Disclaimer: Everything recognizable belongs to Anthony Horowitz.
Chapter 7
Nobodies POV
"STOP!" Alex Rider yelled so loud that his voice cracked a little.
The man in black that seemed to be the leader motioned for the man that was holding the gun to 'Mr. Mackovic's' head to stop.
"I'll… I'll come with you if you let him live!" Alex shouted at the man.
The front man smirked coolly and said, "Yes, I didn't think you'd turn us down when we were about to kill you adopted big brother in front of you. Drop the gun Alex," he ordered Alex.
Every one in the cafeteria had their eyes glued to Alex to see what he was going to do. "Let Wolf go first," he ordered them in a steely calm voice.
They had all known that there was something up with Alex but they never would have suspected this. They had never even thought to connect Alex's disappearances with what ever big story would be in the news at the time. They all just assumed that Alex's uncle's death had hurt him in more ways than he had first let on. Oh boy were they wrong.
"Very well," The front man said, "Release him!" He ordered the man who was holding 'Mr. Mackovic' or Wolf as Alex called him. That was another thing they didn't understand, Alex appeared to know the man that had been their substitute gym teacher. They knew one thing for certain though, he obviously wasn't a teacher.
The man released Wolf and gave him a swift kick in the gut that caused him to crumple to the floor, clutching his arm that was bleeding profusely from the gun shot in pain.
"Drop the gun Alex," the front man said again in a sickly clam voice.
Every person present (besides the men from Scorpia) watched in horror as Alex released the safety on his gun and dropped it the ground. The gun clattered as it hit the floor and Alex's little group of friends looked at each other in despair. They had wanted to know, more than anything, what was really going on with Alex. But now they would have gladly went on not knowing.
Wolf struggled to get up but he was pushed back down with a kick in the back.
Alex was staring at the place where his gun had landed and didn't see the 2 other men coming up behind him. Blake, Riley, Tom, Ty, Ben, Ky and Dylan tried to call out a warning to him but by that time it was too late. Alex looked over at them when they yelled with an expression that begged them for forgiveness and was pleading with them to not do anything.
The front man's gun hit the back of Alex's skull with a sickening crack and Alex's eyes rolled back as he fell with a thud to the floor.
No one moved, no one made any sound.
Wolf tried to get up again but was again pushed back down with a growl of pain when a boot connected with his injured arm.
"Get the boy," the front man ordered the man standing behind him and he slung Alex unceremoniously over his shoulder, "Leave him," the front man told the man near Wolf who was again aiming his gun at Wolf's head, "We have what we came for," he faced Wolf and said, "Don't come after us or we will be forced to disobey the boy's request," he sneered and motioned for the other 2 men to follow him as he banged out of the cafeteria doors.
For a minute everything was silent as what had just happened was attempted to be digested.
After a moment one of the teachers who had witnessed the scene moved tentatively towards Wolf who was still lying on the floor but had rolled onto his back and had his eyes squeezed shut tightly.
"Sir…" the teacher began tentatively.
"Get away from me," Wolf growled and the teacher back up a few steps. Wolf pulled himself into a sitting position and managed to stand up. His eyes flashed with pain and anger as he walked slowly towards where Alex's gun was lying forgotten on the floor. He picked it up and shoved it into the holster strapped to his side.
"Shit," Wolf growled as he searched his pockets for something that wasn't there. His cold eyes surveyed the room before he called out, "Where is Cub's bag?" He was met with silence. He narrowed his eyes and roared, "Where is Alex's bag?"
Tom raised a tentative hand, "O-over here… sir."
Wolf walked purposefully towards the table Alex had sat at just ½ an hour earlier. Tom quickly pointed to Alex's vacated seat as Wolf approached.
Wolf reached a bloody hand under the table and grabbed Alex's bag. He searched through the pockets until he found what he was looking for; he pulled out a cell phone and flipped it open. His fingers, wet with blood, slipped over the buttons as he punched in a number.
