Disclaimer: Honest to god, this chapter just sort of wrote itself. I do not own Alex Rider.

Chapter 40: Details

It was like a switch had been flipped in Alex's personality. He had sat frozen, unprotesting as Jacobs cleaned and wrapped his wrists – and as Cameron had promised, the cuffs had stayed exactly where they were, twisting his arms behind his back.

Nico studied Alex's face closely, watching for any tick of pain, anger, anxiety. All the fight had drained out of him it seemed, but Nico wasn't entirely optimistic that they would manage to get all the answers from him in one sitting. He seemed so used to tying it all up, keeping it in. Which… If Alex was to be believed that he had been a spy at one point, that the UK government had somehow roped him into acting as a part of their service…

It was an utter clusterfuck.

"Up on the bed with you," Jacobs chivvied Alex onto the bed, helping him settle into what could only be a mildly more comfortable sitting position. "No more stunts, or Cameron will never let you out of his sight. And Mickey will never forgive you."

That earned a slight huff from Alex, but he still resisted eye contact.

Mickey and Cameron reentered the room, dragging an extra couple of chairs with them. Mickey had an icepack to his nose and looked rather annoyed by the entire situation. Nico levered himself up from the floor and took point on the bed opposite Alex. He knew the drill. They had talked about it, once, months earlier, when it had seemed like Alex wasn't giving them anything. Whenever they got to the point where they had to force Alex's hand, it was Cameron and Nico's responsibility to find the answers.

Cameron pulled his chair up close, placing it right between the beds. "Right," he said, taking a seat. "It's long past time since we had a little heart to heart. You need to tell us the truth – the whole truth, this time. Not some edited version you think has what we need to know."

Alex scowled down at the bed. "And if I don't?"

"Then I'm going to sacrifice Mickey and send him looking for answers – and you might not like what we manage to find or what we decide to do with that information."

There was a visible flinch. "So, you're just going to blackmail me like everyone else?"

Like everyone else…

Nico sighed and rubbed at his temples. There wasn't a good way to approach this. "That's not blackmailing; he's telling you exactly what we will do. Our mission was to keep you safe – not keep you happy." The words were bitter in his mouth, because he liked to think that they had, so far, done a pretty good job at keeping Alex more or less happy. Content, at the very least.

"Either way," Cameron cut in, "You're not getting out of those cuffs until you've proven to me that you're not a threat to yourself or others." He tilted his head in Mickey's direction. "You're lucky Mickey has such a hard head."

There was a gurgled choke of laughter from Mickey, who quickly smothered it.

"So, how about we start at the beginning." Nico folded his hands in his lap, looking for that center of calm he had projected before. "Was anything you told us about your uncle, about his being a spy, was that true?" Because really, that was all they had had to go off of. A few short sentences they had all but pulled out of him just before returning to London. His uncle had been a spy and that was why Alex had been targeted.

Alex shrugged. "He was a spy."

"And so were you?"

Another dispassionate shrug.

Nico held back another sigh. Dispassionate. Disinterested. In all the weeks and months he had known Alex, this was not the way to get him to talk. So, he poked at the most obvious sore point. "And then you were a terrorist, apparently."

That got him. "I didn't do what they asked!"

"You're not denying it." Oh, how he hated doing it this way. It clashed against everything he knew, taunting and accusing Alex of the worst things."

Alex flushed. "It was stupid!" He protested. "You wouldn't understand. So just… just let me go!"

"Explain it to me. Make me understand." Nico shrugged carelessly. "I think I, out of everyone here, deserve to know why we're all in this mess."

Watching Alex's face crumble, hurt. Nico could feel Jacobs glaring at his callousness, but right now, it was the only way. Alex clearly didn't care about his own safety. People keep winding up dead. Let me go before I destroy everything you've ever worked for. He cared more about the people around him. The people he thought he was endangering.

"Tell me how it started. You were… fourteen?"

And then it was like the switch had flipped once again. But this time, to a broken, guilty Alex. "My uncle died. Assassinated, but everyone said it was a car accident. I… I didn't believe them. I should've! It was stupid." He shook his head violently, as if throwing off some great weight. "After I investigated, the head of MI6 decided that I was the latest and greatest tool for spying. Shipped me out to Brecon Beacons for… I dunno, training or something."

A sick sensation settled in the pit of Nico's stomach. Alex had mentioned knowing a SAS unit – it had been the impetus for the last confrontation – but had brushed it off with some nonsense about a boarding school. If that hadn't been the first time though… Central Command well knew what was going on and had signed off on it.

A child.

Sent into enemy zones.

It was unthinkable.

"And then?" Cameron prompted.

"Took out the Stormbreaker laptops." A half smirk crossed his face. "Shot the Prime Minister in the process."

"Wait, wait, back up," Jacobs interrupted. "Are we just going to ignore the- Why didn't you say no? What did they have on you?"

And that apparently was the key.

Alex flinched again, going pale. "They were going to deport my guardian, our housekeeper. She was American. Send me to a home or something." His shoulders slumped, dejected. "I- I should've let them. It would've been better. For everyone."

