Disclaimer: Would Horowitz actually write something like this? I do not own Alex Rider.

Chapter 42: ...the City

"Add that one to the suspect tree," Alex said, holding out another packet of paper to Nico.

He took it and pinned it to the planning board that now somehow covered an entire wall in Alex's bedroom. It was covered with papers and projected connections, with little notes scribbled here and there on certain papers.

Related to Blunt?

See August 25th

Joint action in Colombian city, no known relation

Most of it had little relevance for Nico.

Two weeks back in the city and Alex had been nothing but persistent in combing through the information left behind on the USB and cross checking it with whatever was left on his little music player. A week ago, Alex had all but demanded a printer – and Mickey had scrounged one up from somewhere – so he could start organizing the important bits he found. That had resulted in his wall categorization system that Nico only somewhat understood.

There were the suspects – individuals or groups who were already somehow connected to the investigation. SCORPIA, and Reformed SCORPIA, were the main ones in that category, though they were both noted as defunct. Then there were the organizers – individuals or groups who would serve to benefit from either the information or the resulting unrest. This was a much larger group. Then, there were the events themselves. Mostly brief notes pulled out of varying reports, some of which Alex had grudgingly handed over to the others to read as well.

The sorting was the worst. Nico's eyes had glazed over at a lot of it – routine reports that had almost nothing to do with the current state of affairs – but every now and then, there were bits and pieces of interesting, if not useful, information.

The side effect was that he was seeing essentially all of his country's dirty little secrets. Nico wasn't sure he'd ever be able to trust them again.

"They were mentioned in that report from the April briefing," Alex said, breaking into Nico's musing.

He glanced at the paper – Veridici – which detailed a small group based out of Italy. Of course, there was no telling what April briefing Alex was referring to. If he was going to add it to the wall, then there was likely some reason for it.

When he put his mind to it – when his life was in danger – Alex actually was pretty good at the detective work.

Unfortunately, they were working with data that was already weeks – some of it months – old. Though Alex might be able to draw a few connections between minor players, there were huge gaps. It all came down to who was pulling the strings from behind the scenes. Whoever it was, unilaterally made decisions, and their word was law.

It seemed more like an individual than an organization, if Nico were honest. No organization could have pulled off these types of movements; people disagreed with each other. A lone individual though…

Alex sprawled across the bed and let the remaining papers in his hand drift to the floor. "We need the updated data," he mumbled into the bed.

The data that Cameron did not want to access because of possible tracking.

And because too much information in Alex's hands potentially meant more problems.

Nico knew that they were all biding their time. Alex was humoring them for now.

Alex rolled over to look at Nico. "It's been a few weeks and they have dozens of people to do this. Ben has to have sent something more."

Even if Ben and his buddies – another SAS unit from the looks of things – were good at what they did, there was no telling what nefarious player could have gained access to the information as well, waiting for them to show their hand.

"Look!" Alex waved his hand at the wall. "All I've got right now if a big bunch of questions. I know who did a lot of it, but not why. Not what connects them."

Nico suppressed a sigh and eased himself into the chair across from Alex. For all their stalling, it seemed that they had once again hit the inevitable barrier. "Alex… what exactly is your plan? What do you want to do once you figure this out?" Because it wasn't revenge that drove Alex, but survival. Whose survival though… Well, that was the question of the century.

The confused and flustered expression that crossed Alex's face told more than enough. He had no idea. "I… I mean. Get… get rid of them? Take them out?" He peered at Nico. "Don't you want your normal life back?"

Others. That was, remarkably, what drove Alex to do anything. From sacrificing his own safety, to spending hours on end puzzling through a mystery so large an international security agency still couldn't solve it. He didn't care about his own life, but rather that his life was affecting others.

This time, Nico did sigh. "Yes, I would love to see my family – without worrying for your safety."

A hint of red spread across Alex's cheeks. He didn't seem to like that reasoning as much.

"But I don't think you understand." Nico folded his arm, staring Alex down. "Once you get your answers, are you going to just turn them over to MI6 to take care of? To your friend Ben? Or do you just want to find them and kill them?"

Alex's jaw clenched and he looked away. "I doubt MI6 can take care of the issue at this point." His fingers pressed into the bed. "But it's a simple fix – destroy the operation, destroy the person."

