Alex Rider had never really appreciated the stress of waiting until he had found himself at Malagosto.

Until then, waiting had been a source of restless boredom but little else. Then he had been stuck in the horrible position of knowing he was about to go through resistance to interrogation but with no idea of when, and he had learned just how awful the wait could be. That lesson had been repeated several times later on – the seemingly endless hours before his first assignment, the long flight back from Santa Catarina – and now he got another reminder.

The wait was unnerving. Keeping up the constant act, being the same person he had always been around Rensburg and his people, doing his job … and all the while just waiting for the moment when Yassen would let him know it was time to do an entirely different job instead.

The vaccine had been distributed to everyone by the time Alex and Shale had returned, but it would be another three and a half weeks before it was guaranteed to be fully effective for the last group.

There was a definite countdown now. Rensburg couldn't risk unleashing the virus while his own people were still vulnerable to it, but once the vaccine was effective …

Alex could only hope that ASIS wouldn't wait to act against Chase. Could only hope that if the plan got delayed, Yassen had backup plans.

Sagitta was not an undercover team but in some ways they would have to be now. Like Alex, they did their jobs, kept up appearances, and looked for weaknesses wherever they could find them. It was not their usual sort of assignment but they would have to learn.

And not just for this, Alex realised. They were as tangled up in Yassen's plans now as Alex was. They would need to learn to play their role, to remain nothing more than just another one of SCORPIA's combat teams, because if they couldn't, someone would get suspicious. And even if that didn't happen, Yassen might just step in himself to fix the potential security risk if he decided they didn't keep up that act well enough.

Marcus had to know that. The rest of the team, too. They weren't stupid. Alex's fondness of them would only protect them so far.

They had done a good job so far, though. They had already had a solid file on the security on Rensburg's estate since they were responsible for a good part of it, and they filled in the blanks with slow, relentless certainty. Sagitta wasn't an undercover team, but they were very good hunters.

December marched on. Christmas inched closer. At least there were no Christmas decorations, which Alex was grateful for. It was strange enough to realise it was December without adding a bunch of happy decorations to the mix. Christmas angels, Santa, and a couple of vials of lethal virus draped in ribbons? Alex was much happier without it.

He was starting to have a horrible suspicion about the timing, though. Maybe it was on accident, but Rensburg seemed to have become aware that the last round of vaccine would be fully effective right around the end of the Christmas season and had become increasingly settled on that time frame for the distribution of the virus. Christmas itself was a little too risky if the virus spread faster than expected, but New Year? New Year would be safe.

How long would it take ASIS to act? Alex had very little to compare with and no real idea. Move fast and risk the intel being faulty? Wait and make sure it was reliable intel but risk it getting too old? Just how much of a grudge did the Australian intelligence service hold against an enemy that used to be one of its own?

Alex wanted to do something but knew just as well that he couldn't. If he tried, he would ruin everything. It wasn't even a test from Yassen, some way to make sure Alex wouldn't try something like Santa Catarina again. It was just coincidence and an unintentional test of Alex's determination to stick with the plan.

He did his best to hide his restlessness but it was apparently obvious to those who knew him. Yassen never commented but Sagitta did.

"You look like you're ready to climb the walls," Marcus told him. "Go feed that hyena of yours."

That didn't help much on Alex's anxiety, but Toka did appreciate the sandwich.

"I'm sure the boss'll be happy to beat you up in the guise of training," Adams suggested. "That'll knock that energy right back down."

Yassen undoubtedly would, and Alex was honestly tempted for a moment. Then common sense prevailed, though he did put it on the mental list of emergency measures. For now he had enough in his daily training.

Alex distracted himself by following Yassen's instructions: find out everything. They knew a lot already, but he still kept an eye on security, on surveillance, on Rensburg's guards and staff, and on Rensburg himself.

It wasn't all that different from what he had done during his time at Yu's home. Alex was honest enough to himself to acknowledge that like it or not, he was perfect for that sort of job. Maybe not entirely trusted by any client, his high position with SCORPIA would ruin that, but still underestimated in a way that an adult wouldn't be. Maybe someone wouldn't trust him to be entirely loyal to anyone but SCORPIA, but they wouldn't expect him to be able to run a second assignment right under their noses, either.

