It was the first day back at school after the Christmas break, and Jane Bedfordshire came out of the classroom where Alex Rider would have his geography class that afternoon, nearly bumping into him as he hurried past the door.
"No running in the corridor, Alex."
"Hi, Miss Bedfordshire."
"It's good to see you. Did you have a nice Christmas?"
"Yes, thanks." She knew that Alex wasn't telling her the whole truth about his eventful holiday, but said nothing about it.
"And do you plan to stay with us for the whole term? It would certainly make a change."
"I hope so."
"Maybe you should eat more fruit. You know. An apple a day…"
"I'll give it a try," he said before walking briskly off to meet his friends.
What Alex didn't know is that Jane Bedfordshire knew with 100% certainty that Alex had had a very eventful holiday, and not in a good way. He had gone to Scotland with Sabina Pleasure and her parents, and the New Year's Eve party that they had attended had not ended with fireworks and celebration for them. He had nearly died, again, when their car had plummeted to the bottom of a frozen loch; he was lucky to still be alive. They all were.
Jane Bedfordshire was not a receptionist, although you would be forgiven for not realising this as she was an efficient and good one. Her real name was Alice Daniels and she was actually an MI6 operative who had been placed in the school as protection for Alex. She had arrived the summer term before he started a year and a half ago.
Although he didn't remember it, Alex had nearly been kidnapped and used against Ian Rider and MI6 once before. Jack Starbright had been running late - her lecture had overrun and the London traffic meant that she was a few minutes late for collecting Alex from school and an unknown organisation had taken their chance. One of their agents had shown up at his primary school and, because the safeguarding policies were much less strict than they are now, all the agent had to say was that Jack was running late and had asked them to pick Alex up.
The agent had known Alex's name. They had known that Jack Starbright usually collected him. They had known enough to erase any doubts that the teacher might have had. And it was only the sight of Jack running across the playground that stopped them from handing Alex over. In the split second that Alex's teacher had been focussed on Jack, the agent had slipped into the shadows and nobody at the school could find them, even after a thorough search of the grounds.
Ian Rider had informed MI6 as soon as he found out, and although they never discovered the organisation behind the kidnapping attempt, they had their suspicions - Scorpia. They were uncomfortably aware that whoever the organisation was, they had been watching Alex, Jack and Ian for a while to be able to spring into action so quickly and take advantage of Jack's lateness on this occasion. After that, security at the school was increased; parents/guardians were given a new safe word each evening at pick-up which would be used the next day. And MI6 added some hidden security around the school grounds so that they could monitor any potential threats.
Secondary school was a different proposition; children aren't picked up from the classroom door by a parent or guardian and for the most part, they make their own way home. So MI6 had decided that they needed to put some additional security in place. That security was in the form of 'Jane Bedfordshire'. She was twenty five now, and had been recruited at twenty two. In a way, she was very like Alex Rider; people underestimated her and believed her to be nothing more than a school secretary, which was why Alan Blunt had chosen her for this job.
By the time Alex started at Brookland, Alice had settled into her new role. It was very different to field work, but she actually found herself enjoying it. She had never been on such a long running assignment, and enjoyed living two lives; Alice Daniels the MI6 agent tasked with keeping Alex Rider safe, and Jane Bedfordshire the secretary who was excellent at her job and had a soft spot for Alex.
MI6 had put in a whole array of hidden CCTV cameras around the school site and Alice could look through all of them on her monitors. Smithers had provided her with many excellent gadgets, from Taser earrings to a stress ball stun grenade to a pen with a knockout dart inside. There was also an x-ray machine on the door, a lockdown override that she could use to seal the school and a panic room which was impenetrable, even if someone were able to find it. It was classified as a grade 6 safe room (as opposed to the usual safe houses that Smithers designed), and he had pulled out all of the stops to make it as protective as possible.
She also had a direct line to MI6, and there was a unit on duty at all times during the school term in a house just a minute down the road. Alice was the first line of defence and they were there for backup. Thankfully, none of the defensive measures had ever been needed; there had never been any sign of an attempt to get to Alex at school.
