Chapter Two
That's A No
One month later . . .
"I think that's all for today, Alex," Mrs. Peters, a librarian like woman with hair more gray than it was a rusted copper brown, said closing her lesson books.
"Wow," Alex said. "It's seven o' clock Mrs. Peters! Record time!"
She ignored his tone. "We're finishing up early because Mr. Porter wants to talk to you."
"He wants to talk to me?"
"Yes."
"Himself?"
"Isn't he the head of MI6? He has time to come here himself?"
"No. We live in the 21st century, Mr. Rider. We can use telephones, and we can make sure that no one is eavesdropping." Mrs. Peters handed him a cell phone. It rang.
"Hello?"
"Alex! Nice to hear your voice again!"
"Hello, Mr. Porter."
"Hello to you to. I was wondering. It must be rather dull out there, with no one to talk to, right?"
"Sure."
"I mean, you can hardly play football by yourself can you? And there's no point in playing cricket -you can't even run around outside!"
"True," Alex said hesitantly, wondering where Mr. Porter was going with this.
"It can't be very interesting, I'm sure. Hardly any excitement."
"Mr. Porter, does this have a point?"
"Yes. Yes it does. I was wondering if you were up for a mission."
"Up for it? Health wise, or do you want a volunteer?"
"I'd prefer both. But let me outline it for you. Some . . . hostile enmities have captured one of our rather important engineers. He was building a little something for us that they want – more importantly, that they want to build. We'll go into the particulars once . . . if you accept the mission. The point is, they're after his kid. Nobody knows anything about this child, no name, no age, no nothing. So if we can send you in . . . you get another chance to save the world."
"I've already saved it at least three times, Mr. Porter," Alex said.
"Well, that just proves you may be the best man for the job," Mr. Porter replied.
"Yes, but am I the only man for the job?"
"Technically, no," Mr. Porter admitted. "But we would sure appreciate the cooperation of someone in your . . . caliber."
"If you can use someone else, then no."
"Excuse me?"
"You send someone else, a guy in his twenties maybe, if he succeeds he gets to go on with his life and pick up where he left off. You send me, and my life picks up and leaves without me."
"But Alex, your life is on hiatus right now. You don't need it right now. And quite frankly, you can't have it."
"This isn't exactly making me feel any warmer towards this, Mr. Porter," Alex said.
Mr. Porter continued as if Alex had not spoken. "The world needs you right now. That man needs you. We need you."
Alex remained silent.
"But I understand that all matters concerning you are a request, not an order," Mr. Porter sighed.
"If my life can manage to carry on without me," Alex said, "then so can the world."
"That's a no then?"
"That's a no."
"Well Alex," Mr. Porter said, sounding highly disappointed, "We'll see you in two months. Maybe a month and a half if we can manage it."
"Good-bye, Mr. Porter," Alex said. Then he pressed a number on the phone and handed it to Mrs. Peters. She left the room, and Alex went to work on his Nintendo DS.
A/N: Really short, I know it. But oh well. It gets less boring, don't worry.
The results of a summer's boredome . . .
Here are some questions that I've thought up based on my reading of the first four books (I only know the highlights of Scorpia):
Why does Ian Rider not like the word "uncle"? Here are my theories. The more likely one is that because maybe Alex's mom had a brother that wasn't such a great guy and Ian Rider didn't want to be associated with that uncle. My other theory (which was probably totally disproved by Eagle Strike) is that Ian Rider was Alex's father, not John Rider. Which would be pretty messed up, unless it wasn't John and Helen that were married. Or maybe the Rider brothers switched identities. I don't know. I've watched too much Alias. lol
Why does Anthony Horowitz keep changing the name of his dog? In the first one it was Bucky. In the second, it was Plucky. Then it was Unlucky. And then it was Plucky again. I'm pretty sure his dog's name is Lucky, because he had a book dedicated to "J, N, C, and L" - J being his wife, N being his son, C being his other sun, and then L, the dog.
What happened to Mrs. Jones' kids?
Where's Blunt's family?
What's up with all the short men? (Sayle was short, Cray was short . . . ) Or is Alex just tall?
You leave me alone with books for two months with nothing to do and that's what you get. An obsessive fan. Same thing happened with Harry Potter. I'm still wondering how Wormtail's gonna pay his debt to Harry.
I'm such a book nerd. I'm going to listen to some metal and rap and stuff to even things out.