Assuming it was one singular person calling the shots. "But this doesn't look like it's a little local operation. This is someone's empire, someone that has avoided the security agencies of the world so far and experienced little hardship for it." Nico glanced at the board, at their limited list of suspects so far. The main ones were already out of the picture. Someone else was missing. "They're not going to be easy to take down. I doubt they're even in this country."

Alex pushed himself up, so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. "That's why I'm working with you all and not just going gun-slinging by myself."

Though that was just as likely to change the moment the information they had changed drastically. There were times Alex acted like an adult, jaded and experienced with the world. Other times though, he seemed to have the opinion that if he just did enough, things would work out. If he sacrificed himself enough, then it didn't matter in the end. No self-preservation.

Nico chose his words carefully. "I don't want you to get your hopes up that your friend has some magical answer for you. That this'll all be over before the month is up," he added, softly. "It could be months before we're in a position to take action."

"This is my life. It's not going to be over in a couple of months," Alex said, bitterly. "I've been stuck with you lot since April, it's October, so I'm well aware- Just… it would be nice to do something about it for once, rather than always running."

Based on what Alex had told them about his missions, it had become clear that he really was used to more action. More movement. More tension. Running headfirst into the danger.

Waiting around for someone to come after him was just the opposite to what Alex had been subjected to for nearly two years – and had resulted in quite the load of PTSD and mental health issues. Running away had been all but explicitly trained out of him through dangerous experience after dangerous experience. And relying on anyone else was all but out of the question. They had seen to that by sabotaging his first experience with a SAS unit – though by some small miracle, he seemed to like one of them.

Nico sighed. "Okay, listen. You want that information? You're going to have to work with us to get it." Because there was no other way he would get Cameron to agree to this plan. "I know you're not planning to sneak off on us—" At least, Nico liked to pretend that was reality. At least for now. "—but we've got to approach this from the right angle. If someone does track that information, I don't want it anywhere near you."

"But—"

"No but's about it. If we're going this, we're doing it our way. I'd be just as happy to never have the information and never risk compromising ourselves. Because this is more than just you. This will put all of us at risk for discovery." And if that didn't make Alex second guess his plans, Nico doubted nothing would. "And I know you think we're on some kind of equal footing now, but we're still protecting you. That's our job, government sanction or no."

Alex huffed, but didn't argue the point.

Nico stared at him for a long moment. "I'll talk to Cameron about getting someone to go check out the data. It might take a few days, but I know you've got at least a few more pages to cross check with your little device." He stood up from the chair, but paused and sent a piercing stare at Alex. "You promise me that you're not going to try something foolish."

Alex rolled his eyes. "I won't, promise." The for now was unspoken, but Nico realized the conditional nature of Alex's promises. If his way of doing things was followed, then he had no trouble keeping his promises. It was when he felt that there was something better or more important that it became a problem.

Nico threw one last glance over his shoulder as he exited the room. Alex had already grabbed the music player, so he was most likely doing exactly what Nico had suggested.

If only he followed directions so easily other times.

Nico would have to figure out how best to pitch it to his unit leader, but he figured that Alex's continued cooperation would be enough of a driving force to send someone to get the information. And they really could use the information, no matter what he said to Alex. Just knowing what the agency was planning would be useful.

It was just a risky maneuver that none of them really wanted to take.

It had been two days since they had seen Mickey.

All according to plan, but nerve wracking nonetheless.

Paranoia served them all well, but it also meant that more extreme precautions had to be taken – just in case. If anyone tracked Mickey, then hopefully the extra time would be enough for him to throw anyone off his tail. So they couldn't track him all the way back to Alex.

There was, of course, no telling what happened in those two days out of contact, but no news was good news. No explosions or reports of violence in the region Mickey had gone to and they had a reasonable suspicion of where he had holed up for the two days. Safely out of sight of anyone who might have found him interesting.

Just a normal person, accessing publicly available information at a library. Of course, it was a university library where he wasn't actually a student, but Mickey had the best chance at passing as a local – from the jungle, someone had said – out of all of them, despite his height, so it was reasonable to expect that he would be able to get away with it.

Hopefully.

