The World is Truly Despicable
Walker picked up the phone with a dry mouth. This was going to be a fun meeting. Not. "Walker. You have a deadline. Two weeks. There are three options. Either Alex Rider is SCORPIA, Alex Rider is dead, or you are. Good luck."
The line hung up. This was going to be awful. He just knew it. Walker glanced at the clock. It was three in the morning London time. The board gave absolutely no shits about their operatives' sleep schedules when there was work to be done. Walker put a pillow over his face and let out a groan. The floorboards creaked outside his door.
"Walker?"
Walker hit his head and mentally swore. Alex was leaning against the doorframe. Right. One of them was a teen who needed to sleep more than the grown-ass adult. "Why are you up?"
Alex chewed his lower lip. He was going to start bleeding if he wasn't careful. "I had a nightmare about being executed in a desert. I can't imagine why."
Walker felt his lips twitch. Alex was a sarcastic shit despite everything. It was one of the things Walker liked about him. "You should go back to sleep."
They could deal with this in the morning. Walker had two weeks. He felt his chest tighten at the thought. Fuck. "I'm not tired. Why are you up?"
Walker typically liked when Alex stayed up late talking to him. The guilt was threatening to swallow him whole. Why did it have to be so hard? "Late night meeting."
Walker's voice caught on the last part. Alex sat down next to him on the bed and wrapped his arms around Walker. Walker felt a lump form in his throat. "The board is mean."
Walker winced slightly and began petting Alex's hair. Alex's face pressed into his shoulder. This was more than slightly awkward. "Yes, yes, they are."
Walker felt Alex's arms slack after a few minutes. He glanced down to see that the kid was fast asleep. Walker felt a slight hint of amusement break him from his gloom. He grabbed Alex's torso and legs and scooped him up. The kid was surprisingly light for the amount of trouble he caused. Walker could easily lift at least twice Alex's weight. He walked towards Alex's bedroom and put him back in the bed. Walker gently pulled the covers over him before silently shutting the door. Goddamn it. He needed to be calm and relatively well-rested for this. It was probably too much to hope for.
Walker woke up to Alex holding a tray of breakfast in his room. The guilt began bunching up in his chest again. He was bringing that to Scorpia. Alex beamed at him. "Breakfast and your disgusting bitter mud water."
Walker rubbed his face. The British. Alex was kind of like a walking talking meme sometimes. "We should…probably talk. After breakfast, though."
Walker started eating the eggs and bacon. They were perfectly cooked. Alex seemed to sense that Walker needed caffeine before talking. Walker took a sip of the coffee. Black with two sugars. "Thank you, Alex."
Alex looked delighted. This was not helping Walker's conscience. The kid started squirming as Walker got about halfway through his coffee. "Scorpia gave me an ultimatum."
Alex blinked. Walker took a second to realize that he was surprised. "Why are you telling me this?"
Walker took a deep breath. Alex was eyeing him with a mixture of fear, resignation, and something else. "They want you back or they want you dead."
Walker had a sinking suspicion that Alex would carry out Scorpia's threat before Scorpia did if Walker failed to be persuasive. Alex was faster in the draw than him. "Make it quick, then."
Walker felt himself choking on his coffee. Fucking hell. His lungs burned. "Excuse me?!"
Alex blinked at him. He gave Walker a pure 'you're a dumbass' look. "You heard me."
Walker wiped his face. The fuck?! "I'm not killing you."
Alex folded his arms. Walker felt the little brown peepholes glare at him. "I'm not joining Scorpia."
Walker pinched the bridge of his nose. Goddamn it. This was why he asked for more time. Subtle chipping at morals, but noooo. Clearly, the board was all-knowing and all wisdom. "Besides, I know what they'll do if you fail."
No. No. No. No. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. "I'm not killing you."
Walker repeated numbly. Alex walked over and sat on his lap. He nearly dumped the hot coffee all over both of them. "This only goes two ways, Walker."
Walker felt the ice enter his blood. Fuck him and fuck his life. "You can kill me. You were supposed to-"
Alex whacked him upside the head. Walker rubbed his scalp. "That hurt."
Alex folded his arms. Walker was tempted to scream. "Good. You're being stupid."
Walker glared at him. Excuse him?! Alex was the one who wanted to stick around for MI6's brand of torture. For free. "No, you are." Alex leaned against him. Walker let out a sigh. "Do you really wanna stick around for MI6?"
Alex made a huffing noise. This was going to be fun. And potentially friendship and life-ending. "It's better than Scorpia."
Walker folded his arms. Oh, come on. "No, it ain't."
Alex rose and began to pace. Walker was tempted to bang his head into the wall. "At least I have the moral high ground. Scorpia was going to kill off a whole country full of schoolchildre-"
"Because the enslavement of African children MI6 tacitly endorses is so much better?! You saw it firsthand!"
Walker watched Alex's eyes flare to life. Argument time. Maybe if it was in the heat of the moment, Alex would stab him? "That doesn't excuse Yu's fucking tsunami of doom to kill eight fucking people. Has the man ever heard of-"
"The famines MI6 caused to sabotage leaders that were going to side with the Russians in the cold war? I'm sure he had, given that he was an analyst!"
Walker knew that being interrupted was one of the buttons he could push. Alex glared at him. This was going to be a long morning.
Fin
Based on a prompt by Zyzyax (see story summary). This is the 215th work in the Winds of Change 2022 Alex Rider Prompt event, where a new prompt (plus a short 1-3K work) is posted every day. For more details, see the AO3 collection. We have an index of all the prompts used in this event so far and going forwards - join the discord to get access to the online index (and to take part in our events, chat about everything and anything, and meet a load of awesome people!