No one else seemed to notice the approach of the holiday season, no one but Rensburg and Alex himself. Come Christmas, it would be a full year since Alex last talked to Jack, a brief, few minutes under SCORPIA's watchful eye. SCORPIA, and the CIA, and god knew who else. He wondered what she was doing now. Maybe they had snow in Washington. It was the time for that, wasn't it?Alex didn't know but it was a nice thought, Jack out in the snow and just enjoying life with her family. On top of the equator, the weather never really changed much. Maybe it rained a little more some months. Maybe a little less in others. Alex kind of missed actual seasons.

It was also the kind of thought that was too dangerous to linger on and he shoved it aside again. If – when – their plan succeeded, maybe he could approach her again. He was a killer already, would be even more of a cold-blooded one by the end of this, but maybe she would still listen. Maybe she wouldn't mind talking again.

Alex blamed his mood on the season and threw himself into training and planning instead.

He knew the guard shifts already, knew the patrol patterns, and knew the people. Knew their habits and where they slacked a little on security, where they cut the occasional corner, and he tried and failed to ignore the fact that these were people he knew.

Not particularly well, since Rensburg's people stuck to their own and SCORPIA's did the same, but well enough. Names, personalities, the occasional idle chat over breakfast or dinner. Yassen's orders in Miami had been to leave no survivors, but Alex had been spared the bloodier parts of it. There would be no such leniency this time.

Alex and Sagitta knew the people, knew the shifts, and knew a lot of the technology. They knew the basics of the system that kept the hyenas contained, and Adams had spent a good while getting to know the technology behind it as well. They were familiar with the sensors that kept a watch on the perimeter of the estate and knew they were faulty more often than not, never meant to handle something as humid and full of life as the rainforest.

What they didn't know – well, weren't supposed to know, anyway – was the rest of it. Rensburg wasn't as paranoid as Yassen had made him out to be to the rest of the executive board, but he was still a cautious man. Alex didn't blame him. It was a sensible precaution, everything considered.

There was surveillance inside the buildings, very carefully hidden and set up to allow for very few blind spots. It had taken scanners and a lot of time and patience to map every last one of those cameras without drawing attention to the fact. There was surveillance outside, too, though those were a combination of normal and infrared cameras. Well-hidden, but not quite as well as the ones inside. They were larger and heavier by necessity, and a lot easier to spot.

There were additional defences in the private areas of Rensburg's home, and they were pretty decent ones, too. The doors would take some serious force to break down, the windows were bulletproof, there were – to Adams' best estimate – redundant backup generators somewhere beneath the main building, and the heart of the building was clearly meant to limit the spread of fire enough to leave plenty of time to do something about it. Rensburg's personal guards trusted no one, and while Alex had been alone with Rensburg on several occasions, he knew that meant nothing with bodyguards right outside the door. If he had attacked the man, he would never have made it out alive.

Taking the time to really watch and observe also made him aware of a few other things he could have slept a lot better not knowing. He knew the small clan of hyenas were intelligent. He knew they played games to unnerve the people that still weren't used to them, he knew that they were looking for a way out, knew that they were intelligent enough to work out at least some of the pieces of the puzzle, but he had never had the time or attention to spare to really just sit down and observe.

What he found wasn't exactly comforting.

"They're watching us," he told Marcus bluntly when he got the man alone in the afternoon a few days later.

"They are," the man agreed. "Me, Krüger, the client. You to a lesser degree, though they're a little less creepy about it. They've started to watch Adams, too, the last few weeks."

The people in charge, except for Adams. The only reason Alex could think of for that particular change implied a little more rational thought behind their actions than he was entirely comfortable with. "The antenna?"

Marcus shrugged. "That's our theory, me and Adams. Can't prove it, of course, but that's the only thing that's changed."

Best case, Alex figured, the hyenas had picked up Adams' scent on the antenna after he fixed up their attempt at sabotage and that had drawn their attention. Worst case, they were intelligent enough to some degree to connect Adams' scent with the antenna getting fixed. They didn't understand what the antenna was actually for, but they had worked out it was part of what kept them there and had the intelligence to realise that Adams' ability to fix it made him a threat to their potential freedom as well.

… Absolutely worst case, Alex realised a second later, it had been a test. A trial run to see what would happen if they did try to damage the thing, just to see what other threats would appear as a result. What other threats they would need to take out if they wanted to escape. If that was the case, that implied an ability to reason and plan that was enough to send a chill down Alex's spine.

"Anyone else knows?"