"Get me Blunt and Jones, now," he growled into the phone. There was a pause, "NOW!" Wolf roared venomously at whoever was unfortunate enough to answer the phone call. "You incompetent fool!" Wolf roared as he stalked back to the center isle, "Put them on the line right now or so help me…" there was another pause and it looked as if Wolf had been connected, "Scorpia came," those close to Wolf could here urgent voices on the other end off the phone. After a very brief conversation Wolf snapped the phone shut and shoved it into one of the pockets in his jeans.
The doors to the cafeteria burst open and Wolf had his gun up in a flash but he lowered it when he saw it was only Mr. Burk and Mr. Davis.
"Is everyone okay?" Mr. Burk asked nervously and his widened as they fell o n Wolf, who was still holding the gun and his arm was covered in blood, "Mr. Mackovic?" He said slowly, "What…"
"Okay first I'm not the 'Mr. Mackovic' you think I am, I'm not a teacher." It was again silent as this revelation, even though most people already knew that, "I work for MI6, I was sent to protect…"
"Mr. Rider!" Mr. Davis exclaimed and looked around the room quickly, as if trying to find the boy.
"He's not here," Wolf growled.
"What do you mean he's not here?" Mr. Davis asked hysterically.
"Scorpia came and took him."
"Why didn't you do anything? You said you were here to protect him!" Mr. Burk exclaimed.
Wolf growled and started to lift his arm but dropped it with a hiss of pain. He slowly took of his blood soaked sweatshirt with his mouth clenched in pain. Under the sweatshirt he was wearing a black t-shirt that somehow emphasized his broad shoulders and well defined chest. His right arm was covered in blood. The bullet had hit his upper arm and though the flow of blood had diminished slightly in was still bleeding.
Some people cringed at the sight of all the blood, however when Wolf looked down at his arm a small smile lifted the corners of his lips and he softly said, "I've been shot for Cub twice now, he owes me."
Mr. Burk and Mr. Davis exchange looks that clearly said, 'Is this man entirely sane?' when the cafeteria doors burst open again. This time Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones came through with 5 SAS men in their wake. The 5 men all took in Wolf standing there with his arm dripping blood in shock. They had all, at one time or another, trained with Wolf and they respected him and saw his as a great and strong leader.
"What happened?" Blunt demanded with an expressionless mask on his face.
"Scorpia came; I got here as soon as I could. There were 3 of them, one shot me. He was about to kill me but- but Alex told him that if he let me… let me live he would go with them."
"Foolish boy," Blunt said softly as he shook his head sadly.
"He may not always think things out but he is not foolish," Mrs. Jones spoke respectfully of Alex, "He's brave."
"We have to find him!" Wolf said urgently.
"We will," Mrs. Jones said confidently, "But we can't do anything with your arm like that," she looked around, "Can you not see someone's hurt?" she asked incredulously as everyone stared at them, "Water! Get some water!"
The kitchen staff quickly scurried into the kitchen and brought out a container of water and a few dish towels. They approached Mrs. Jones cautiously and they set the water and towels on a table that was unoccupied before scurrying back to where they were before.
"Sit," she ordered Wolf and he quickly sat on the bench she pointed to. Mrs. Jones dipped one of towels into the water and went to work cleaning the blood from Wolf's arm and he hissed in pain when the water came in contact with the wound and clenched his fist. When as much blood as possible had been removed Mrs. Jones tied a towel tightly around Wolf's arm in an attempt to slow the bleeding, "It will need medical attention but should be okay for now. Luckily the bullet missed any arteries."
Blunt seemed to be deep in thought but came out of it and said, "Mr. Burk, Mr. Davis," in a voice that was commanding them to come forward.
The 2 men stepped forward hesitantly and said, "Sir?"
"Get everyone to the auditorium immediately!" He told them and exited the cafeteria with Mrs. Jones, Wolf and the SAS men close behind him.
Once they made it to the auditorium they all walked briskly down the isles to the stage.
