Jack swore under her breath as she saw the tube leaving whilst she was still on the stairs. There would be another one along in a couple of minutes, but the delay would mean that she would probably miss the bus on the other side and have to wait another ten minutes for the next one, and that would make her late.

She had received the text from Ian Rider just before 11am that morning. 'I've been called into an all-day meeting. Please can you pick Alex and Tom up from school?' And it shouldn't have been a problem; her last lecture finished at 2:30 and it only took half an hour to get from her university to Alex's school - she had done it plenty of times before and was always there well before 3:15 when school ended. But today, the most direct route out of the building had been closed for maintenance, and it had taken her five minutes to follow the crowd around the diversion and finally get out. And now she had missed the tube. If she was lucky, the bus would be waiting at the stop for her, but if not she should get to the school by 3:20. She got her phone out to ring the school and say she might be a couple of minutes late, and then realised that she was in the London Underground; there was no service, so she would just have to wait until she was on the bus. She tapped her foot as she waited impatiently for the next tube. She hated being late for Alex; the poor kid had enough going on with his uncle being away most of the time on business trips, and he needed her to be dependable and not let him down.

The next tube arrived and she jumped on. It was quite quiet, without the school rush or commuter rush hour to contend with yet, and she easily found a seat and sat down. It wasn't long before she reached her stop, and hopped off the second that the doors opened and began racing up the stairs. She reached the road just in time to see the bus pulling away from the stop. Typical. Now she would definitely be late. She pulled her phone out of her pocket to call the school and let them know, but the battery was dead. How had that happened? She was sure that it had been at least half full when she checked it at the tube station, but there was nothing she could do about that now.

The wait for the bus seemed endless, but it arrived eventually, and she jumped on, knowing that she would have to run to the school when she got off. Jack hated running. Groaning internally whenever the bus stopped to let someone on or off, she watched as the minute hand on her watch ticked inexorably onwards. It was 3:22 when the bus arrived at her stop. She stepped off as soon as the doors opened and started running down the road. She had been going for less than a minute and was already beginning to feel out of breath and getting the start of a stitch. She would not be in good shape when she got to the school, but at least she would be there.

Yassen Gregorovich was glad that he had been tasked with this assignment. Any other Scorpia operative would have blindly obeyed the instruction to kidnap the seven year old and bring him to the executive board. But Yassen was not just any Scorpia operative, and from the moment he had been handed this assignment, he had known that it was going to be the end of his association with the organisation; his target was Alex Rider.

They had been paid by their client to get revenge against MI6, and Yassen could make a pretty good guess at what the board had in mind; kidnap the boy and either use him as a hostage to blackmail Ian Rider and MI6, or train him up at Malagosto to become an assassin. The board knew that he knew that John Rider had been a double agent, that he had betrayed both Yassen and Scorpia. Perhaps they thought that Yassen harboured feelings of resentment and revenge for the man he had known as Hunter, but they were wrong. At the time, he might not have understood John's need to leave both Scorpia and MI6, but he was the first father figure that Yassen had had after four years in slavery and, although he was a hard mentor, they had inevitably bonded in the four months that they had spent together in the field; Yassen would never have betrayed him.

He would never have harmed John Rider's son either, even less so after he actually met Alex. They had met several times, although Alex was completely oblivious to the fact that he had spent time with one of the world's most ruthless assassins. He also wouldn't do that to Ian. The spy and the assassin had a sometimes easy, other times uneasy truce whenever they ran into each other in the field, and had saved each other's lives on more than one occasion.

Yassen knew who had contracted Scorpia to help them get their revenge on MI6. Once Ian knew who it was, he could arrange for MI6 to get involved and get the client to end their contract with Scorpia. Yassen wouldn't have failed in his assignment if the client withdrew his need for his services. The alternative was that he would help Ian and Alex disappear, going with them himself, but they could plan the best course of action when Ian arrived. So he planned out how he was going to kidnap Alex, just as meticulously as if he were actually going to take the seven year old back to Malagosto as per his assignment. He doubted that Scorpia would check up on him as he was such an experienced and trusted operative, but he knew that it was better to plan and be prepared, rather than to fail to prepare at all.

