still have failed. If they had … Alex didn't doubt Yassen had planned for that, too, but he wasn't about to ask. They had done their job. That was all that mattered.
"Sir," Shale greeted. Alex just nodded in response.
"Your mission report."
Alex had expected that and he had spent a good part of the wait in the airport mentally writing that report. The words came easy now with no real effort required. Shale seemed happy to leave that part to him.
"Everything went according to plan and the intel was solid," Alex began. "Duval went for security in anonymity -"
It took half an hour to finish the report to Yassen's satisfaction, questions included. Large stuff sometimes – had any of Duval's people looked like some of SCORPIA's? - and sometimes things so minor that Alex would have wondered why if it hadn't been Yassen. How heavily armoured had Duval's car been that had arrived to pick him up? How had Duval reacted to the sedative?
Alex knew better than to ask. Instead he answered the questions, no matter how odd, and only stopped when Yassen finally nodded.
"Well done," he said. "Both of you."
"Thank you, sir," Alex said, falling back into old habits. Whatever offer Yassen had made of taking over SCORPIA together, right there and then Alex was still his second in command. Still his subordinate. "Any orders?"
"We wait." He made it sound so simple. Alex knew himself well enough to know it would be everything but. "You do your job to the best of your abilities. Make note of any weaknesses the client's security, but do nothing until you get further orders."
From one extreme to the other. Alex already felt rattled, straight from their isolation in France and back to the middle of a large operation, and the need to keep up appearances wouldn't make it easier.
The harsh truth was that he was out of practice. Shale had killed without blinking, but Alex wasn't him. He was fifteen and sure, he had graduated Malagosto, but he didn't have half a decade as a sniper to back him. He hadn't made a career in one of SCORPIA's combat teams. None of Sagitta thought twice about killing.
The last time Alex had been forced to kill had been Yassen's lesson at Malagosto. Before that, it had been Miami. Alex was a trained assassin but he hadn't had to actually do that job for months. For half a year, if he ignored Yassen's punishment. A part of him had hoped he would never have to do it again. That he would be more valuable as Yassen's second and a trained spy than an assassin, because SCORPIA had plenty of those. And maybe he would have had to kill in the course of his new job but it would still have been different from the cold, efficient way Shale had snapped Duval's neck.
Alex hadn't killed directly this time, not unless someone had a bad reaction to the sedative that he didn't know about, but he had been in charge of the mission, and if Shale hadn't offered to let him handle the darts and taken care of Duval, every last one of those deaths would have been by his own hands, too.
If this was how he reacted to not having to kill, to just being responsible, how would he ever manage control of SCORPIA? Even if they got rid of the parts that Alex refused to accept, it was still a brutal, bloody business. Any weaknesses would be targeted. If Alex wasn't able to have someone killed, he would have no chance of surviving at all.
Did Yassen know what he was thinking? Probably. He knew Alex better than Alex was entirely comfortable with sometimes.
It was all but confirmed when Yassen glanced at Shale. "Dismissed."
The man nodded swiftly and left, closing the door behind him. He wouldn't go too far, Alex knew. They still needed to get back to Rensburg's estate.
Yassen's focus shifted back to Alex in an unspoken question.
"I -" Alex took a steadying breath. "I'm going to make a miserable boss if I can't even handle watching someone else snap a neck."
He had reacted stronger to Shale doing it than Nile, probably because he could afford to do that around Sagitta. Alex had been on his very best behaviour around Nile, and he had been expected to be fine with whatever methods he had to use to get the job done. Shale seemed to see him less as an assassin and more like a fifteen-year-old in way over his head. Nile would have done his best to remove any unfortunate weaknesses like that from Alex. Shale had worked around them instead.
Something flickered through Yassen's eyes. Alex imagined he could almost see the man consider different approaches and discard them one after the other.
"As you're fond of telling me, you are fifteen," Yassen finally settled on. "You never had the mindset for cold-blooded murder. I did the best I could with what I had to work with. Enough, I think, that you could eventually have adapted to the job of an assassin over the course of your contract."
Honesty. Alex was used to Yassen using manipulation when simple orders wouldn't work. This was something new. Alex had given Yassen a list of his conditions, and Yassen was trying in his own way.