"What are we going to tell them Alan?" Mrs. Jones asked Blunt thoughtfully.
"The truth, there's no other way. A lot of them saw what just happened between Alex and Scorpia, though we don't know what was said we can assume that Scorpia told them about Alex," Blunt answered and he set a black laptop bag on the stage and went to work on setting it up, "We can get them to all sign the Official Secrets Act. But right now our main concern is finding where Alex is."
Their conversation ceased as students began filing onto the auditorium and finding seats. Finally Mr. Burk and Mr. Davis entered. Mr. Davis approached Mr. Blunt and said, "Everyone's here sir," Blunt nodded and Mr. Davis quickly retreated back to where Mr. Burk was standing at the back of the auditorium.
Blunt motioned for Wolf to continue the work on the laptop when as he faced the students with Mrs. Jones. Blunt began, "We are from MI6," there were some shocked looks and whispers as those who hadn't been in the cafeteria wondered why the British Military Intelligences would be been in their school. "We are going to tell you why your school was, in a sense, attacked this morning." He paused momentarily and glanced at Mrs. Jones before continuing, "I'm sure most of you know Alex Rider?"
There was silence as the school waited in silence, some of them excited, hoping that they would find out Alex's 'secret'. Those who already knew stayed quiet or looked down at their hands.
Mrs. Jones continued, "Alex… works for us, as a spy," there were shocked gasps; no one would have thought this was what Alex had been doing. "He's one of our most brilliant and successful agents, you may have heard of some of what he has done, The Storm Breaker computers and Herold Sayle? Point Blanc Academy? General Alexei Sarov? Damian Cray?" Shocked murmurs rippled through the room as the whole student body of Brookland Prep finally put together all of the pieces that were the mystery of Alex Rider.
Blunt picked it up, "Over the summer Alex got involved with the terrorist organization, Scorpia. Alex managed to foil the attacks that were to take place on London but Scorpia does not forgive. If you ruin their plans or get in their way they will… dispose of you. They came after Alex; it was a miracle he survived, that the shot barely missed his heart. We kept him away a bit longer than necessary to try and convince Scorpia he was dead. We eventually had to send him back but with Scorpia looking for him we couldn't send him in without a form of protection. That is why he had the gun."
Finally people started to understand. But they were still shocked. They thought about how much he had been through. He was the same age or younger than everyone present in the auditorium and yet it seemed as though he was much older, in all that he had accomplished and been through.
"Alex was in training for the month of January and when we sent him back we felt it best to do so with a…" Mrs. Jones trailed off looking for the right words to use.
With his back still turned Wolf said, "I don't care what you call me but I am not a babysitter."
Mrs. Jones shook her head amusedly and continued, "Well we sent another one of our highly skilled operatives to make sure everything was as it should be. He was sent in as a teacher, many of you may have had him, Mr. Mackovic," Mrs. Jones pointed to Wolf's back but he was watching the computer screen intently and if he heard her he gave no indication.
There were more shocked whispers as the students who had had Wolf for gym whispered to one another.
"Today Scorpia came to your school to get Alex. Mr. Mackovic, as you know him, came to help but was injured in the process," Blunt indicated to Wolf's arm where blood was soaking through the make-shift bandage Mrs. Jones had applied. Again Wolf gave no indication he had heard them and he began punching things into the laptop at an extremely fast rate.
"From what we have been able to gather, Alex willing gave up his freedom and his life so another could live. We will do everything and anything possible to find Alex and get him back. We…" Mrs. Jones was cut of when Wolf exclaimed,
"I found him!"
Blunt and Mrs. Jones immediately rushed to Wolf's side and studied the laptops screen. It appeared that Alex was in a cell in the inside of Scorpia. Mrs. Jones breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Alex was still very much alive.
The breath, however, was sucked back in as the rest of the laptops information was studied.