Yassen spent nine days watching everyone's movements and decided that the primary school would be the best place to stage the kidnapping, as it was the place with the least security. Ian's house was a definite non-possibility, even if the agent wasn't there, there were too many unknowns as to the extent of security in the house. He could have taken Alex while he was walking home with Jack, but he didn't want to take Alex in a way that would be traumatising for him and he didn't want to hurt her if he could help it. And it would be easy enough to convince Alex's teacher that he was a family friend, with the amount of knowledge that he had.

After deciding the place of the kidnapping, Yassen began to pay particular attention to the school run and noted that Alex and another boy - whose name was Tom - were dropped off and collected together by either Ian, Jack, or one of Tom's parents. They had only been collected separately once, when Alex had a dentist appointment. Tom was an annoying complication, but he could handle two seven year olds without any bother. If anything, arriving at the school to collect both boys would add weight to his assertion that he was supposed to be there. Once he had collected them, he would take them to a holiday let that he had rented under one of his many aliases. Then he could ring Ian, explain the situation and let him come and pick them up, and then they would work out what to do next together.

Now that he had decided when and where the kidnapping would take place, Yassen just needed to organise events in his favour. The second phase of his plan was actioned during the second day that he was watching his targets, when Jack went food shopping while Alex was at school. He 'accidentally' bumped into her in the bakery aisle, and in the second that they had been in contact, he placed a battery draining device on her phone; it would render the device useless when he activated it and she would be unable to call the school to explain that she would be late to pick the boys up, which would give Yassen the opening that he needed. She only needed to be five minutes late and he would succeed in taking the boys.

The final phase was ensuring that Jack would be the person to pick up the boys. He had chosen Jack as she relied on public transport, so it would be easier to cause her to be late than it would be to delay Ian. The only regular day that Ian collected the boys on was Wednesday. All of the other days varied depending on the schedules of the four adults, but unless he was on a mission, Ian always did Wednesday afternoons. Yassen would have to create an emergency which would mean that Jack would have to pick Alex and Tom up. A sighting of himself in London should be enough to cause a mandatory meeting for the majority of MI6's active and available agents which would occupy Ian for the day. He had bugged Ian's phone a long time ago, and knew that his plan had succeeded when he saw his text to Jack. She would be the one responsible for collecting the boys that afternoon. Everything was slotting into place, just as he had known it would.

Mrs Collins hastily hurried her charges from the assembly hall back to the classroom. Assembly had overrun, and now she only had five minutes to organise the twenty nine seven and eight year olds before the official end of the school day. They had gone straight from art to assembly and she had forgotten how much of a mess the classroom was in. Any other day, she would have slipped out of assembly to begin tidying up, but she had been called upon to present some certificates, and therefore had to stay for the whole time.

Their art objective, as per the National Curriculum, was to improve the children's 'mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials'. Today's lesson had involved making a scene for a dragon to live in out of various materials, from tissue paper, to scrap pieces of card, to cut up plastic bottles and whatever else the children had been able to find. They had made their dragons out of plasticine in the previous lesson, but its oily residue had been smeared over the tables once more. The classroom looked like a bomb had hit it. There were scraps of materials all over the floor, pots of glue had been left dripping onto the tables and glitter was everywhere.

"Okay Brown Bears we need to tidy up. I want to see everyone moving and tidying so that we can go home. Brown Bears tidying well will get an achievement point." There was scrambling as the children began to tidy up. The bribe of an achievement point for the best tidying up was definitely not worth the amount of effort that most of the children were exerting, but they didn't realise that, so she didn't mind.

"Lily, Simon, stop talking to your parents through the window and tidy up please. I don't want to pull the blinds down, but I will have to if you don't get moving."