"Adams," Marcus replied. "Krüger's observant; I think he knows but doesn't care. He'll probably trust the bracelet and his own experience to keep him safe. Can't imagine the client's got a clue. Not much we can do about it, though, so no point in worrying. The client's security doesn't look like they've noticed, and the rest of the team's got enough to worry about. For all we know, it could just be a way to make us twitch. Wouldn't be the first time. I'm not going to put everyone into high alert for something like that. They already know to keep an eye on those things and they still do. Not much else we can do except trust the bracelets'll do their job."

Trust the bracelets, except the thin band of metal around Alex's wrist suddenly felt a lot more fragile than before.

You had to get at least a few seconds of warning to use those bracelets. They weren't made to punish the hyenas automatically. You had to activate it.

Alex had seen Molai and her clan hunt. In the tall grass … they could get close enough unseen that all they would need would be those few seconds to tear out someone's throat or bite off their entire hand. Glance away for a few seconds and you would be dead with no chance to ever use that last line of defence.

The estate suddenly felt a lot more dangerous than it had a few minutes ago. Alex almost regretted asking. He still couldn't quite keep his mouth shut.

"What do you mean, 'less creepy', anyway?"

"Less like they're wondering how fast they can kill you," Marcus clarified. Sometimes Alex appreciated the man's straightforwardness. Now was not one of those times. "Can't decide if it's because of your age or because you've become the designated entertainment for one of them. Could even be because they've noticed the client gets uneasy around you. Depends on just how clever they actually are."

And they were very, very clever, Alex knew. He didn't know how many test subjects Dr Cabrera had gone through to get a good result, how many that had ended up disposed of because they didn't meet some arbitrary standard or another, but those hyenas – and whatever else the man had created, because Alex would bet good money that his business wasn't restricted to hyenas – had been carefully guarded in Argentina. Cabrera's people had known exactly what they were dealing with and never once let down their guard, not even with the hyenas in cages.

It shouldn't have been a surprise that the hyenas were clever enough to work out the major obstacles to freedom. They hadn't had a chance in Argentina, but Rensburg's estate … that one had weaknesses and an owner who very obviously underestimated just what his new guard dogs were capable of. Because whatever else those hyenas might be, they definitely weren't pets.

"So if the estate came under attack …"

When we attack, Alex didn't say. When the whole place descended into chaos and everyone was too busy focusing on human threats and not animal ones.

Another shrug. "Fuck if I know. Maybe they'll take their chance and go after the client's people. Maybe they'll target us. Hopefully they'll do the sensible thing and stay clear of it. We've got no way to tell until it happens. I think they're smart enough not to attack a group of people, though. Too many variables. Too many targets that might have time to trigger those bracelets."

If those bracelets would even work in an actual attack. The effect on the hyenas had to be painful or they wouldn't respect them so much, but would it work fast enough to stop one? Alex certainly doubted it would be able to do much against two hundred pounds of animal already in motion.

It all came down to how intelligent they were. Hyenas were smart already. With genetic engineering on top of that …

… It wasn't a nice thought. Alex shoved it aside for now.

"I'll let Mr Gregorovich know."

Not that there was much they could do about it. Just watch and hope for the best. And maybe plan for the worst.

Marcus nodded, the topic done for now. But it remained in the back of Alex's mind, as a constant, nagging presence.


Yassen did not seem overly bothered by the report. Alex wasn't sure if it was the man's usual ability to show no emotion whatsoever or just a genuine lack of concern. Alex could read him better than most, but on some days even that wasn't all that much.

"I think it all comes down to how intelligent they are," Alex finished. "We're assuming they're clever enough to know what they're doing, but we don't know for sure just what we're dealing with."

"Any caged predator will look for a way out," Yassen said. "This cage is invisible but a cage nonetheless. It does not take uncommon intelligence to work out where the cage ends and search for a way around it. The antennas are the only unnatural structures there. They would eventually have become a target."

"They tried to bite off the panel."

"They targeted the weakest spot."

"Adams patched it up." Kind of. Enough, anyway.

"And in the process taught them that the spot was a point of interest." Yassen looked faintly amused. "They learn and adapt. They're problem solvers. You may not have any intention of teaching them, but they learn nonetheless."

"So how intelligent are they?" The big question, and the one Alex desperately wanted to know.

"An interesting question. Based on their creator's reports, intelligent enough to be a threat, but perhaps not as intelligent as you believe them to be." The amusement vanished. "Take off their leash and they will respond as what they are. Lethal predators that have been caged and just found a way out. They will be a threat to everyone. Keep that security flawless. It is not worth the risk to add the additional, unpredictable variable they would become, not even for clean-up after the attack. They are not intelligent enough to work out what keeps them trapped, but they are intelligent enough to work out what matters to their jailers. Do not credit them with intent that isn't there, but do not let down your guard, either."