"And this?"
"Entirely uncharted territory." Yassen watched him carefully. "In some ways, the position in charge is easier. You will have people to handle things for you. If you must kill by your own hand, it is by choice or because someone in your employ failed at their job. In other ways, it will be far harder, and certainly for someone with your mindset. As one of SCORPIA's operatives, you are given your orders. You do not make those life and death decisions yourself, you are merely their weapon. As the one in charge, those orders will be yours. Someone has crossed you? The final decision of their punishment, of retribution, of damage control will be yours. You will not be able to hold that position and keep your morals intact. Distasteful situations will demand distasteful choices."
Alex knew. He also knew that odds were that in another five or ten years, he would probably even be mostly all right with it. Yassen had done an excellent job getting him to kill. Alex doubted it would be much harder for Yassen to extend the lesson to their possible new career as well.
It hadn't taken torture. All it had taken had been some months of isolation, training that he genuinely enjoyed, and no way out. Stockholm syndrome according to SCORPIA. Alex supposed that would be a lot more effective than pain and punishment would.
"Like Blunt," Alex said on an impulse and regretted it almost immediately. The thought of the man was followed by a flare of anger and the taste of dark, bitter ash in his mouth. Blunt had a job to do and didn't care how many lives he had to throw away to see it done. Alex had just been one more on a long list.
"There is some merit in the comparison," Yassen conceded. "No one in charge of an intelligence agency can afford to be sentimental. The safety of the country will come before the survival of its agents. Blunt has killed few by his own hand but his orders have seen an impressive number of people dead."
It sounded like SCORPIA had a file on Blunt, too, not that Alex was surprised. Maybe he would look it up if he ever got the time. Just out of curiosity.
Alex didn't want to be Blunt. He didn't want to lose all sense of morality. But then, would he have to? Blunt's job was to protect the UK and her interests at any cost. Alex's … would be to run SCORPIA and do it well enough to keep something worse from rising in its place; a careful balancing act of those crimes he could accept, those he had to, and those he couldn't.
"You will not be Blunt," Yassen said and made it clear that Alex's thoughts had been obvious at least to him. "You do not have the personality. Perhaps a decade or two to wear down anything that made you Alex would do the job, but there is little reason to. It would be better, I think, to keep what few morals you could. It would be harder, certainly, but you would remain Alex Rider."
Alex, and not Orion. Whatever Yassen personally thought would be the better option between the two, he would leave the choice to Alex. Acknowledge that he had that choice now. Maybe Yassen would push for his preferred outcome, but he would leave the decision to Alex and not manipulate him into it. Like they had agreed upon.
Yassen did his best to work with Alex's conditions. The least Alex could do was try the same. He knew he would need to be Orion for their plan to work, Yassen needed a partner he could trust without hesitation, and he had agreed to that. Maybe it was time to suck it up and deal, one way or the other, and hope he could live with the price by the end of it. Be Orion for now and maybe, eventually, be Alex again later.
"Back to Rensburg, then?" Alex asked, changing the topic.
Yassen allowed it. He handed Alex a thick folder with two sets of papers. "The recon report from Danube. Make sure your stories match."
Alex nodded, not surprised. He had wondered what they were expected to say when Rensburg wanted to know their conclusions based on their supposed reconnaissance mission but figured Yassen had it under control. It made sense that he had ensure the reconnaissance mission had been carried out, just … not by the people Rensburg expected.
"Does Marcus have permission to share the goals of the assignment with the rest of his team?" Marcus would ask, Alex knew it. The man kept few important secrets from his team and expected the same in return. To have to keep something of that magnitude from them … he wouldn't be happy. Alex would really rather avoid that.
Yassen had probably come to the same conclusion. "Under the usual conditions. It goes no further."
And it wouldn't, Alex trusted that. Marcus didn't keep secrets from his team, but nothing made its way beyond Sagitta itself. Yassen didn't need to spell out the consequences, just like Alex wouldn't need to spell it out for Marcus, either. It was a risk, just like it had been to bring Shale and Marcus in on the plan in the first place, but it was an acceptable one. Marcus functioned better with the full backing of his team. He had been written off as a potential student of Malagosto for his complete inability to work alone. Expecting him to keep secrets of that sort from his team was a disaster waiting to happen.
