"Mr Blunt, sir…Mrs Jones is on hold…she wants to speak to you." The secretary's voice echoed out of the phone.
"What do you mean? Mrs Jones wants to speak to me"
"Well it's definitely her sir; she won't tell me what she wants though." The new secretary sounded worried, he had hard all about the traitor.
"Put her through." Alan was in no mood for playing games, whatever she wanted she better get to it quick. "Alan Blunt, what is it?"
"Alan, I need to talk to you about Alex! I want to help you!" Mr Blunt was surprised, Ms Jones sounded genuinely distressed.
"Go on."
"He's like a son to me, Alan. I tried to deny it all these years, but all he time I was working for Scorpia.
"you said you would give anything to help Alex; prove it! Hand yourself into us and we will discuss it. If you help us save Alex we will give you full immunity from past crimes and you will be free to go."
"We don't have time for that Alan and you know that!"
"Then I am afraid we have no deal! Good day, Mrs Jones."
This time it was her turn for silence but eventually she decided what her answer was to be. She also knew that Blunt wouldn't have put the phone down.
"Alright."
An hour later, a very different Mrs Jones sat handcuffed t a chair in the interrogation room. Two armed guards stood either side of the doorway and opposite her, on the other side a nailed down table, sat Mr Blunt.
Mrs Jones looked Alan over unflinchingly. She registered the tiredness in his eyes and for the first time ever in the twelve years she had worked with him she saw a slight stubble just emerging on his chin. Alan Blunt was going through a harsh time but he looked back his eyes just as harsh. Mrs Jones was wearing a tight fitting pair of jeans and a t-shirt, very different from her usual suit. It was funny but Blunt had never thought of her as having a life outside of MI6 He had always he imagined her with her tight bun and slim fit pencil skirt, even when she was at home. The new side of Mrs Jones had shocked him and he was unsure how to begin with her. He finally decided to just get straight to it.
"Let's get on with this shall we? How can you help us?"
"I know where Alex is and I know how to get us into there. Their holding him in an abandoned research facility, they have upgraded the security a lot and made it almost impossible to get through. Almost! They needed a way to get out easily if they were attached or found, but it works both ways. We can get in through the underground passageway, according to the map I stole it should come out just outside where they are most likely to be holding Alex."
"Do you have this map?"
It was an hour before Blunt had a full SWAT team assembled. They all stood with a machine gun crossing their chest and the best quality equipment available. Kevlar vests enough to stop a shotgun at close range; communication systems better than at NASA, and a belt containing every grenade and tool known to man (and many more!). Blunt himself was leading the recovery operation. In his day he had been a field officer with the SAS, in fact on the best but he had sworn never to go into the field again. Today he was breaking that promise. He signalled to the men to move forward. They were gathered outside a small entrance. It had led into a tunnel and they had sent a small robot in the size of a fly, Smithers latest invention, on a reconnaissance. It came back showing that the tunnel definitely lead into the building where Alex was being held. However they were still very much aware of the possibility of a trap. They had reached the door at the other end of the tunnel, behind it lay a guard room and then Alex. They were so close now but what if they were too late? Blunt jumped as a Smither's voice came through his earpiece as clear as if h was in the room next to him.
"You need to hurry up in there we have just regained contact with Alex for a second. It's not good; they are going to kill him, something to do with a dawn appointment with death! They about to do it now! Qui…"
Blunt never heard the end of what smithers had to say. His last words were drowned out by a gun going off on the other side of the metal door…A scream…And then silence.
No-one spoke, Blunt was too numb to think. The gunshot echoed in his ears. At the Bank in the holding cell a tear slipped from the corner of Mrs Jones eye only to turn into stream of salty tears rolling down her cheeks, she had heard it all projected into the room through a speaker. Smithers sat, frozen his eyes glazed over as he thought of Alex as a young teenager; smiling, excited at being a spy.
But Alex Rider was dead.