Nico put Mickey's absence out of his mind – he would be back before the evening was up – and knocked on Alex's door. "Food's ready, Alex."

Alex glanced up at him from the desk with bleary eyes. Sometime in the past few days he had given up on the suspects wall, and had reorganized the stack of papers on the desk. If he was practically falling asleep on them, it could only mean that he had once again forgone sleeping in favor of reading. "Already?"

Nico smiled slightly. "It's past six, so yeah."

"Oh…" Alex stood up with a long stretch, seeming to revert to standard teenager mode fairly quickly. "Mickey's back tonight, yeah?"

"That's the plan, yeah. Might be late though." There was no telling when exactly Mickey would show up. In part, it depended on how things had gone for him. He could be back before they even ate, or not until nearly midnight.

Alex shrugged, shuffling the papers on his desk and sliding the music player into his pocket. "Doesn't matter."

Nico quirked his lips into a smile. Alex was one-minded when he had a goal. Likely as soon as Mickey brought the new information, Alex would fall head first into the data – ignoring the usual necessities of sleep and food, unless someone forced it on him.

Alex shuffled into the hall behind him and joined the other in the dining area. Though the apartment had been a considerable upgrade in terms of number of bedrooms, the common areas still left a bit to be desired. They could fit though.

What's it tonight?" Alex peered at the takeout boxes that lined the counter.

Jacobs passed a box to Alex. "Chifa."

"Chifa?"

"Chinese-Peruvian fusion." Nico took his own box and investigated the contents. A rice and noodles mixture with bits of chicken that someone had decided was called an aeropuerto. He wasn't sure what the food had to do with an airport, but it was decent enough. Familiar, in some ways. "It's apparently one of the local favorites. Figured we had enough of the traditional food, so might as well see what fusion tastes like. And one of my students was horrified that I hadn't tried it."

His student, a young university student, was more than happy to provide directions to the closest chifa spot. That was one of their few local contacts, but the once weekly meetings – alongside the few other students they had scrounged together – meant that they had enough money coming in to keep the food from disappearing.

It wasn't sustainable – they were using their limited savings to pay for the apartment – but for now, it was all they had.

Alex settled into his chair, grabbing a pair of chopsticks. "If they've had this all along, where have they been hiding it? I'm done with potatoes."

Nico hid a smile. Potatoes were cheap and easy to make – the main reason they had had so many in the past several weeks. "Eat your food and be grateful."

Alex gave him a grin – cheeky bastard – and picked up a bite full of food with his chopsticks. Impressive maneuvering for someone who, only two months ago, had limited mobility in that hand. The progress of the past few months was astounding – though it certainly felt like it was always a back and forth with Alex.

The same issues seemed to keep arising. Mainly, convincing Alex that, despite his apparent years of experience otherwise, they really were capable of looking out for his best interest. They could protect him, no matter the personal cost.

It only took a glace at Alex joking with Jacobs to show a glimpse of what the teenager could be. He was a teenager that had been forced to grow up far too quickly, with too many adult responsibilities thrown at him. But once those responsibilities were given to him, there was little hope of someone taking those freedoms and securities back.

There was no forgiving the people who had thrust him into that role – and then done very little to mitigate the damage that had resulted.

A series of knocks on the front door broke Nico out of his musing.

Cameron caught Nico's eye and nodded in the direction of the door.

Mickey. Or well, it had better be, or someone else had broken through their front gate.

Nico put his food to the side, barely keeping from rolling his eyes at Alex's expectant look. "You can stay right here. If it's Mickey, going and bugging him at the gate won't make anything faster."

He headed down the hall to the front door, making his steps plain. Then he waited.

Tap, tap-tap, tap.

Mickey's signal.

Nico opened the door, waving Mickey in. "Someone's antsy, fair warning."

Mickey snorted. "When is he not?" He hesitated in the hall to shrug off his jacket. "I've actually got some good news, in that this information is actually useful. Current. Seems MI6 got a bit of a fire lit under them after a gang shootout in London right after we left. They've connected it to all this and have suspects."

Suspects.

It could go either way, very easily. If MI6 had concrete information, then Alex might be able to combine it with what he already knew, and make connections from there. Or, it would only serve to spur him into doing something stupid.