"Yes, sir," Alex agreed.
Something in Yassen's expression softened fractionally. Alex supposed he had done well, then. "Dismissed."
Alex nodded and left, off to find Shale and return to their client for now.
By the time the two of them arrived back at Rensburg's estate, they had memorised the file and agreed on a story to fill in any details and add whatever credibility the cover would need. The small details to make it sound legitimate if anyone asked.
Alex doubted they would. Certainly not Sagitta, and Rensburg would only be interested in whether the presence of the CDC and WHO would be a problem.
Rensburg, Alex had noticed, preferred not to be reminded of Alex's age. Beyond his initial objections, he had done his best to ignore it. It still bothered him, Alex could tell, but since Yassen had no intentions of pulling his second in command from the operation, Rensburg had been given no choice but to deal with it. He did so by sticking to nothing but operation-relevant details, probably because that made it less likely he would be reminded just how young Alex was.
Shale went to report to Marcus. Alex went to report to Rensburg. Shale's report would be a lot more interesting than Alex's would, and they both knew it. Neither Yassen nor Alex expected one of Sagitta's members to keep a secret from their commander, and Marcus had plenty of incentive to learn what he could of just what he had managed to get himself and his team tangled up in.
Alex knocked once on the open door.
"Mr Rider," Rensburg greeted him and motioned for him to step inside with a small gesture. "Welcome back. Your findings?"
Alex stood loosely at ease. He had spent the helicopter flight shifting back into operation-mode. He had pushed aside their plans, the knowledge of what exactly Yassen had planned for their client and everyone on his estate, and focused on business as usual. Keeping up appearances.
"Neither team will be a problem. McCain's plague ran its course months ago; the research teams are the last remnants of a much larger presence there. They're wrapping up things, nothing more. Last week, there were less than a dozen victims of the poison and all of them were victims of known sources of the contaminated grains. The CDC plans to move their last remaining personnel in the area by new year, the WHO team is set to leave once no more new cases are reported," Alex reported, quoting Danube's report.
It was a little unnerving to have to rely so completely on their intel but on the other hand, it wasn't that much different from relying on SCORPIA's or Yassen's intel for a job. Yassen had picked the team for a reason. Unless Alex got proof of anything else, he would trust the report was solid.
Rensburg nodded slowly. "You did not draw any unnecessary attention?"
Alex shrugged slightly. "A couple of half-brothers travelling off the beaten track, sir? No one cared. An adult travelling alone might be suspicious, but an adult travelling with a kid isn't. MI6 made good use of that before I quit. SCORPIA appreciates the value of that sort of cover, too."
A flicker of unease. Alex took vindictive pleasure in the tiny victories he could claim.
"You're certain they won't be an issue?" Rensburg asked, ignoring that which he obviously didn't want to deal with.
"As certain as we can be, sir," Alex agreed. "We could remove them, but that would draw unwanted attention."
Another slow nod. "The details," Rensburg ordered.
Alex kept back a sigh and started his report, going through the important details from Danube's reconnaissance mission. They had done a good job. Alex planned to use that to its full extent.
It took less than an hour for Toka to realise her entertainment was back, and she was waiting outside of the main house when Alex reappeared from Rensburg's office. Apparently she had missed him, because she headbutted his hip hard enough to make him stumble and proceeded to chew on his uniform trousers until he settled down to scratch her.
Maybe it was a little undignified to walk around with hyena-drool on his trousers but Alex didn't really mind.
Krüger appeared from the house, his usual rifle slung over his shoulder, and paused to watch them. He seemed to like Alex. Alex suspected it was because he got along with the hyenas. Krüger liked the hyenas and he approved of those that didn't fear them.
"She understood, I think, that the return of your sniper meant that you had returned as well," the man said. "Likely she smelled you on him and responded to that."
Toka had slumped down, her head in Alex's lap to let him scratch it properly. She was heavier than she looked, mostly muscle and almost fully grown, and the leg that supported most of her weight was getting numb pretty fast. She would be heavier than Alex as an adult. She was already getting there fast.
