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"Good Alex, good" smiled Nile

Alex stood in a cubicle facing a sheet of paper about fifty metres away with a silhouette traced on it. In front of him in two hands he held a smoking gun. Three bullets had pierced the paper. One at the head, one at the neck and one at the heart.

Nile was behind him, a grin on his face as Alex put down the gun and removed his ear muffs. "You're becoming more and more like your father every day"

"Thanks Nile" smiled Alex, trying to walk off the numbing sensation in his arms he always got when he fired a gun.

The two of them walked out of the gun room and into the cool air.

"Are you ready for your next assignment?" asked Nile

Alex nodded casually, "Yeah, ready as I'll ever be" he tried to sound confident.

Although he was quite excited to have an assignment, he still couldn't shake off the shiver in his spine.

Get a grip, he had told himself

He was trying to do exactly that.

Scorpia had been his father's family. Why couldn't it be his?

"I wish I could have known him" he said out loud

Nile looked at him and nodded, "I never knew your father personally Alex, but professionally…lets just say that was enough to make me envy him"

Alex took that as a compliment, "Do you think I could ever be as good as he was?"

Nile paused before saying, "Yes I believe you could"

Alex stopped walking and gave Nile a small smile. Nile noticed this and gave a cough. Alex wiped his face clear. Sometimes it was hard for them not to get too close. Bonds are a weakness, Mrs Rothman had said.

Nile gestured for Alex to continue on without him, "You'd better hurry. Your briefing session is at 0900 and you still have a combat course to go to"

"See you later" nodded Alex

He carried on a few metres and turned to see Nile heading back the other way. He smiled fondly.

AR AR AR AR AR AR

After combat, in which Alex had been tossed to the floor a mere 6 times in one hour by the trainer , who was infamous for knocking normal agents down 10 times in a mere 2 minutes, Alex showered and changed into black pants and a black sweatshirt. He walked down the main hall and knocked on a pari of expensive, reinforced wooden doors. He was aware of the camera concealed in the corner of the wall taking his picture, the pressure pads under the carpet he stood on taking note of his weight and the scanner in the ceiling above him taking note of his physical statistics and comparing them with information stored in Scorpia's databanks. After a mere ten seconds, the doors opened automatically and Alex strode into the large, exquisite room that served as Mrs Rothman's office and debriefing area.

"Morning Ma'am" he said briskly, acknowledging Mrs Rothman herself

The woman sat behind her large desk, stirring a coffee. Her dark suit seemed immune to creases of any kind and her lips never seemed to fade of their poisonous shade of red wine.

"Good morning Alex, I trust you have rested well after returning from London" she smiled

"Very ma'am" was his reply

His gaze turned to Dr Three, who sat in a rich chair not far from Mrs Rothman's desk.

Mrs Rothman smiled, "Dr Three is here on business relating to your next assignment Alex. Nothing to be concerned about. Please, do take a seat"

Alex sat in a chair opposite her, resting his arms along the arms of the chairs.

Mrs Rothman stood up and handed him a file, "Your new assignment isn't one that we believe will greatly challenge you Alex, but is one in which we require your…particular qualities"

"No one suspects the kid in the corner right?" smiled Alex

Mrs Rothman smiled again and perched herself on the edge of her desk, "Your target is a Mr Jack Tyler. Government official. Recently he has been found to be interfering in the political treasury, causing our client concern. He is temporarily staying at the Trouxdon Hotel in London-"

"London?" Alex exclaimed without thinking

Mrs Rothman raised an eyebrow, "Something wrong Alex?" she hummed

"No, nothing" said Alex, regaining his composure quickly, "Its just that…well, its only been a few days since I was there. Won't MI6 still be on their high horse about the whole incident?"

Mrs Rothman seemed content with that, picking up her coffee, "Alex, MI6 didn't care about you even when you were among their organization. Why would they care about you now? According to them, you are a failed assignment. Surely you should have realised that now?"

Alex looked at the file in his hands, "I do" he said softly, looking back up at Mrs Rothman, "And I will never forgive them for what they did to me…or my father"

The words rang true. Alex had found out the truth about how his father had died. MI6 had ordered his execution as they would have ordered lunch. Guilt still remained about killing Mrs Jones, but the anger inside him about MI6's betrayal was much stronger.

Mrs Rothman nodded, "You and me both Alex. But MI6 will no longer interfere. This mission is your one and only focus"

Alex straightened in his seat, "Yes ma'am"

"Good. Alex, any information you need is in that file. You will be leaving at 0600-tomorrow morning. One of our agents will escort you by chartered flight to Heathrow Airport" Mrs Rothman told him briskly

Alex nodded, "Okay, where will I meet the agent?"

"You will not meet him Alex, he will find you"

"Okay, will that be all?"

Mrs Rothman put down her coffee and stood up, "Not quite" she gestured to Dr Three and sat down behind her desk

Dr Three stood up and strode over to Alex, handing him a small, clear coin bag, "I want you to take a look at this Alex and tell me what you see"

Alex observed the object in the bag. It was tiny, barely bigger than an eyelash, but as Alex looked closer, he could see it was a computer chip of some design he had never seen before.

"It's a microchip of some kind. But it doesn't look like it was designed for a computer or weapons system. I can't say I've ever seen one of its kind before" he stated, handing the bag back to Dr Three who smiled

"The reason for that is because Scorpia is the only organization in the world to have used it" the Doctor said

"How do you figure that?" asked Alex

"Because it was I who invented it Alex" Dr Three said proudly, "And you are correct in that it doesn't look suited for any kind of technological system. It is in fact designed for a human body"

Alex looked at him, "What does it do?"

It was Mrs Rothman who answered him, "It is really quite ingenious Alex" she smiled, "It is a blocking transmitter. When implanted it renders the host incapable of talking about specific things, namely about Scorpia"

Alex caught on, "So you're going to implant me with one of those in case MI6 haven't completely forgotten about me?" he asked with a raised eyebrow

Mrs Rothman gave a smooth laugh, "It is not unique to you Alex. Every Scorpia operative has been implanted with one of these. It is one of the reasons our organization has remained in the shadows all these years" she smiled, "But yes, you are going to be implanted with the device before you leave for London"

"It is a fairly simple surgical procedure Alex" said Dr Three

"Wait, surgical?" inquired Alex

"As I said, it is fairly simple. And you will not be told where the implant is so that in the case of its presence being found, you cannot release the information of its whereabouts" Dr Three explained

Alex bit his tongue, then nodded, knowing he'd have no say in the matter, "No problem then" he sighed, "When do I have this done?"

"Dr Three will give you a medical examination and hopefully he can begin straight away so that you will be ready for departure tomorrow morning" said Mrs Rothman

"Great" said Alex, standing up, still holding his file

"Good luck Alex" said Mrs Rothman, picking up her coffee again, "Don't let us down"