A tossup.

By some small miracle, Alex had managed to resist his curiosity and was still sitting with his food when they entered the kitchen. He wasn't eating, but at least he wasn't going to try to bombard Mickey the moment he entered.

"Food on the counter is yours," Jacobs said without looking up.

Nico had to smother a grin as Alex tracked Mickey's progress across the kitchen. Clearly impatient, but still had some manners.

Mickey grabbed the food and sat down, eyeing Alex. "Go on, ask away."

"Were you able to get it? They didn't have it too complicated, did they? Was there a password?" It all came out in a rushed stream and Nico wondered if they had really gotten all of it.

"Yes, no, and yes."

Alex huffed, then seemed to wilt into his seat. "And?" He asked meekly.

"I've got it all on a USB drive for you to pursue to your heart's content."

Alex perked up at that. "Anything big?"

"MI6 has scrounged together a list of suspects." Mickey shrugged. "I didn't look too closely, but some of the names sounded familiar." He had spent a few hours going through things with Alex – just in case he hadn't been able to actually remove the information. "The biggest was some gang activity that followed our departure and someone connected it back to the latest attempt on your life."

Alex frowned at that.

Gangs certainly didn't fit anything they had come up with so far, but then Alex also had his theory that someone else was pulling the strings, someone he had dubbed the Puppet Master.

"And there's a message from your Ben person for you."

Alex's eyes lit up, ever so slightly, and Nico hoped that whatever advice Ben gave Alex, that it encouraged him to not do something stupid. That it would spur Alex to stay on with them until the fiasco was over. Whenever that was.

Judging by past events though, that was like asking Ben to be a miracle worker from afar…

It didn't take long to fall into a routine of sorts. It was the end of October, just about to tip into November, and the weather was warming in fits and starts. They had been in the country for two months. Nearly a month in the city itself. Unlike the previous times where they had been staying out in the middle of essentially nowhere, they were stuck in the midst of the city. Although there was a great deal of anonymity in the city, it also came with its own quirks – such as nosy neighbors.

They would be quick to notice if the apartment full of men never left the premises.

Cameron had come up with a solution that seemed to appease even Alex. Every three days or so, they went out and did something in the city. Keeping up appearances in the neighborhood was almost as important as staying cautious while out and about.

Though there was always the argument that routines were what got people killed…

The outings seemed to be exactly what Alex needed though. He had settled into his fact-finding mission and pieced together a three-way of information from the USB, the old files on his music player, and the new information from the website. There were still no concrete answers, but Alex had, at the very least, narrowed down his own searches for information.

After it became clear that whoever was in charge of the blog knew their way around obscuring tracks, Cameron had allowed Alex out to an internet café – spread out around the city, ranging from within walking distance to nearly two hours driving in traffic – and together had culled the internet and the blog for more information.

It really was impressive what he had come up with. The connections and assumptions he had made so far, seemed to be matching whatever new thing MI6 was coming up with.

Nico cast a glance at Alex, who had pulled the hood of his jacket up as the crowds around them increased. It was their outing day – or night, rather, as it was after sunset by now. He looked the picture of a normal teenager, illuminated only by the lights of the fountains in the park. There was no missing that he was wary of the crowds, not if you knew what to look for, but he was more at ease here than in any other city.

An arm bumped into his, steering him away from the closest fountain. "We're about done here," Jacobs murmured in Spanish. "Mickey's going to be getting hungry."

And Cameron bored in the van, Nico silently added. Everyone had their duty station for the evening. Mickey watching the apartment, Cameron watching the van, and Jacobs and himself keeping an eye on Alex. They rotated so everyone had a chance out and about. As much as they were running, they had to keep living, or the bad guys had won anyway.

"You ready to head back?" Nico asked Alex. They had been wandering through the fountains and statues for nearly two hours now – the usual length of their excursions. They still had at least a half hour drive through the city back to the apartment, which would put their arrival a little later than usual.

Not so much that Mickey would worry, but…

Alex nodded, immediately turning in the direction of the parking lot. They had stayed away from the larger fountains, away from the largest crowds.