"Mrs Collins, I spilled the glue." If she hadn't recognised the voice of Tom Harris, she would have known that it was him before turning around to have a look at the child who had spoken just by the statement itself. Tom was a whirlwind child who often made more mess than there had been when he started, but he did at least make an effort which was more than could be said for some of the children in the class.

"Okay Tom, go and get some blue roll and wipe the table."

Looking around to check on progress, she saw that there were several children crowded around Amelia, excitedly looking at her bear, and that meant that they weren't tidying.

"Amelia put the teddy back in your bookbag and tidy up please."

"Tivon, put the chair down! I want to see you picking the materials up off the floor please."

"James, Alex, stop fighting with the cardboard tubes. Put them in the materials box and keep tidying."

"Miss, I can't find my jumper!"

"When we've tidied the classroom, we can have a look for your jumper if it hasn't shown up, okay Prinesh."

They had been back in the classroom for less than two minutes. She had the beginnings of a headache, and the classroom looked worse than it had when they started. To make matters worse, Deshawn, Liam and Jodie had been in a fight at lunchtime, so she needed to talk to their parents when they came to the door. Then she would have to tidy up after the kids had left, before the staff meeting at 3:35 and, of course today was the day that she was leading the meeting. And then when she got home, there would still be a stack of books to mark. Sometimes she wondered why she had chosen to be a teacher, but the rewards of seeing the young people in her care growing made it all worthwhile… sometimes.

"I'm seeing some good tidying from Leon, Nathan, Mikaylah, Sonelle, Priya and Lousie. Nathan just because I said you were doing good tidying doesn't mean you can stop tidying and start reading, it's nearly home time." Another minute passed before she called them to attention once more.

"Okay Brown Bears, I want everyone to make sure that your dragon scene is in front of your seat, and go and get your bookbags and coats, and then sit down quietly in your place." They were definitely going to be late leaving today. It was 3:14 and there was no way that the children would be able to get their bags and coats and be sat back down in the next minute.

"Miss, I still can't find my jumper."

"We'll have a look for it in the morning, Prinesh, but this is why you need to make sure to look after your belongings and put them in a safe place."

She was definitely looking forward to relaxing with a bubble bath and having a takeaway and some form of chocolate dessert when she got in tonight. Finally, all twenty nine children were sitting in their chairs with their coats and bookbags, and she opened the door.

"Sorry we're a little late today," she announced to the adults waiting outside the door.

One by one, they collected their children from the classroom door. She spoke to Jodie, Deshawn and Liam's parents when it was their turn to collect their child about the fight at lunchtime. Finally, there were just two children left in the classroom; Alex Rider and Tom Harris, who were usually collected and dropped off together. Turning back to the door, the only person waiting outside was a man that she did not recognise.

"Good afternoon, I'm here to pick up Alex and Tom. Jack was supposed to be collecting them but her lecture is overrunning, so she asked me to pick them up instead."

"Ah that's not a problem," and then turning back into the classroom, she called "Tom, Alex, it's time to go home, boys." They picked up their bookbags and coats and started walking over to the door.

"Hi Alex, hi Tom," the man said as the two boys appeared.

"Hi. We made a dragon's home today!" Alex said brightly in reply.

The two boys were just about to walk through the door and take the outstretched hands of the strangers when a movement through one of the classroom windows caught Mrs Collins' eye. It was Jack Starbright running as fast as she could across the playground. But that didn't make sense; the man had said that Jack was running late and wouldn't be able to pick the boys up.

Knowing instinctively that something was wrong, her hands shot out and grabbed the boys' shoulders before her brain had caught up with itself. Then it hit her. The man who had come to the door hadn't been asked to pick the boys up; he had been here to take them. She hadn't questioned him as thoroughly as she should have done because she was dressed and he knew that Alex and Tom were leaving together, and that Jack could have been picking them up.

In the split second that it had taken her to see Jack, grab hold of the boys and realise what was going on, the man had disappeared. She turned back to the door to confront him, but he was no longer there. Telling the rather puzzled boys to wait in the classroom, she stepped outside to look for the man, but she couldn't see him anywhere.