They had blackmailed a child. His uncle had been killed and they were willing to take away the only stability Alex had had left in his life – all because they wanted something out of him. Wanted his particular skill set – whatever that was.

Nico didn't blame Alex. Didn't blame him for holding on so desperately to something familiar. But there was clearly a lot more there than just the one mission. There was history – and since this was the first they had heard of his guardian, and he had had a guardianship arrangement, Nico suspected she was no longer in the picture. Possibly, dead.

Probably.

And Alex's vehement refusal to allow anyone to get close to him made a lot more sense. Connections, relationships, were ways that other people could use him. Manipulate him. Blackmail. Alex didn't want to give anyone more fodder.

There was a lot more under the surface though. That two-sentence summary of his first mission – because Nico knew that something major had happened in those intervening two years – was not sufficient. They were going to have to dig deep and dredge up every repressed feeling and thought Alex had, for his own good. Tough love and all that.

It was likely to be all but torture.

"Alright," Nico said, resigning himself to playing the bad guy for this round. Cameron would take a turn eventually, no doubt. "I'm tired of you giving us as little as possible. Stop interpreting what you should've done and tell me exactly what happened. Don't leave anything out – I'll decide whether it's important or not. Let's start with Brecon Beacons. Tell me who you met, what you did there, and why."

Alex just stared at him, face shocked.

"Well? Start talking."

And to everyone's surprise, Alex did.

After two hours, Jacobs called a break to get Alex water and Mickey had stormed off in a huff. No one wanted to hear about a cloning experiment, the lackluster SAS backup, or the steadily growing kill count Alex had at the tender age of fourteen.

After three hours, Nico felt like any shred of loyalty he had had to MI6 was gone. They had all but manipulated Alex into going dark side and then had the audacity to use that information to trap him in worse and worse situations.

After four hours, they understood a little better why Ben Daniels was the only person Alex spoke favorably about. The only one who seemed not to have a hidden agenda.

After five hours, Alex had thrown up the water and was all but on the verge of tears. Hearing about Jack, and the clone, and… everything made Nico want to fight the bastard that had dragged Alex into that world. Too bad the bastard was already dead.

After six hours, they had finally circled back to when Nico had met Alex for the first time.

After seven hours, Nico's brain was completely exhausted and Alex had all but wilted. The details of the weeks between their rescue and the eventual reassignment were fully explained – or at least, to the amount of detail that Alex knew.

There were no doubt still swaths of information, of important details, that Alex had glossed over – but they had the gist. Nico doubted that any of them – even with all their training – could have done something drastically different. When the government had you pinned and effectively blackmailed… there wasn't much anyone could do.

When Alex had finally run out of steam and they had no more questions to ask, the room had fallen into silence. Alex slumped against the headboard, arms still trapped behind him, eyelids at half-mast.

Nico was in a daze, trying to process everything. To tuck away the really important bits – Alex was, in no way, an average teenager. He had experiences that would make many grown men shudder. He had a unique set of skills – languages, evasion, and some amount of experience with weapons. And, perhaps most importantly, the lives of others were of utmost importance. His own life and comfort didn't matter.

He took a deep breath in, held it, then exhaled slowly. "Alex… I doubt you'll listen to me, but I'm sure everyone here agrees with me. None of this is your fault – MI6 screwed up in the first place." There were nods around the room. "Everything that happened was because someone got the bright idea that a schoolboy would make a good, manipulable spy, and turned everything your uncle had taught you to keep you safe, into a weapon for them."

Alex merely stared off into the distance.

It would take repeating, over days. And maybe, one day, Alex would believe it.

"We've been fighting lack of information since the start of this assignment," Cameron said, crossing his arms. "Not having any idea what we're up against from an outside threat is bad enough. Not knowing any of your background – we could've made quite a few, horrible, mistakes. But – we'll deal with that later." He turned a long glance on Nico, searching his face for something, then nodded to himself. "It's late."

That was an understatement.

"We'll figure out what the next steps are going to be in the morning." He turned a piercing gaze on Alex. "You're going to remain under direct observation for the foreseeable future; one arm cuffed to the bed at nighttime, and at least one of us on your six all other hours of the day."

Alex grimaced.

"Don't give me that. This is for your own safety, because you're clearly still not thinking about yourself. We can take care of ourselves."

And that was that.

Nico knew it wasn't all magically solved by one long conversation, but… it was a step in the right direction. Now they just had to figure out how to convince Alex to voluntarily stick around, for the sake of his own life. Much easier said than done.

A/N: Gonna be completely honest, this chapter did not exist until this evening. I didn't plan for it, meant to just gloss into the next chapter. But… I was editing the original chapter 40 and I felt like skipping over the unit's reactions just wasn't doing the story justice; going to Alex's aftermath made sense, but perhaps not so much from the reader's point of view. Two hours later and well, here you are. So please, forgive any errors and I'll cross my fingers that this doesn't mess up any continuity in future chapters.