"Yes, sir." There wasn't much else Alex could say to that. He hoped Yassen was sure about his information, because both Alex and Marcus were fumbling around pretty blind when it came to those hyenas. All they could do was assume the same intelligence as a human and hope they were wrong. If Yassen was right, they were.

"Your thoughts on an attack on the estate?" Yassen asked. Alex had been given plenty of time to consider it. Yassen would expect an answer that reflected that.

"An attack at night would be best," Alex replied. "There are a lot fewer people awake at night and the night shift tends to get a little lax. For the guards outside the buildings, something like the sedative we used for Duval might work best." Alex swallowed but continued before he could change his mind. "Something that'll kill and not just knock them out. It's a lot quieter than even suppressors would be. The needles might also go through body armour where bullets would be a problem. Nobody wears the heavy-duty bullet resistant stuff, it's too hot and humid and isn't necessary. We're eight people. Take out the guards on the night shift, then focus on the buildings. Breach and clear. Adams is working on surveillance. He should be able to keep it looped and let us use the cameras instead."

The buildings would be the harder part, but Alex didn't need to say that. They knew the layouts, though, and once they got access to the surveillance cameras, that should hopefully get them a decent idea of the actual interior of the places they didn't have access to as well.

It would be bloody and brutal. Alex didn't like to think about it, but it was one of those facts of life he had learned to accept. Sagitta might be a hunter-killer team that focused more on the 'hunter' than 'killer' part, but they all had military background and additional training with SCORPIA's people. They all knew how to clear a room efficiently. Officially it was 'breach and clear', though Marcus favoured 'frag and clear' instead.

Alex remembered his lessons from Malagosto well, even – or especially – those he wanted to remember the least. The lectures on weapons of various sorts, the different grenades included, had been thorough and graphic.

Malagosto didn't train soldiers, but its instructors did run a number of different exercises. Alex had been part of a room clearing exercise twice. Enough to hopefully not be completely useless if it came to that.

"The easiest, safest way to see the building cleared. Synchronise the attack, give no one time to respond or alert the rest," Yassen agreed.

"And the darts for the guards outside?" Alex asked.

"Somewhat slower to kill than bullets are," Yassen replied. "But they will kill all the same."

There was something in Yassen's voice, somewhere between lecture and soft reprimand.

"I know," Alex said, more defensively than he wanted to.

"Do you? Or is it easier to imagine that you did not kill them when you do not see the blood? A sedative made for something larger than a human will work well enough, but it will be a death sentence should any of your team accidentally be injected with it. A bullet might leave only a wound. Do not forget that even the strongest sedatives will still leave some seconds of consciousness. Enough for a trained soldier to target their attacker."

Alex didn't respond. He wanted to remind Yassen that he had promised not to manipulate him, but it wasn't actually manipulation. Alex had asked for his opinion and been given it.

Was it easier to ignore that he had killed people when he didn't see the results of a bullet into flesh and bone in graphic detail? Of course it was, and part of him acknowledged that. The targets would still be dead; he could just … maybe tell himself they weren't. Pretend it hadn't happened.

A weakness, he knew, and one they couldn't afford. Yassen needed Orion to do the job he had been trained for. He needed a reliable partner. Not Alex, who would risk his life to work around Yassen's orders on a stupid, impulsive idea, but Orion.

Sagitta would handle most of it, but another gun would still make a world of difference with that small of a team in that kind of situation. Alex had to do his job, and he would never forgive himself if staying out of it got someone he cared about hurt or killed. Wouldn't forgive himself if one of Sagitta got killed through friendly fire or plain bad luck if they used the darts instead of bullets. He would suck it up and cope. Even if that meant killing. People he knew this time and not just strangers.

"Guns for the outside, then," Alex said, resignation setting in. "The suppressors should give us a chance to handle it reasonably quiet."

"And knives when possible," Yassen agreed.

Another weapon Alex preferred to ignore when he could. Another luxury he wouldn't have anymore. Slower than guns but not by much when wielded by skilled hands, and conveniently quiet as well. They needed that element of surprise.

"Right." Alex did his best to ignore the memory of Yassen's punishment at Malagosto and the heavy combat knife he had given Alex to use.