And then it had turned out that the biggest threat to Alex's life wasn't him being kidnapped and tortured by an organisation trying to gain leverage against Ian Rider or MI6. The biggest threat was MI6 themselves. She didn't have clearance to know everything that Alex had been involved in, but she deduced that he had been sent on at least six missions for them, judging by his absences from school. He had survived against impossible odds, missing countless weeks of school. Except Alice had counted - he had missed 81 days of school in the last ten months. 81 days out of 160 that he should have been in school for. His attendance rate was just 49.37% when it should have been above 95%.
The first time she had seen that statistic, she hadn't believed the system. So she had done the maths again herself and was astounded when she arrived at the same figure. 49.37%. Missing just 17 days in a school year meant that a student's GCSE results would be likely to be a whole grade lower than they should have been in every subject. Alice knew that Alex had had a tutor over the summer, and had caught up remarkably quickly, but it was astonishing that he hadn't been kept back a year.
His tutor had been Charlie Grey, one of the humanities teachers at Brookland, and he had told her about it whilst they were in Venice on the school trip at the beginning of September. As a receptionist, it was odd that Jane regularly went on the school trip, but MI6 had arranged it and it was accepted in the school that she went so that they wouldn't have to get as many substitutes.
MI6 usually sent her with a briefing for whichever city they would be going to, and her job was to look out for and report on anything related. It was more of a watch and report than a search and report as she had to maintain her cover with the school, and that meant being present for the majority of the trip. This time they were going to Venice, where Malagosto, the Scorpia training school, was located just a few miles off the coast. Her job was to watch over Alex in addition to reporting to MI6.
Alice had the distinct impression that something was bubbling just underneath Alex's skin. There was nothing that she could pinpoint as being wrong; she just knew instinctively that something was off. Nothing out of the ordinary happened until their third day in Venice. The group were all stood, scattered around the Piazza Esmeralda, a square a few miles outside of Venice, when it happened. She had noticed the two people on the Vespa and knew that they were probably scippatori - bag snatchers - and when they turned in her direction she knew that they had picked her as their target. But she continued her conversation with Charlie, as if nothing was wrong. She was meant to be a receptionist, not a fully trained MI6 agent, so could not take the bag thieves on. Over Charlie's shoulder, she had a good view of Alex Rider. He was talking to his friend Tom Harris, and they had ordered drinks from a shop at the edge of the market. Alex had noticed the motorbike too.
Normally, she would have strategically stepped aside, perhaps moving as though going to get a drink herself, but seeing Alex making his own calculations about the situation stopped her. There was nothing important in her bag; her phone and bank cards were in her pocket, and her gadgets from Smithers were all wearable ones. The only annoying thing would be her hotel room key, but they would be able to get another from the hotel reception. Alice had never seen Alex in action before, and she had to admit that she was curious to see what he would use. He had no gadgets or weapons and would definitely have to think on his feet.
The clock was chiming for twelve o'clock when the bike surged forward. It seemed like time slowed down as Alice braced herself for what was coming and only when the Vespa was too close to ignore did she pretend to acknowledge it. It was aiming straight for her, as if it was going to hit her, and she suppressed all of her impulses to dive out of the way - Jane Bedfordshire would have frozen like a rabbit in the headlights, so Alice kept her feet firmly planted on the ground. At the last moment, it turned away and the passenger reached out and grabbed her bag.
She screamed as though in shock as they drove away, now riding towards Alex. She knew that they were making a mistake, even if she wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do. If she were unarmed and gadgetless, Alice would have grabbed one of the tables or chairs from the cafe beside them and pushed it into one of the holes in the alloy wheel to stop them in their tracks. Alex, however, had grabbed a bucket and filled it with birdseed from one of the stalls. He ignored the stall keeper's shouts of indignation, and threw it with perfect accuracy just as the motorbike sped passed him.
It took Alice a second to realise what he had done; he hadn't let go of the bucket, so the two motorbike riders had been showered in the birdseed. It was genius. There were hundreds of pigeons scattered around the square and, seeing the flurry of birdseed, they descended on the Vespa. She watched in amazement as the driver lost control and crashed into the fountain. Alex was good; she understood why MI6 would not leave him alone, even if she wished that they would. He picked up the handbag from the tangled heap of bodies, motorbike and pigeons at the same time as two policemen ran over to arrest the thieves, and was walking over towards her and Charlie.
"Alex..." She pretended to be lost for words to keep up her cover. "How...?"
