To my reviewers:
Magic Noden: Haha, well the answers to those questions will be answered later in the story, but you should see some clues at the end of the next chapter so keep reading!
Xarilyn: Lol, no Mandy's not out of her mind. But she does have some issues and some of those issues are with Alex. Keep reading to find out what!
Cool Mauraders: Look, I'm updating! Aren't you proud of me? Lol, next update should be worth reading.
Liam O'Mallon: I will answer those questions … eventually. So keep reading please!
Sealednectar: I didn't really describe Mandy because I wanted you guys to use your imaginations. I did say, though, that she had reddish blonde hair. I may work in some more details, though. Why does Mandy hate Alex? That comes later. Why does she even matter? That comes up next chapter … or sooner if you can guess it.
Dreamgirl101: Wow. How did you get to that conclusion? I reread the chapter, and I don't get it. Where did I hint that Alex was going to be evil? Maybe from his dialogue … but you've got to understand that he's just mad. If someone at school just randomly was mean to you, you'd be pretty pissed too. As to the romance thing, I've already cleared that up. I really don't want to give too much away, but I guess if it bugs people that much, I'll say that Mandy and Alex don't end up together in this story because it just wouldn't fit. Again, Mandy has certain issues with Alex that she's not ready to forgive enough to fall in love with the boy.You'll see why if you keep reading. Oh, and Mandy has absolutely nothing to do with Scorpia. We're on a whole new evil organization now .
THANK YOU ALL!
Chapter FiveMr. Porter's Office
Alex finished his homework so quickly that it surprised him. He really did get ahead in his work. Mrs. Peters and Dr. Evens were right. At the end of the week, Mr. Bray approached Alex congratulating him on his recovery.
"Really," Mr. Bray said, "I'm proud of you, Alex! I don't know how you did it; frankly, I don't care. It seems you not only have improved in your studies, but you've also gotten so far ahead that you could take your GCSE's right now, and I'd bet quite a lot that you'd pass them just fine. Not that I'm supposed to be encouraging gambling, that is."
What made things even better was that Alex now had someone to talk to about his life. Tom, his best friend, now knew that Alex was a spy. Of course, at the first opportunity, Tom asked Alex all sorts of questions. Since Jack hadn't known the real reason Alex had gone to Venice and had assumed that the MI6 had just taken Alex away and got him knocked into a coma, they couldn't discuss this in front of anyone – not even her.
"So what happened?" Tom asked. "Weren't you home free? You had brought a major crime organization down to its knees. In fact, it seems that you took them out for good. Why did you have to stay in hiding all that time?"
Alex sighed. "Because just as I was leaving the MI6 building, I got shot."
"Holy . . . " was Tom's response.
"Yeah," Alex said. "They found out it was some remnant of Scorpia and they got all paranoid. MI6 decided to protect me by stowing me away in some hospital out in the middle of nowhere. I recovered fairly quickly, considering the wound was nearly fatal, but they decided to keep me overtime just to be safe."
"And they told all of us that you got hit by a car," Tom said. "So they don't know that I know?"
"No," Alex said. "Remember, I signed a Secrets Act. I wasn't even supposed to tell you."
"So are they going to leave you alone now, Alex?" Tom asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Was that your last mission, or are they going to make you go on more?" Tom explained. "I think it's cool and everything, how you saved the world, but any more of that . . . will you leave your money to me if you die?"
"Nice, Tom," Alex said.
"Look, I'm just saying. If they get you killed, I swear to God I'm going to become a lawyer and make this sort of bollocks illegal when I grow up."
"Seriously?"
"Honest. I'm doing a lot better at History and English nowadays. Just ask Chris."
Alex smiled. "Brilliant. Does that mean I'll be able to beat you at hurdles now?"
"You wish."
All in all, Alex was quite happy with the way life was going.
There was, however, one dark bit: the way everyone seemed to be so impressed with Mandy Wright.
