Strange Encounters

To be honest the therapy session had been rather awkward. Alex had pretty much made up his mind to cross this one off the list. He was simply too quiet for Alex's liking. Alex leaned back into the stiff chair. The furniture rather matched the shrink, but he was one of the last ones on Jones' approved list and Jones was making him-

CRUNCH!

Alex froze as a giant foot caved in the wall. There was an unearthly keening noise that made Alex freeze. The next thing he knew, a giant head came in through the hole in the wall and a pair of giant jaws opened. He could see the sharp, pointy teeth as long as his hands. The jaws clamped around Dr. Henley and engulfed him. The head exited the building. Alex was pretty sure that he heard the giant lizard swallow. Tyrannosaurus Rex. He felt like laughing. Alex wasn't sure if crying was appropriate either. He numbly pulled out his phone. Jones picked up on the first ring. "Tulip? Do you know why a fucking dinosaur just ate my shrink?"

There was a long sigh at the end of the line. Look, Alex couldn't make this shit up.

"Well, there may have been a slight issue we neglected to bring you in on."

Alex looked at the hole in the wall. There wasn't even a fleck of blood on the carpets. "Slight?!"

Tulip sounded like she was mostly humoring him at this point. Alex sometimes why he didn't tell her to fuck off and get a real job instead. Scorpia would have warned him about this bullshit. "Well, it seems Brendan Chase decided to go a bit overboard on the tantrum after we declined to let him 'borrow' you for the fifty-seventh time."

Alex's mouth occasionally still moved before his brain connected to what he was saying. "Dang, that bitch doesn't take no for an answer."

Tulip's reply turned very dry. Alex would almost say she was amused by him. "Indeed not. I woke up to a living room full of microraptors and a bottle of booze with a note that read, and I quote, sharing is caring."

Alex barked out a laugh before he could stop himself. It was funny. It was also the kind of petty that Scorpia would pull. "So, uh, how much of London is covered in dinosaurs?"

Tulip sounded like she had a headache. Alex was trying very hard not to laugh. "Well, there have been slightly over five hundred call-ins, so it's anyone's guess. He also decided to drop them in DC and Canberra. Joe is madder than a hatter and Ethan is about as calm as he ever was."

Alex sighed and began heading out of the office. This was probably going to be a long day. "What do those two have to say for themselves?"

Tulip let out a bit of a sigh. Alex turned towards the subway station. Hopefully, they were still running today and hadn't been put off by the giant man-eating lizards. "One bit Joe's wife, so he went a bit overboard with the shotgun. Ethan's bodyguards managed to get rid of most of the ones infesting his home."

Alex tried not to cackle at the mental image of Joe going bananas with a shotgun. He bit the inside of his cheek. "Right. Are we calling the army or what?"

Jones let out a sigh. Alex felt his eyes narrow. "We are doing nothing. I will be calling in the SAS and having the Prime Minister address the public in an hour or two. This is a ploy to distract your allies and kidnap you off the streets. Head home."

Alex felt himself beginning to grind his teeth. Then again, Jones didn't have to know if he took a detour or two. "Fine."

He hung up and shoved the phone into his pocket. Alex got on the last train that was headed towards his house. The rest appeared to be under emergency shut down for unknown reasons. Unknown his arse.

Alex arrived home after the fifth detour. It had been getting a bit ridiculous, even by his standards. He carefully drew the firearm as he shut the door. This was going to be interesting. He made his way towards the kitchen and set his tea kettle on. So far, no obnoxious little ankle-biting dinosaurs. There was a box of tea on his counter. Alex stepped over to the box and gingerly turned it over. "Made in Australia."

He narrowly avoided shooting at the shadow in the corner of his eyes. Alex turned to face a blonde man. His teeth were unnaturally white. The sea green eyes glimmered with mirth and a hint of madness.

"Much like me. I'm Brendan Chase!"

Alex flicked the safety off on his gun. Brendan pouted slightly. "Oh, come on. I didn't even infest your house with dinosaurs. Letting them chew on that mahogany would be a crime."

Alex very narrowly avoided rolling his eyes. "Uhuh. How can I help you?"

Alex had no intention of doing so. It would be best to get the evil villain speech over with, though. He just wanted his bloody tea. "I just wanted to introduce myself. Back in the old days, you would have met me after your first month or so as a business associate of Blunt."

The tea kettle whistled. Alex padded over and grabbed it. "I'm afraid it's a bit less of an old boy's club today."

Chase slunk closer to him as he prepared his tea. He heard a slight scoff. "Is it? Or has Tulip just not gotten the memo?"

Alex could almost feel the man's breath on him. Chase was making him nervous. "If you get any closer, I'm cuffing you."

The man grinned ever so slightly. "Kinky, but I think my secretaries will murder me if I blow you instead of doing my paperwork. Anyways. Here's my card. Bye."

Alex was left with a vaguely confused expression and a business card. The fuck?! He was just not going to question it. Alex looked at the card and shrugged. Welp, may as well punch the number in, right?

Fin

Based on a prompt by Zyzyax (see story summary). This is the 221st 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!