"Sorry I'm late, Mrs Collins," Jack gasped as she reached the classroom door. "My phone's out of battery so I couldn't call," she explained but Mrs Collins' attention was still on the area around the door, searching for any sign of the man who had been standing there mere moments before.

"Did you send anyone to pick the boys up?"

"No, why?"

"Someone was just here to pick them up. He said you'd asked him to pick them up because your lecture was overrunning..."

Jack's face paled. Mrs Collins' headache was rapidly getting worse.

"Can you come into the classroom, please Jack? I'll need to raise an incident and we'll have to get the police involved. As the kids saw the man, they'll probably need to speak to the police too. The man's disappeared too, so I expect you'll get an escort home." Jack silently stepped into the classroom, and pulled Alex and Tom into a relieved hug, as Mrs Collins made sure that the classroom door was locked before leading them to the office.

It took a long time to sort everything out, and even after taking some pain killers, her head was still throbbing. Mrs Collins had to complete the incident forms whilst the school receptionist, Ms Allen, called Ian's mobile number; he didn't answer but Jack explained that she didn't expect him to due to his meeting. So they called the bank's reception, hoping that they would be able to pass the message on. And within a couple of minutes, the phone had rung as Ian called them back. He had left his meeting, and arrived at the school shortly after the police.

Once the police arrived, Mrs Collins, Jack, Alex and Tom had to give their statements. The two boys didn't have much to say, as they had only caught a glimpse of the man, but she had to recall their whole conversation, everything she remembered about the man's appearance and all of the parents and guardians who had been present and might have seen the man, so that their statements could be taken too.

It was hours before she was finally able to leave the office and return to her classroom to leave for home. She had forgotten how much of a mess it was, and begrudgingly began to tidy up the scraps of materials and move the kids' scene creations to the side to dry overnight. When the classroom was eventually in a suitable condition for the cleaners to hoover and clean the tables properly, Mrs Collins went to retrieve her handbag from the locked bottom drawer of her desk, and saw the certificates from assembly that she was meant to hand out as the children left. Well forgetting them was the least of her worries today; that could wait until tomorrow. Right now, she needed to go home, eat, have a bath and go to sleep. Everything else could wait for another day.

Alex had been none the wiser to the fact that he had nearly been kidnapped from school earlier that day. He and Tom had chatted happily about dragons as Ian drove them all home. Jack was shaken and quiet, which Ian could understand. His own mind was in overdrive as the realisation that one of his worst fears had come true. Someone had tried to get to him through Alex. MI6 were investigating - he had told them the situation before leaving for the school - but he didn't have much faith that they would find anything. People who targeted children were good at crawling back into the shadows where they couldn't be found. Was it just a coincidence that Yassen had been seen in London only the day before or was he involved in some way?

Later that evening, after dropping Tom off at home, getting a takeaway for dinner - Jack needed it even if Alex didn't - and putting Alex to bed, Ian was working in his office when the doorbell rang. He jumped up from his desk, and almost ran down the stairs on high alert. He locked the bulletproof inner door before he peered through the peephole to see who was waiting outside. He didn't recognise the man who was standing on the doorstep, but that didn't necessarily mean anything in his line of work. He slid the safety chain across the door before opening it. Ian might have been able to handle himself, but it wasn't worth the risk of just opening the door and allowing the stranger a clear shot at him if that was why they were there.

"Hello?" he asked. "Can I help you?"

"Ian, we need to talk," the man said. Ian caught a glimpse of the man's ice blue eyes as he spoke, and immediately knew who it was on the other side of the door. Undoing the chain, he opened the door fully to allow the man into the house.

"Come up to my office," Ian said. "Would you like a drink of anything?"

"No, thank you." They climbed up to the top floor of the house in silence.

"Scorpia were contracted to get revenge on MI6. The board decided that the best way was to kidnap Alex and I presume either blackmail you or train him themselves." That was typical for Yassen - straight to the point with no pleasantries.

"And you decided to tell me after your kidnapping attempt went wrong?"