Whenever he encountered her in school (which was often because she was friends with all of his friends), he tensed up, readying himself for a fight, which usually came and lasted for at least three insults apiece.
Alex had now somewhat resigned to her hating him: he learned to return that hate. He felt that she was trying too hard to make everyone like her. In the back of his mind, Alex knew this wasn't true. Truthfully, Alex would have liked to be her friend – it would make lunchtime a lot more comfortable without having to move and talk to someone else whenever Mandy came near. But the fact remained that after a short time, Alex became very tired of having to see the back of Mandy's strawberry-blonde hair during maths.
It was all fine and dandy whenever she wasn't around, and when no one was talking about her. It was like old times, really. After having no one his age to talk to for months, Alex was really glad to be able to laugh and joke around with his friends.
But whenever that girl came up. It just made Alex mad. Could no one but him see her catty side?
Alex had been talking to Tom, Chris, and David about a new video game and David happened to mention that Mandy had it, but was hopeless with learning how to play it.
"Damn, how are you friends with that – " Alex began.
"Oh," David said. "I forgot that you don't like her. You can't really blame me though: you're the only person I know who doesn't."
"Because she's a – "
"Look," Tom said, interrupting him, "why don't you try and get to know her like a normal person? You'll realize she's not as bad as you think."
Alex sighed. "See, here's the thing: by first impression, no I didn't think she was the spawn of evil. But in the next ten seconds, I came to realize that she was a manipulative – "
"Are you absolutely certain?" Chris asked. Then he thought a moment. "Well, I suppose. She does seem oddly . . . threatening when you're around."
"See?"
"But she's okay when you're not there," David said, trying to be positive.
"EXACTLY!" Alex cried, exasperated. "And I don't understand it! What the bloody hell did I ever do to her?"
"I heard you almost ran her over with your bike once," Chris said.
"But that's not really enough to condemn him to that sort of ill will, now is it?" David added.
"Right," Alex said, nodding. "And she only treats me this way. Not even to people whom we know are ignorant bastards."
"Untrue," Tom said. "She treats them pretty coldly."
"Not to the same negative Celsius degree that she treats me, okay," Alex said. "It's 10 below the point at which water freezes, okay?"
"I don't get it either, Alex," Chris sighed. "I tried talking to her about it – "
"I didn't need you to do that! That's just proving to her that I'm bothered by it!" Alex interrupted.
"But she didn't seem willing to give you a chance," Chris continued, ignoring Alex's outburst. "I wonder why. Your uncle didn't fire her dad at the bank, did he?"
"I doubt very much that her dad knew Ian Rider," Alex said.
Tom nodded.
"Well, I guess this can get filed under the unsolved mystery compartment in my brain," Chris said, "because I'm tired of having this discussion over and over and over . . . "
"And over and over," David continued.
"And over again," Tom finished.
Alex stared at them. "You guys are mental, but whatever. I'm done talking about her too."
Though, oddly enough, a certain word that rhymes with "witch" escaped Alex's mouth at the most random moments, but each of his friends knew exactly who Alex was thinking about.
Alex had been settled at school for a few weeks when he got the call.
The phone rang at around four thirty in the afternoon. Jack answered it and, with her hand covering the mouthpiece, she said, "Alex, it's for you. A Mr. Porter – is he a teacher of yours?"
"Sure," Alex said, walking over to the phone. "Hello?" he said into it.
"Hello, young man," came Mr. Porter's voice in singsong. "And how are you doing this fine afternoon?"
"Mr. Porter," Alex said.
"Yes?"
"It's snowing."
"Right you are, Alex," Mr. Porter said. "It is snowing in London, isn't it? Well, I happen to be somewhere that's sunny. I will be back in the snow in about ten hours, though, if that makes you feel any better."
Alex had no response.
Mr. Porter cleared his throat and continued in a more serious tone. "Which brings me to my point: I'll be in London the day after tomorrow. Fancy a chat?"
"Excuse me?"
"I need to talk to you," Mr. Porter said.
Oh no, Alex thought. "What about?"
