Thanx to Remussweetie, uranium and closetwriter for reviewing! Sorry I didn't mention you before! Closetwriter … sorry about the cliffhangers but I just lurrrrrrve them!

Chapter 3 KSR Headquarters

Alex was mystified.

He was no fool. From the very beginning he'd known that the KSR wasn't just a simple spy ring. No normal spying agency would send agents off to research the theft of a few school computers. But he didn't know all that much about crime levels in Kentucky. Perhaps they just wanted to give their budding agents something to do.

But why on earth had they sent someone to check up on him in the middle of the night?

It was obvious the mysterious black-clad figure had not got there by accident. It was also obvious that he had not been given the room with the easily accessible balcony by accident either. The whole thing had been planned meticulously. The room had been picked especially because of the chestnut tree. Perhaps all of KSR's more mysterious clients stayed there so they could be 'checked on'.

The man had not been armed, nor had he been there to steal anything of Alex's. He'd been there for only one thing – to make sure Alex Rider was safely in bed and asleep.

Right?

Alex had not slept well that night. He'd shut and locked the window and door and closed the curtains. The room had become unbearably hot and he'd woken several times sweating and tossing in his bed. By half-past six he gave up trying to sleep and opened the curtains to a bright new morning.

Lacey had knocked on the door of his suite at half-past eight.

'I'm not ready to leave yet,' Alex said frostily, glaring at the KSR badge on her chest.

'Stop eyeing me up,' Lacey spat back.

'I'm not,' Alex said, switching his gaze forward and swinging his rucksack onto his shoulders. He shut the door behind him and locked it. 'You're going to have to stay here for a while. Because I'm going downstairs to talk to the manager.'

'Why?' Lacey demanded, following him. She stepped purposefully on the back of his trainers. He turned and glared at her.

'Because I need to change rooms.'

He watched her carefully, and was disappointed by the reaction. She just looked suitably surprised. He had a feeling that Lacey hadn't known about the night-time visitor either.

'Why's that?'

'Never you mind.'

'I mind,' she said. 'Because I'm representing my agency –' here she spat bitterly onto the polished linoleum of the floor '– and it's up to me to make sure you're comfortable.'

Alex ignored her and knocked on the door of the manager's office. After an uncomfortable interview with the manager, he succeeded in getting a room on the fourth floor, a lot higher than any chestnut tree could reach.

'May I inquire as to why you feel the necessity to change rooms, sir?'

Alex hesitated. Lacey was watching him closely.

'The smell from the fast-food place is driving me nuts,' he decided. 'Every hour of the day and night the room stinks of fatty chips. I lead a healthy diet and I despise having to smell the sort of crap most people eat.'

The manager put him down as a snobby English schoolboy and let him get on with it. Lacey, on the other hand, was harder to get rid of. All the way to the KSR Headquarters she pestered him.

'For God's sake, Alex. You can't smell the McDonalds' from there. You're being completely hypocritical – about this whole 'obese nation' thing. Grow up.'

'I don't like it,' Alex said. 'Fatty foods make me feel sick. I can practically hear the sizzling of the frying pans from that room. Right into the night.'

'You're a moron.'

He ignored this and the two of them progressed into the HQ. Lacey led him into a wide, empty lecture room and told him to sit down while she fetched somebody.

Alex reached into his bag and took out a magazine. He sat down on one of the chairs and from behind the magazine he scanned the room with the CD player.

There were two bugging devices and a pinhole camera. Understandable. It was, after all, a spying agency.

There was also another electrical device that Alex could not work out. On the screen of the CD player it appeared as a blinking red square. Around the room, there was a continual line of them, set deep into the wall.

Alex put the CD player away and turned to examine the wall behind him. Then he moved out of the line of vision of the camera and ran his fingers over the raised wallpaper.

There was nothing to see. Whatever they were, the wallpaper covered them completely.

A door at the far end of the room opened and Alex jumped. He kicked back on his heels and pretended to be examining the wall in deep boredom from a distance. Lacey came into the room, followed by a tall, well-shaped woman in a tight black suit.

'Hey, Alexander,' Lacey called, smirking.

Alex gave her a vague, uninterested smile.

'I'm Faith Cartwright,' the woman said. She held out a hand. Alex noticed that her nails were long and painted a deep, rich purple that clashed with the dark suit.

'I'm Alex Rider.'

'I know that,' she said, with a half-smile. 'Well, we'd better get to work. You know all there is to know, I presume.'

'Not really,' Alex said. 'Why are you getting involved in the case? Why not leave it to the police force?'

'The police force in Kentucky is notoriously bad,' Faith said smoothly. 'Besides, we need to give our rising star here some practice.' She touched Lacey on the shoulder. Lacey winced. 'Anyway, Mr Rider, I presume you know why you're here? Not to criticize our workings but to offer some protection to Miss Anders. She needs to work – but she needs to work safely… and I'm afraid the police force has insisted that we give her some back-up before they'll allow her to do any sort of field work.'

'Sure,' Alex said. He was beginning to feel like a tin can tied to the tail of a particularly over-active dog.

Faith clicked her fingers and a woman entered the room. She was carrying a set of uniform-type clothing over her arms.

'This is the Rosary School uniform,' Faith said. 'Mr Rider, you've been issued with the regulation school trousers and blazer … Miss Anders, you have a skirt.'

'A skirt,' Lacey repeated. 'In my school there never was any uniform.'

'This is a boarding school.'

Alex caught the uniform that was thrust unceremoniously into his arms. 'I take it we're boarding?'

'That's right, Mr Rider. The two of you have been issued rooms. You will be given a set of clothing to wear after school hours.'

'I already have stuff.'

'You're posing as Joshua Rider, a young man interested in following medicine and chemistry. Therefore you will be given suitable clothing.'

'One more thing,' Alex said. 'Why are we going undercover?'

'Practice, Mr Rider. Practice makes perfect.'

The woman left the room unsmilingly. Faith glanced at the two of them with an expression bordering on suspicion on her face, and then followed. Lacey and Alex looked at each other.

'Do you know why we're going undercover?' Alex asked her. 'It seems a bit pointless.'

'Not a clue,' Lacey said wearily, and Alex thought she sounded more human than she ever had before.