"It was just something I picked up in therapy," he replied before walking back over towards Tom Harris.
She remembered the conversation that she had had with Tom Harris. MI6 had wanted to know if he knew anything about Alex's exploits, so they had tasked her with finding out, and Tom must have told him about their conversation. He hadn't known anything about the missions that Alex had been sent on, but Alice knew that he didn't believe the excuse that Alex had been ill. He never would have guessed the truth; the idea of MI6 using a teenage spy was so absurd that some days she could barely believe it herself! But Tom was a bright kid - he knew something was going on and she was sure that sooner or later he would find out the truth, not that she included that in her report. The fact that he didn't know anything was enough for her superiors, and it wasn't a certaintythat he would find out the truth about what Alex had been doing. It was when they were in Venice that Tom became more involved with Alex's secret life.
The day after Alex had saved her handbag from being stolen, the school group were leaving the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo when Alex disappeared. He was quick and chose a good moment to slip away quietly when everyone was moving away down the Frezzeria towards the square and talking about lunch. But he hadn't counted on the fact that 'Miss Bedfordshire' was an MI6 operative who had been trained to notice everything out of the ordinary. And even in the hubbub of the street, and the group of animatedly talking school children between her at the front and him at the back, she noticed him go, whispering to Tom Harris as he went.
Following the direction that his eyes had been following before he made off, Alice saw a private motor launch on the canal with a scorpion adorning its bow. Looking inside, she could see two crew members and one passenger; the captain at the wheel and the other, presumably the deck hand, looked as though they had just served a drink to the passenger. She could only see the back of a woman's head with long black hair; Jane had no idea who the woman was, and wondered what had caught Alex's eye. Was it the woman herself, or something about the boat? The scorpion. It had to be! The boat had to belong to one of the executive board members of Scorpia. If she was right, then the woman on the boat would almost certainly have been Julia Rothman; the only woman currently on the board, if MI6's information was accurate. That was not good. She still didn't know what was going on with Alex, but she was certain he knew about Scorpia, although what he knew and how he had found out the information was still a mystery. And Alice didn't like mysteries.
Annoyingly, she was unable to follow him, being one of the responsible adults on a school trip had its disadvantages when it came to being able to fulfil her duties as an agent, and she just had to hope that he would be okay. Alex might be impulsive but his intuition was good and that meant that whatever reason he had left the school group for would probably be a good one. Alice watched him slip out of sight down a narrow alleyway between a café and an antiques shop, hoping that he would make it back alive afterwards to tell what he knew.
Charlie noticed that Alex had gone almost immediately. He had turned around to point something out about one of the buildings, and knew instantly that someone was missing. After a quick look around, he saw that it was Alex. Tom Harris had feebly explained that Alex had a stomach ache and had gone back to the hotel - Alex must have asked him to cover for him as he left. It was a poor excuse and Charlie had seen straight through it, but Tom stuck to his story and there was nothing that the teacher could do.
He didn't say anything more about Alex's disappearance until they reached the hotel and found that he wasn't there. He was furious when Alex arrived back a few minutes after the school group and threatened to ground Alex for that evening's free time before Jane had stepped in. She managed to persuade Charlie that Alex should be allowed out that evening, along with the rest of the group. After all, she intended to trail Alex for the evening, hoping that he would lead her somewhere that would provide some answers, and she wouldn't get any if he stayed in the hotel. Although knowing Alex, he probably would have slipped away from the hotel anyway, grounded or not, and it would be much easier for her to trail him if he wasn't deliberately trying to sneak out and avoid her.
The school group had been told to stay in San Lorenzo, but Alice saw Alex and Tom split off together and head to the train station. Charlie had said he had a headache and decided to stay in the hotel, so she followed the two boys, remaining unnoticed by anyone. It was rush hour and the station was busy, so there was little chance of the pair seeing her, but she still kept her distance; she didn't want either of the boys to spot her. They got off in Venice, and Alice followed as Alex led Tom through the maze of streets and alleyways until they arrived at their destination. She watched as the boys crouched behind a miniature tree on the edge of the square, just outside of the pool of light that the torches gave off. No one in the square would be able to see them.