"It had to look real Ian; I've been watching you all for over a week, and I had to make a move. I couldn't risk communicating with you beforehand. The only reason that it wasn't a success is because the assembly overran; if the children had been let out of school at exactly 3:15, we would have been long gone before Jack arrived. But even if it had been a success, I wasn't actually going to take him back to Scorpia." Yassen sighed. "At least they gave the job to me; if they hadn't, then it would have been an operative who actually would have taken Alex back to Malagosto. I think they wanted to give me a chance to get revenge for everything that happened with John..."

Yassen paused for a moment. He had temporarily allowed himself to show his emotions, and Ian knew that it was a testament to the amount of trust the man had in him. Then the moment passed; he looked up and fixed Ian with his eyes.

"I know who the client is. You can get to them and make them rescind their order to Scorpia."

"Why the school?" Ian could deal with the client who had caused the situation later; right now, his main concern was Alex and what could be done to ensure his safety in the future.

"It is the place with the least amount of security and it seemed like the least traumatic place to take him from. If I'd attempted to break in here or taken him while he was with Jack, it would have been much scarier for him… at least this way, he would have just been in a room with me while we waited for you to arrive. At least my relationship with Scorpia is still intact for the moment. It wouldn't have been if I had succeeded."

That threw Ian.

"You would abandon Scorpia? Why would your succeeding in taking Alex make you leave?"

"Yes. I've already told you that if I'd have succeeded in kidnapping Alex from school, I wouldn't have taken him back to Malagosto. From that, they would have known that I disobeyed orders, so I would have had to disappear. You and Alex would have had to vanish too, as they would have guessed the reason why I absconded. You're the closest thing I have to a family, Ian. If they found that out they would come after you."

Ian looked at the twenty five year old assassin who was sitting opposite him. He was slightly shocked at the younger man's revelation, not because he didn't know it already but because he hadn't expected Yassen to admit it to himself, much less out loud to Ian.

Knowing that Yassen wouldn't want to dwell on his moment of weakness, Ian quickly moved the conversation on to planning what their next move would be. The assassin told him about their client and together they worked out a course of action to make them take back Scorpia's orders and force them to take back Yassen's orders to kidnap Alex.

They worked well into the night, only the low murmur of their conversations breaking the silence. That was until just after 2 in the morning, when a small scream followed by whimpering broke the silence. Ian jumped up and ran down the stairs to Alex's room. His nephew was still asleep, but clearly in the throes of a bad nightmare. He had twisted around until his bedding was constricting his movement, so he was stuck, struggling and helpless.

"Alex," Ian said softly as he perched on the edge of the bed and stroked his nephew's head. Alex didn't wake but continued squirming and whimpering. "Alex," he said more forcefully, gently shaking his arm at the same time. His brown eyes opened wide and Ian could see the terror and fear in them.

"Hey, hey, you're ok, Alex," he whispered as he untangled the covers. Alex crawled into his lap the second that he was free, and Ian shuffled further into the bed, pulling Alex's covers over the both of them.

"You and Jack were gone," he managed to sob out. "I was all alone."

"We're both right here, Alex. We aren't going anywhere." They sat for a while, with Ian rubbing Alex's back and softly giving him reassurances that he wasn't alone, until Alex's breathing became more regular and he fell back asleep. Ian gently shifted Alex back onto his mattress and tucked him back under the covers. He looked so peaceful, and a pang hit Ian as he watched his nephew sleep. Growing up without parents and with Ian away so often for work meant that Alex was always apart from his peers, and when he was asleep the weight of that seemed to lift off of him. He also hated the fact that he had had to lie to his nephew once again; he would not be in the house when Alex woke up. He would once again be on a 'business trip' only this time it would be to ensure Alex's personal safety rather than a mission that MI6 had given him. He softly pulled the door too, leaving it slightly ajar so that the hallway light spilled into the room, and went to go and pack. He left a note for Jack explaining that he had been called into work and left before sunrise, taking one final look back at the house as he drove away.