"I wouldn't be surprised," Alex admitted. "She's pretty smart. They all are. They've behaved?"
He had seen a brief report from Marcus on the week they had been gone. He would get a more detailed one later. Nothing much had happened but it didn't hurt to ask.
Krüger's smile was sharp. "As well-behaved as any predator can be. One cannot fault a hunter for playing with their prey. There are still those that fear them."
And the hyenas knew that and took full advantage of it. They were intelligent enough to know they were trapped, intelligent enough to know their restrictions … and intelligent enough to get even in whatever small ways they could.
Toka stretched her neck to look at Alex and he scratched it without even thinking about it. He couldn't even blame her. Her eyes were sharper than a normal animal's and while they looked sleepy more than anything for now, there was no mistaking the intelligence in them. If he had been in their situation, he would have done what he could to make life miserable for his jailers, too.
Her rumbling sort of purr was more vibration in his body than any real sound and Alex resigned himself to not going anywhere for a while. He saw Krüger leave out of the corner of his eye but didn't really try to nudge Toka away to get up as well. Numb leg aside, he was kind of comfortable.
"Where's your mum, anyway?" he asked, more to fill out the silence than anything else. She wasn't always around but she was usually somewhere nearby. Within hearing range of her offspring, at least.
Probably watching, Alex assumed. Toka was almost an adult but not quite. The only other cub was much younger and was kept close by its mother. Toka had more freedom to explore. At least she was young enough to get easily bored, too, and she got up again before Alex had to wonder just how he was going to get her to move.
She ran off to do … whatever hyenas did when they were on their own, and Alex spent a while getting feeling back in his leg and then wincing at the pins and needles that followed.
"That looked comfortable." Marcus sounded vaguely amused. Alex had heard his approach and didn't startle.
"It was until my leg went numb," Alex admitted. He stretched his legs again and wiggled his toes in the heavy boots. The pins and needles slowly faded.
Marcus nodded. "I got Shale's report. Mission went all right, I hear."
"It did, I'll get you a copy of the detailed report," Alex agreed. He waited a heartbeat. "You up for a check of the estate? You give me the highlight of the past week, and I'll give you the executive summary of the mission?"
I can talk, but not here, not this close to outsiders, Alex didn't say and didn't need to. Marcus got it just fine.
"You probably had the more exciting week," he said. "Sounds like I get the better part of the deal. Let's start at the east sector. It looks like the hyenas are starting to figure out the antennas are part of what keeps them there. There's a bite mark in the metal you'll want to see."
That didn't sound like an excuse to get them away from the house, either, and Alex paused.
"They bit into the metal?"
Marcus shrugged. "Dented it enough to let the rain get into the bits and pieces on the inside. Adams spotted it. Size looks about right and there's nothing else it really could be. Clever little bastards."
That was … well. Alex didn't quite think 'bad doggie' would do the trick. 'Bad hyena'? What did you say to chastise a genetically engineered killing machine the size and weight of a grown man?
He knew they were intelligent. He knew Molai and her clan weren't happy with being restricted, though they hid it well. He wasn't sure why he was even surprised.
"That's …" Alex trailed off. Unnerving, maybe. Definitely a bad sign. There was redundancy in the system, sure – a second layer of transmitters in the house where the hyenas couldn't enter – but that didn't make it any less unsettling.
How long had it taken them to work out the purpose of the tall, thin antennas? Three weeks? Damn.
"Have you told anyone?" he asked instead as they headed in the direction of the eastern part of the large estate.
Marcus hesitated for a second. It was uncharacteristic enough to make Alex send him a sharp look. "Not yet," he admitted. "I told Adams to stay quiet. Figured we'll let Mr Gregorovich decide if it's something that needs told. It might be useful."
Useful for later.
If they had to take down Rensburg's estate and everyone in it and make it look like an attack by a foreign military or intelligence force … having part of the security fail through no fault of their own would be useful. Neither Rensburg nor Krüger would hear a word against the hyenas. Rensburg liked to have some degree of security he didn't need to question the loyalties of. Krüger just plain liked them.