The square was full of people in opulent and expensive looking masquerade outfits, anonymous behind their masks - very unhelpful for gathering intelligence, although that was probably the point, Alice mused. She watched as Alex reached into the sports bag that he had brought with him from the hotel, and pulled out a pair of loose fitting silk trousers and a velvet waistcoat, which he put on after stripping out of his own T-shirt and shorts. Finally, he pulled a tub of gold coloured jelly out of the bag, and started rubbing it on his arms, face and neck. She saw what he was doing; he was disguising himself as a Turkish slave to get into the party. It was a perfect way to camouflage himself and blend into the party. He could walk in behind any of the guests who would think that he was a member of staff, whilst the actual staff at the party would think he had come with the guests.
Alex had covered as much of himself with the gold jelly as he could, and now passed the tub to Tom who begrudgingly finished covering his shoulders so that all of his visible skin was gold. Alex then finished his outfit with gold sandals, a white turban with a lilac feather and a plain half-mask. With his few resources, Alex had pulled off his disguise perfectly, and would be able to blend into the party with no trouble at all. He whispered a few words to Tom that Alice could not hear, before he took off, keeping to the edge of the square as he moved towards the entrance.
Tom grabbed something else out of the sports bag and ran forwards, making no effort to remain in the shadows. He wanted to be noticed. Alice wondered how much he knew. How much had Alex told him to persuade him to help him sneak into a party when they should have been back in San Lorenzo? She thought back to the report that she had handed to Mr Blunt just over a month ago - how much of it was correct now? There was a brief pause before a firework exploded. The people in the square stopped and stared as he began to shout.
"Come stai? Quanto tempo ci vuole per andare a Roma?" How are you? How long does it take to get to Rome? The pair had clearly picked the phrases out of a guide book. Alice knew that Tom didn't have an affinity for languages, so he must have worked hard to learn the questions for Alex. He lit another firework, which exploded at the same time as Alex ran towards a couple who had just stepped into the square.
Out of Italian phrases, Tom had now started singing 'You'll never walk alone' as loudly as he could. Alice knew that both boys were football fans, so the song was an appropriate choice. They both saw that Alex had made it into the building (she wasn't sure what it was yet, but she'd be able to look it up on the database later) at around the same moment, because Tom ran out of the square as soon as he saw that his distraction was no longer required. The people still milling around the square had begun to ignore him anyway. Alice wasn't sure if he had also seen the burly men who had been making their way towards him or not, but he was gone before they had reached him.
Alice knew that she would not be able to follow Alex into the party; the guards were on high alert, and everyone was having their invitations checked before they were allowed in. Instead of trying to find a way into the building, she set up hidden surveillance cameras around the square, and then made her way to strategic alleyways surrounding it, setting up cameras to view different angles of the building. Once every inch was under surveillance, she went to an MI6 safe house which was conveniently just a few streets away, and let herself in.
"Hey Ben," she said as she entered the safe house.
"Hey Alice," he called back. "There hasn't been anything interesting on the cameras yet."
"Yeah I didn't expect anything so soon. Alex is astounding. Like, given that he has had no real training, other than the 13 days he spent with you in Brecon, and whatever his uncle taught him, he really is remarkable!"
"Yeah, I knew he was special even back then. He pickpocketed some matches from the sarge after a forty kilometre hike right at the end of his training. And he picked everything else up really quickly too! He managed to get his assault course time down to seventeen minutes, and the rest of us only managed it in twelve to fourteen. He's a good kid too; Wolf was awful to him for the entire time he was with us, but Alex still forced him out of the plane during parachute training because he knew that Wolf would be binned if he failed to jump. We all hated having to be so mean to him, but if we hadn't we'd all have been binned. In the end, we settled for Wolf being the worst to him and the three of us basically ignoring him, but it was rough. We didn't know-"
"Ben, you have to stop beating yourself up over this," she said gently, wrapping her arm around his shoulder and resting her head on his as they monitored the camera feeds. "Feeling guilty about it isn't going to change what happened and it isn't going to help Alex now. You were following orders. You were at the beginning of your career and if you hadn't followed your orders, you wouldn't have a job. For all you knew, all of the units got sent a test to make sure they could follow orders-"
"Yeah I know sis, but it's hard. We bullied the kid, even if it was under orders, and then I find out that he's being blackmailed by MI6 and forced to go on missions more dangerous than anything I've ever been sent on, and he's only fourteen!"