Nico tipped a grin in Alex's direction. "Interesting though, right?" There had been some sort of light show projected onto the fountains on the far side of the park. Nico would have liked to see it, but Alex had seemingly deliberately not headed in that direction.

"I suppose."

The further they walked toward the van, the more Nico could see the invisible tension seeping out of Alex's posture. He hid it well.

It seemed that this outing wasn't a particular hit.

Things were quiet in the van as they maneuvered through the evening rush of traffic. Nico kept a careful eye on Alex, who seemed particularly quiet.

"We'll go to Miraflores next time," Cameron said from up front. "Check the blog from a hotspot there, with a burner."

Alex nodded, but didn't say anything.

Out of sorts.

"You know who you want to check up on next?" Nico asked, trying something, anything, to get a response out of Alex.

"Dimitri Semenov and Daniel Raab." Alex glanced away from the window, perking up for the first time that evening. "Semenov had connections to SCOPRIA in the 80s and current ties to Russian intelligence. And Raab… he is just so out of place in the list of suspects, that…" He trailed off and shrugged.

Alex had ranted about the conundrum of Daniel Raab the day before. Raab was not just out of place on the list of suspects, but it seemed that he had no connections whatsoever to anything that was going on. Yet, for some reason, MI6 had him listed, and fairly high up at that. The file was even flagged by the blogger.

Of course, any mention that Raab might be a red herring was akin to blasphemy for Alex. He wanted so desperately to find something.

"What about that Curtis fellow you were looking into last week?" Jacobs asked.

"Died six months ago, suicide because he was cheating on his wife. Supposedly." Alex shrugged dispassionately. "My guess is he was involved in something and the suicide was staged, but it was enough for the Brazilian authorities to sweep under the rug."

Nico grimaced. He had seen some of the things Curtis was involved in, but even then, wouldn't wish suicide – or murder – on anyone. And Alex seemed so blasé about it.

"There was nothing that suggested he had any connection with the Puppet Master—" Alex's term for whoever was pulling the strings of his life. "—and ABIN had a team on him before his death. If they were watching him, then he was small fry."

There were a lot of things that Nico had learned about the world in the past several weeks. Number one, was that there were a lot of people who got away with a lot more than they should if governments weren't corrupt. And that corruption was present in all governments, no matter how supposedly sophisticated they pretended to be.

The van descended into silence once again.

They pulled up to the apartment before anyone brought up a new topic, which was probably just as well, and Jacobs got out to the open the gate into their courtyard. Few neighborhoods had parking off the street in this area, but it had been one of Cameron's requirements. Their vehicle had to be secured at all times – unless absolutely unavoidable. It stretched their resources thin when they were away from the apartment.

The van pulled in and Nico jumped out, not wanting to get roped into grocery duty once again. He had hauled the bags to the van in the first place. It was someone else's turn.

A flickering light in the upper window of the apartment meant that Mickey had probably settled in for his evening program. "You heading to bed or staying to watch Mickey's telenovela?" He asked Alex with a grin.

It did the trick. "And waste my time?" Alex scoffed, but a hint of a grin crossed his face. "I already know that Camila is cheating on Andres. Don't need to spend two hours figuring that out. Besides, Mickey is just rooting for Rosmery and it's obvious she's going to die before the season is up."

Nico rolled his eyes, stepping toward the front door. Three weeks ago, they had finally installed a digital lock – after a lot of pinching on grocery bills. Definitely not something common in this neighborhood – and certainly not as good as a good set of security cameras – but it was something that allowed them a bit of peace of mind.

He punched in the security code – 1 – and waited for the lock to click.

It was so much easier, since no one had to come and manually unlock the door.

The lock beeped, not accepting the code.

Nico threw a glare over his shoulder at Cameron. Electronics were always finicky. "You might have to come sweet talk this thing." He punched in the code again – 1 – a little faster this time. There was a nearly instantaneous corresponding click. "Guess you just have to be fast enough."

"Just don't break it," Cameron grumbled.

"Wait—!"

Nico glanced up at Alex's exclamation, as he pushed the door open. Something in the distance clicked, but this time it wasn't the lock.

The air vanished.

Light.

Heat.

Pain.

Nothing.

No more.

A/N: Cliffhanger in honor of finishing my last class ever (most likely). What happened here? Let me know what you think!