If the animals turned out to be clever enough to circumvent the security set-up … well. That was hardly SCORPIA's fault.
"It might," Alex agreed. "You're right. That'll be his call."
The grass grew taller around them as they moved away from the centre of the grounds. The weather was cloudy but warm and carried the scent of rain. Alex had kind of missed it. France had been too chilly and bleak for someone who had spent most of a year in warm climates. Neither spoke for a while. Then Alex glanced over.
"You have Mr Gregorovich's permission to share the most recent developments with the rest of the team," he said carefully. "They know not to let it carry any further."
It was more Yassen's way of speaking than his own, but it got the message across and was a nice reminder of the man they both reported to.
Marcus nodded slightly. "Yes, sir."
Nice and formal. Alex didn't doubt Sagitta would know the full details by nightfall. They deserved to know what they had managed to get tangled up in, and Marcus didn't cope well with less than the full backing of his team.
They kept up the walk in silence. Through the grass and underneath the canopy of the vivid green trees. Another nice change from France.
"Impressive clusterfuck we've managed to get involved with," Marcus finally said quietly. "You know the odds of success."
"I do," Alex agreed, just as quietly.
"As long as we're on the same page." Was that faint, resigned amusement? Alex couldn't tell. He didn't know Marcus' reason for agreeing with Yassen's crazy plan, didn't know what reason would be good enough to risk his people, and Marcus didn't know Alex's. For now, Alex supposed it really would be enough for Marcus to know that Alex knew the risks as well as he did. That Alex treated it as the deadly serious treason that it was.
Marcus hadn't just gambled his own life but his team's as well and he wanted to know they had at least a chance of success.
There were no real pathways through the rainforest on Rensburg's lands but there were a few faint, trampled paths if one looked close enough. One of them led to another trampled path that circled the grounds, right along the line of antennas.
Eventually they stopped by one of them. Alex knelt by the base of it.
"Adams added a bit of extra water protection to keep the dent from being a problem," Marcus said, "but we haven't patched it up yet."
Alex ran a hand along the surface of the panel. The bite mark was plainly visible as a dent right where the removable panel met the rest of the metal and concrete base of the antenna. Enough to leave just enough of a gap between the two that rain could seep in. Marcus was right, the size about fit. It was certainly large enough. Alex wondered about the logistics. How had the hyena even managed? Probably with a lot of determination, considering how wide it would have had to open its mouth to manage. He was slightly less surprised at the dent that had resulted. The metal wasn't that thick and the hyenas' bite could crush bone, but still.
"You documented it?" he asked.
"Photos and a brief report," Marcus agreed. "We're keeping an eye on the rest to see if it happens anywhere else. Adams is looking into something a little more durable before they manage to cause some serious damage, but I figure we'll wait for Mr Gregorovich's go-ahead before we do anything else."
Alex nodded. "Send it to him. He'll want to know."
At best, it would be something very useful for their eventual attack on Rensburg's estate. At worst, it would at least be a mild curiosity. Yassen had found the hyenas interesting before. Alex imagined he would find that sort of thing interesting, too.
If nothing else, it was a very good reminder that however well-behaved those hyenas were for the most part, they weren't tame. They were trapped predators and intelligent enough to resent it.
Marcus nodded. "France?" he asked quietly.
"Duval is dead," Alex replied, keeping up his part of the bargain though he didn't doubt Shale had delivered a full report already. "It's been blamed on French intelligence. Now we just wait."
"Well, that we're used to." Resigned and pragmatic. Much like Alex's job consisted mostly of moments of adrenaline and raw terror in between long stretches of nothing, a combat team like Sagitta was used to a lot of waiting, too. Waiting for the target, waiting to spot a weakness, waiting for a lot of things. They were used to it but that didn't mean that Marcus liked it.
Alex got up. Brushed the bits of dead leaves and dirt off of his trousers. "That we're used to," he agreed. "Let's go back. I'm hungry."
Marcus snorted, a faintly amused sound. But he didn't comment and they walked back in comfortable silence as Alex simply took in the warm forest and tropical climate again.
Next: Alex never thought getting involved in treason would involve so much waiting.