"But you're helping him now, Ben. Come on, let's keep watching the feeds."
Ben nodded. The siblings kept monitoring the feeds from the Widow's Palace (Ben had looked the building up on the database and confirmed that it was indeed owned by Julia Rothman and was a confirmed Scorpia building), but saw no sign of Alex. At 21:05, Alice's phone rang, and she saw that it was Charlie Grey calling.
"Hello?"
"Jane, have you seen Alex this evening?"
"No, why? Has he missed curfew?"
"Yes. I had hoped that he would make an effort to be on time after his escapade at lunch, but obviously not."
"Well I wouldn't worry just yet. He's just a few minutes late. He probably just lost track of the time. Are any of the other kids late?" she wondered whether Tom Harris had gone back to the hotel, or whether he'd waited for Alex somewhere.
"No, the others are all back and are in their rooms, supposedly packing."
"I'll look around on my way back and hopefully I'll find him if he doesn't appear at the hotel first."
"Thanks Jane. I'll let you know if he shows up at the hotel."
"Thanks Charlie. I'm sure he'll turn up soon."
Alice hung up. She felt awful for lying but she couldn't exactly tell him the truth. She couldn't tell him that she knew exactly where Alex Rider was, and that he was currently in a building owned by one of the executives of one of the biggest terrorist organisations in the world. So she and Ben kept monitoring the feeds and hoping that Alex would show up soon. But time stretched on with no sign of him. At about half past nine, Alice looked at the clock and stood up.
"I need to head back to the hotel, Ben. Otherwise it'll look suspicious." They were both getting worried; two hours had passed since Alex had entered the Widow's Palace and they both had an uncomfortable feeling that something had gone wrong, but there was nothing they could do except watch and wait. There was no way that they could attempt to storm a heavily guarded Scorpia property with no backup and no idea where Alex might be. And there was always a chance that he was safe somewhere inside, and was just biding his time, waiting for his chance to slip out unnoticed.
Ben nodded. "I'll keep you updated if anything happens."
"Thanks Ben." She gave him a hug from behind. Normally they would have said something stupid as a goodbye, but they were both too concerned about Alex to do so this evening.
Alice stepped into the streetlit alleyway, and breathed in the ever present scent of seawater, and began to make her way back to the train station. She had been messaging back and forth with Charlie since he had called - he was worried too. He had informed the police and rung Jack Starbright in London. She had managed to calm the teacher down for a while, but Charlie was frantic when Alice stepped into the hotel reception area and he saw that she didn't have Alex with her. There was nothing more that either of them could do that night; the Venetian police were still searching, even though she knew it would prove fruitless, and Ben was still monitoring the Widow's Palace, so they both reluctantly went to bed.
Sleep did not come easily, and she did not wake well rested. She awoke at five fifteen and immediately checked her secure phone. There were no new messages from Ben. It was not a good start to the day. Knowing that she would be unable to sleep for any longer, Alice got up and decided to go for a run; the school group weren't departing from Venice until late morning, so she would have plenty of time to get back and sort the kids out before they had to leave. She messaged Ben to say that she was going running, but she would keep her communicator on her, so to ring immediately when there was an update. It was good to get out and relieve some of her stress through the run. It was nice to run in an unfamiliar place and she ran a comfortable ten kilometre circular route and was back at the hotel just after 6:15.
Ben was still looking at the live feeds in the small hours. The party had ended and the lights were out in the Widow's Palace, Nothing and no one had moved for the last hour. Ben was uneasy; the hours since Alex had last been seen were ticking on and he knew that it did not bode well. At about half past five, the flood warning system began to blare. That was definitely not good.
Ben made a snap decision and rang Derek Smithers.
"Smithers, I need you."
"What is it my dear chap?"
"It's Alex. Alice followed him to the Widow's Palace last night - it's a Scorpia building, and it's heavily guarded. He hasn't come out - she put surveillance up and I've been watching all night. And now the flood alert warning is going off. Can you watch the feeds? I'm going to dive in the canal. Looks like that mini drone is going to come in useful for something other than looking for evidence thrown into the bottom of the canal."
"Certainly my boy. I'm watching now - keep me updated. I'll be on comms."
"Thank you, Smithers. And sorry for waking you so early."