Gun, knives … fragmentation grenades. Sagitta favoured the practical methods, just as Yassen did. Concussion grenades were an option but they liked to be thorough and Yassen wanted no survivors.

"It'll be another couple of days before Adams has surveillance completely under our control." It could have been done a lot faster but they didn't want to risk anything. "If Rensburg wants to release the virus at New Year …"

"We will cut it close," Yassen acknowledged. "For now, there is nothing else we can do but wait. If it becomes a concern, we will re-evaluate our approach."

He didn't mention any alternatives to the plan. Alex didn't ask. He had made his concerns known and that was all he could do for now.

Yassen trusted Alex to do his job. Alex would just have to trust Yassen to do his, too.


Back at Rensburg's estate, Alex kept up his role to the best of his ability. He sent Marcus off with Shale, Mace, and Krüger again on a three-day reconnaissance mission to get better intel on the mine they had chosen. Not just enough intel to decide on the best mine for the job, but enough to actually carry out the plan as well.

Alex didn't want to and desperately hoped they wouldn't have to, but he had to keep up the act. Time was running out and he had to make it look real. They couldn't afford any suspicions. If Rensburg wanted to keep his unspoken deadline of New Year to release the virus, Alex and Sagitta needed thorough intel to carry it out.

Alex spent the evening before the reconnaissance mission doing over their existing intel with Marcus. Alex himself would stay behind this time, not that he minded.

The photos from the mine were as raw and unforgiving as the first time he had seen them. Not careful photojournalism or the skilful work of professionals but military efficiency and all the more brutal for it.

Security, entrances and exits, the different approaches, the number of armed people, the sort of weapons they carried … and in between, on accident more than anything, the glimpses of children even younger than Alex, covered in mud and working next to adults doing the exact same work. The endless brown shades of the open mine, of soil and dirt and mud and filthy water. Tools, worn and broken and repaired; makeshift pathways and unstable stairs and a few bits of shelter.

And unless Alex did something about it, unless Yassen's plan worked, most of those people would be dead because one man had too much money and didn't care at all how many innocents would die in some insane attempt at revenge.

"Do you think we can pull this off?" Alex finally asked when the photos and the estimates of the spread of the infection and number of dead became too much.

Marcus looked thoughtful. "We've handled worse," he said. "I'd prefer more people on our side but we'll make do with what we have. Yeah, I think we can do this."

"A lot of the guards are former military." Former military and pretty good at their job still as far as Alex could tell.

"Good guards," Marcus agreed, "but bad soldiers. They've been slacking. It's a cushy assignment and they spend most of their time dealing with locals who didn't know to stay away and the occasional criminals. Not trained attackers. I'm sure they were damn good soldiers once, but you use those skills or eventually you lose them. You see it with some of SCORPIA's combat teams, too. We stay in better shape, sure, or we know the consequences, but some of them get comfortable. Lazy. They get used to working security for clients or some operative or another or being backup for operations, and eventually they start to lose their edge. They spend too much time doing nothing and not enough in combat zones. This'll be good for us, too. Help us keep our edge."

Alex's lips twitched against his will. "So you're telling me I need to find another team to back me up if I get sent off to Hawaii or something?"

Marcus barked a laugh. "Hell, no. We'll just make sure not to get lazy." He paused. "It won't be pretty but yeah, we'll get it done. We had Danube in Miami, sure, but Ramos' guards were better and they were on high alert. Do this right, and we'll take out the night shift without raising any alarms and kill most of the rest in their beds. I don't think we can do it without taking some fire, but it should be pretty limited. You'll need to handle Rensburg and his bodyguards, you know that building better than any of us, but we'll handle the rest."

Maybe because that was their job. Maybe because they had done it often enough before. Maybe because they knew how to work as a team. Or maybe because they seemed to try to shelter Alex when they could and this was one of those times.

Alex would still need to kill at least four people in cold blood, people he knew, but it was much kinder than it could have been.

As they packed up the files and Marcus left to prepare the last, few things for the mission, part of Alex wondered about the sort of career where four murders were the sort of job a small part of him actually felt thankful for compared to the alternatives.

A much larger part of him resolutely pushed the thought aside. Whatever it took, that was what he had agreed to. For now he needed to be Orion. And Orion was a killer.


A/N: There's one chapter left in this arc, and then I'll see if it fits with a third interlude after that. So any requests you want me to give a shot (no guarantees, but I'll try), you should probably mention now.

Next: Merry Christmas, Alex Rider.