"If I told you that," Mr. Porter said, "I'd have to kill you."
Alex grunted.
"The young have no sense of humor nowadays," Mr. Porter said. "Now we can't have you just walk into the bank: we may not know for certain who's watching. However, we have a secondary location where you can go and from there you will be carefully concealed and escorted to MI6 headquarters. You will be informed of that location somewhere between today and our meeting time."
"What if I don't want to go?"
"Then we'll make you," Mr. Porter said. The way he said it sent shivers up Alex's spine. Porter said it so matter-of-factly . . . Alex had a feeling that he would very well make good his threat. In spite of this, Alex retorted just to show that he wasn't intimidated.
"Oh yeah? How?"
Mr. Porter continued, in the same flat voice, "Something that involves the police coming to your school and a video tape of someone who looks very much like you committing armed robbery."
Alex swallowed. So they were going to make him into a felon? Well, at least they weren't threatening to deport Jack. "Fine. What time?"
"Four," Mr. Porter said. There was a click and the line went dead.
Brilliant, Alex thought.
Alex had taken a sort of underground tunnel which was located behind a door in the Victoria tube station that led straight into the MI6 offices of the Royal & General bank. All he had to do was take a retinal scan, a fingerprint check, and punch in the code (which was 007) and he could get into the building pretty invisibly to anyone on the outside who was watching.
But the employees of the so-called bank were watching him from moniters on the inside. Among those who watched Alex enter was Mr. Porter.
His office was a few floors higher than where Alex was used to going. Alex made the mistake of going to Alan Blunt's office and he found it closed.
"Mr. Rider?" a woman in her mid-twenties who looked like an aid of some sort spoke behind Alex.
"Yes?"
"Mr. Porter's office is on the 19th floor," the woman said.
"Oh, right," Alex said. He turned for the elevator and then he remembered … his uncle's office.
It had been a while since Alex had actually looked at the office door. He wondered who worked there now and if they had known Alex's uncle. Alex wondered what had happened to his dead uncle's personal belongings, like the picture frames and the pens. He opened the door and this time, it wasn't locked.
Alex looked around the empty room. He didn't know why he was disappointed, but he was. Sighing, he wondered what his life would be like if his parents hadn't died. Perhaps if traffic to and at Heathrow had been worse, he'd still have his parents. What stroke of luck, or misfortune, had happened to make it possible for Alex to be alive today? Why hadn't Julia Rothman come after Alex after she murdered his parents? Was it because of Ian Rider? Why hadn't Ian Rider ever gotten married? Did he not want to follow in his brother's footsteps?
Eyes slightly moist, Alex resigned himself to never knowing the full story. He walked briskly over to the life and pressed 19.
The elevator dinged dully as Alex stepped out. A man in his late twenties showed Alex to Porter's office and informed him that Porter would arrive shortly. In about five minutes Alex heard the door shut quietly behind him.
"So, Mr. Rider," Porter said tiredly, "For your mission … "
"I'm not doing it," Alex said. "But thank you for the thought. Can I go now?"
"No, you may not go," Porter said. "What makes you think you can refuse this mission? I'm afraid, Alex, that this time you don't have a choice in the matter."
"I'm not going," Alex repeated.
Porter ignored him. Instead he hit an intercom button and said, "Maureen, is she in yet?"
"Yes," a cold female voice came.
"Good," Porter responded. "Send her in."
"I'm not going on this mission," Alex repeated.
The door opened but Alex didn't care.
"You're to be briefed on the situation, Rider," Porter said. "Don't force me to make you listen."
"Porter – ," Alex began.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Porter," said a familiar voice in a tired tone.
Alex turned brusquely to see who had interrupted him and his jaw dropped.
A/N: Guess who just walked onto the scene? Lol, not that that'll be a challenge. This was a sort of useless chapter. I wrote it a long time ago when I was having writer's block. The next one should be so much better, because I've had that one planned out for forever so keep reading! And don't forget to review!