"Don't mention it. I've got a soft spot for young Alex, as I expect you and Alice do too."
Ben hung up, and ran down to the basement where the SCUBA gear was kept. He quickly changed, grabbed a spare oxygen tank, respirator and the drone and opened a hatch in the floor. The hatch led to an underwater airlock so that agents could dive without the water flooding into the house. Once the seal above him was shut tight, Ben opened the airlock and swam forwards into the canal.
The Venetian canal water was always murky, but it was made more so by the influx of water coming from the Adriatic. The cameras that Alice had positioned also had a locator beacon which was now linked to Ben's dive computer. Following the map on the screen, he arrived in just a few minutes, just in time to see Alex force his way through a rusted gate about fifteen meters underwater; it must have belonged to an old well shaft.
"Alex has just swum out of an old well shaft, Mr Smithers. Should I follow and engage?"
The reply came back instantly. "Follow him, but don't engage." Ben could hear his own relief reflected in the gadget master's voice.
"Copy."
Ben watched as Alex floated/swam clumsily to the surface, letting out his breath a couple of meters below the water line, and scrambling to make it to the surface in time. He was swimming towards him, knowing that he would disobey his instructions if he needed to. But Alex made it, probably with just seconds to spare.
He floated on the surface of the water for a few moments before swimming to the other side of the Grand Canal to the building that he had just escaped from. Ben followed, keeping his distance and making sure that Alex didn't see him. He had taken off his dry suit and SCUBA apparatus and hidden it in a tree at the water's edge. He took the underwater drone with him, knowing that his bosses at MI6 would not be pleased if it got lost or stolen. He watched as Alex found a well in one of the squares which still had water in it (many of the wells had become obsolete and were abandoned when modern plumbing and taps were installed on the island) and cleaned a nasty looking gash on his thigh. Having cleaned the wound, he limped along until he found some clean clothes on a washing line, and pulled a pair of jeans, a jersey and a t-shirt off. Ben watched as Alex carefully bandaged his leg with the t-shirt, and then pulled on the oversized jeans and jersey, noting that he didn't look too happy about the fact that he was having to steal, before shoving the tattered remains of his Turkish slave outfit into a bin.
Alex must have known that the police would be looking for him, because he kept a low profile on the short fifteen minute walk from the canal to the Parco Savorgnan, a small park just a stone's throw away from the station. Well it would have taken about fifteen minutes at a normal walking pace; with Alex's leg injury and adding exhaustion into the mix, it took closer to thirty. He climbed a tree to avoid being spotted while he waited for the morning to properly arrive. Just before half past seven, Ben watched Alex climb back down the tree and make a call from a phone box that they had passed on their way to the park, but Ben couldn't hear what he said. Alex looked wretched as he dialled the number. He presumed it was both to do with whatever had happened to him the night before, but also the subject of the call that he was making.
While he was waiting for Alex to finish his phone call, he messaged Alice.
Smithers should have told you, but Alex is out. I'm trailing him & he's making a phone call.
Her reply came back almost instantly.
Yes Smithers told me! I'm so relieved Ben! I think he's on the phone to Charlie (the teacher on the trip). He does not sound happy...
Ahh that explains why he looks so uncomfortable then. He's hung up so I need to go.
Having made his phone call, Alex now made his way back up the tree to wait some more. Ben stayed out of sight, knowing that Alex would clock him if he pretended to be a civilian doing exercise in the park. He might be exhausted, but he still had the instincts of an excellent agent and Ben didn't want to spook him. He was sure that whatever was going on wasn't because MI6 had sent him on a mission; he was certain that Alex had gone rogue and was becoming tangled up with Scorpia of his own volition. Or with as much volition as a fourteen year old who had been blackmailed into becoming a spy could have - someone had told him about Scorpia. Someone somewhere was pulling invisible strings, and Alex was once again caught in the middle with no control over the situations that he found himself in. He was just making the best of it with the little information he had. About an hour later, Alex climbed back down the tree, looking very stiff, and made his way towards the train station; Ben relayed the information to Mr Smithers.
"Follow him to the platform, and see if he gets on a train. We'll decide what to do from there."
So Ben followed Alex to the platform. Smithers' uncertainty over Alex's next moves convinced him further that he was not under orders from MI6. He slumped onto a bench and waited, and Ben stood at the back of the platform, concealed behind the side wall of the ticket office. He looked exhausted, and Ben couldn't blame him. Ben didn't know any details other than that he had entered the building last night, and swum out of it that morning, but he guessed Alex must have been captured. He looked as if he were waiting for someone; a few trains came and went, but Alex wasn't paying attention to them. He was watching the crowd. Eventually, Ben saw Alex sit up and followed his gaze. There was a schoolboy, probably about the same age as Alex, now waiting on the platform with a woman that he recognised as his sister. A train pulled up a couple of minutes later and the boy got on.
Alice had seen him as she scanned the station, and once Tom was on the train she came over to join him in the shadows on her way off of the platform. He nodded in Alex's direction and she followed his gaze until her eyes fixed on Alex, who looked ghastly.
Alice began to leave the platform at the same time as Alex looked around one final time, without seeing them, and followed Tom onto the train, but Ben noticed he didn't follow the boy to his chosen seat.
"He's got on a train to Naples. He seems to be following another kid from the school trip who's also on the train."
There was a brief pause and Ben could hear Smithers tapping at a keyboard.
"Ah that'll be Tom Harris; one of his friends. He's heading to Naples to visit his brother for a few days. I've hacked the cameras on the train Ben, so I can follow Alex now. Head back to the house and continue on your original assignment."
Ben was reluctant to leave Alex now and Smithers must have sensed his hesitation.
"I can't authorise a change of assignment for you, especially as we don't know if anything is happening that we should be aware of. You have your assignment from Mr Blunt, and you need to get back to it, Agent Daniels."
"Copy, Mr Smithers." Ben was not happy but he knew that Smithers was right. He had his own assignment to focus on if he wanted to still have a job. He noticed that Smithers had called him 'Agent Daniels', and knew that he was reminding him of his duty as an agent, rather than calling him 'Ben' and reminding him of his humanity. Smithers was just as good at playing the game as Mr Blunt and Mrs Jones, but unlike with them, Ben knew that Mr Smithers was coming from a position of genuine care.
Alice felt a lot better after her run and shower. She had seen a message from Smithers to say that Alex was out of the building and Ben was following. Relief rushed through her as she read the message. Alex was alive. She was showered and ready to leave at seven twenty five, and went downstairs to the hotel's dining room for breakfast where she saw Charlie Gray. He was on the phone in the hotel reception and Alice knew he must be on the phone to Alex.
"... not good enough. Because of you, I may not be allowed to take other kids on future trips. You're spoiling it for everyone."
There was a pause as the teacher listened to Alex on the other end of the line.
"Good luck, Alex. Look after yourself."
She wondered what Alex had said that had prompted a response like that.
"Was that Alex?" She asked just as Charlie turned around.
"Yes. He said he's homesick and left early. Would you be able to pack his bags? I've got to organise the other kids. And tell the police and Alex's guardian that he's been in contact."
"Of course. Have you eaten anything?"
"No," the teacher admitted.
"Come on, go and have some breakfast and I'll notify the police and Alex's guardian while you get your food. The kids should be appearing soon and we can tell them when they're all downstairs."
"Thanks Jane. What about you? Have you eaten?"
"I'll join you in a minute. Go and sit down Charlie. There's nothing you can do to change what's happened. Alex is old enough to make his own decisions, even if they are stupid ones. It's not your fault."
After the kids had all arrived for breakfast, Charlie had announced to the school group that Alex had already left, and that they needed to finish packing up their bags to leave once they had eaten. It was 08:15 by the time most of the group had left the dining room to finish packing, and the bus was arriving at 09:00 to take them to the airport. Their flight was at 11:30, so that would give them plenty of time to get through security.
Alice noticed that Tom ate his breakfast quickly and hurried back to his room afterwards. He was leaving earlier than the rest of the group, at 08:40, and was getting a train to Naples to see his brother instead of catching the flight to London. She wondered if he was hurrying because he still had a lot of packing to do before he had to leave to catch his train, or if there was something he didn't want her to see in their room, like Alex's passport. He would know that Alex wasn't already on his way back to London by that alone, and it was possible that they had made contingency plans the evening before in case something went wrong.
Tom was just finishing packing up his bag when Jane arrived at their room at 08:20, and she couldn't see any sign of Alex's passport amongst his bags or belongings, but she did catch a glimpse of what looked like two passports in Tom's luggage. She didn't mention it, but quickly packed up Alex's things. She and Tom left the room together and, after making a detour to leave Alex's bags safely in her room, she escorted Tom to the train station.
Neither of them spoke much on the short journey. Alice didn't see Alex on the platform, although she knew from Ben's messages that he was there, but at the same time, she wasn't looking for him. She was pretending to be Jane Bedfordshire, who thought Alex was already on a flight back to London, not Alice Daniels, the agent who knew that Alex was in the vicinity. She had spotted Ben as they walked onto the platform - he was skulking in the shadows, as though he were waiting for his train to arrive, but Alice knew that his position would have been chosen strategically to avoid being spotted by Alex (as per his instructions) but also be able to keep an eye on him. They hadn't been waiting long before the train to Naples pulled in.
"Have a safe journey, Tom. Let us know when you get to your brother's."
"Yeah, I will, thanks Miss."
She walked over towards the platform exit, and to where Ben was standing, joining him before following his gaze to see Alex sitting on a bench. He looked dreadful, dressed in mismatched oversized clothes, with matted hair and grubby face. But there was more to it than just his physical appearance; Alice guessed he had been knocked out the night before which didn't help, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that there was something about him that had changed since she had last seen him before the summer holidays.
Even as she watched him now, she could not place her finger on it, but knew that it had something to do with Scorpia. He had been drawn in by the scorpion on the boat, but why would he have had any instincts to follow it if he didn't know about the terrorist organisation? She left the station, heading back to the hotel even as she connected some of the pieces of the puzzle, but she still had no idea what the full picture was. She was left with more questions and no concrete answers.
As it turned out, they didn't see Alex back at school until about three weeks later. He was covered in cuts and bruises, and Alice knew that hidden beneath his uniform were burns to, but she was pleased to see that whatever had been bothering Alex whilst they were in Venice seemed to have left him. He looked like a weight had lifted from him, even if he looked light he had been in a fist fight. He told everyone that he had been mugged, but she knew the truth. He had gone up against Scorpia, and he had beaten them.
She didn't have the clearance to know the full details of any of his missions, including this one. All she knew was that Alex Rider had beaten one of the worlds most feared terrorist organisations, and missed another fifteen days of school in the process. And then, after just five days back at school, he was shot - Scorpia seeking revenge against the agent who had destroyed their operation. And that had led to him being sent on at least one more mission, and missing another twenty five days of school.
Alex Rider!" she had exclaimed as he came into the school reception at the end of November. "What has it been this time?"
"Glandular fever, Miss Bedfordshire." MI6 really needed to come up with some better excuses for why he was missing so much school.
"You're going to have to drop back a whole year if you're not careful."
"I'm very careful, Miss Bedfordshire."
"I'm sure you are."
Alex had lasted the last few weeks of the Autumn Term in school without being recruited by MI6 for any further missions. But Alice suspected it wouldn't be long before he was called upon again; he was too useful to be relinquished from MI6's grasp. Right now, and for a while yet, he could be inserted into a situation that an adult could not, much like herself being used as a fake receptionist. And in the future, when he had grown up and lost his boyish innocence, the likelihood was that Alex would follow his father and uncle into the murky world of intelligence work.
He had lived surrounded by danger for nearly a whole year and Alice knew that it was addictive. Alex had been chiselled into the perfect agent; his senses had been sharpened, his reflexes quickened and his intuition developed and she was sure that a normal life would bore him now. She had no doubt that he would be just as successful as a fully legally employed adult agent as he had been this past year, but she wished he had been able to choose his life for himself. She, Ben and all of the other agents at MI6 had chosen their career path themselves; they might have been nudged into it but, in the end, the choice had been their own. Alex had been dragged in headfirst and there had never been a way for him to get out. She just hoped that Alex would live long enough to find a way to come through the other side and enjoy his life, whether he stayed with MI6 or not. She just hoped that he would live long enough to make the choice for himself.
She headed back to the reception to check that the new cameras she had placed in Alex's different classrooms, the last ones being in his geography classroom, were working properly. Even as the first day of the Spring Term started, Alice had no idea that the wheels were already in motion for Alex's next mission...