Alex was not alone…
In the cells surrounding Alex there were 9 other dots…
Each dot symbolized a person…
A person that was being held by Scorpia…
Out of the 9 dots 2 had names above them…
Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones looked at each in surprise and shock and they read the names… over and over and over again.
"It's not possible…" Mrs. Jones whispered slightly fearfully.
"The trackers never lie..." Blunt said in a hoarse voice.
Wolf was equally as shocked as he took in what the screen had to offer.
Those names…
Names that hadn't been seen in years…
Was it… possible?
&
Alex's POV
I opened my eyes slowly when I felt my body being jostled around roughly.
"Ah Mr. Rider, you're awake," a cold voice said to me in disdain.
I looked around and saw that I was in some kind of office, there was a man sitting behind the desk. When he saw me looking at him an ugly sneer spread across his features. I saw armed guards standing behind me and in front of the doors.
That's when I remembered, Scorpia came to my school. They told them all about me. They hurt Wolf. I let them take me…
"What do you want with me?" I said through gritted teeth.
"It's quite simple Mr. Rider," the cold voice told me, "Revenge. You fucked up all our carefully laid out plans. You killed many of our operatives, including 2 of the most influential figures in Scorpia. You ruined what we had worked so hard to achieve, and for that you will pay… gravely."
"So kill me and get it over with," I spat at the man.
The man chuckled a cold, merciful laugh that sent shivers up my spine, "Death is too good for you. Granted, we will kill you eventually but it will be a slow and painful death. We will see how many of our different methods of torture you will be able to endure before you go insane. We will keep you alive until we have no further use for you."
I kept my face blank and in a perfect example of not keeping my mouth shut I said, "Listening to you talk isn't enough punishment?"
I felt the sharp muzzle of a gun slam into the center of my back and I groaned.
"Don't be impudent boy!" the man yelled at me, "You can either do things the easy way or you can do them the hard way. Now get him out of my sight!" He spat at the guards.
I was roughly seized by 2 of the guards and they exited the room. I struggle against them as they took me down hallways and finally down a stair well. We entered what I'm assuming was the 'dungeon', well the place where they kept 'prisoners' but in all truth it looked like a dungeon.
It was dark and dank. A few scarce rays of sunlight shown threw miniscule windows here and there but they didn't provide anywhere near enough light to see well by. There was a gray concrete isle leading down the center of 2 rows of cells. The cells varied in size and were surrounded by thick metal bars that were spaced so I doubted I could even fit a hand threw. Each cell was about 4 feet apart from another. The back wall was made from brick and there was a rotting wooden bench attached to it.
"Well this is certainly homey," I told the guards sarcastically.
"Shut up boy," one of them said and hit the back of my head rather hard. I groaned because that was where the gun had hit me earlier. I was going to have a killer headache in the morning.
I noticed that some of the cells were occupied but I paid them no heed. "I can walk you know," I told the guards as I struggled against their strong grips but my attempts were in vain as I felt them just hold on to me tighter.
"I said shut up boy!" the guard told me again.
"You know I have a name…"
"I don't care if you're the queen now shut your mouth!"
They stopped in front of an empty cell and one of the guards pulled out a key and unlocked to cell's door. The door creaked loudly as it was opened. "I see you're not exactly up to date on home furnishings," I began in another attempt to annoy the guards, "You should check out Martha Stewart…"
I stopped as I felt them throw me forward into the cell. I hit the cold, concrete floor with a thud and the last thing I heard was the guards mocking laughter before I was suffocated in black for the second time that day.
&
The next day
I woke up to birds chirping and the sun shinning… not.
Actually I woke to a voice inside my head… my first thoughts were I'm either schizophrenic or I died. The voice sounded familiar and my eyes flew open (not that it did any good since it was so dark) as I recognized the voice. Oh no, I went to hell.
I groaned.
"Alex? Alex?" Blunt's persistent voice echoed around my head and I growled in pain and clutched my head as it did nothing to sooth my splitting headache.
"Alex?" This was Mrs. Jones's much softer voice and I remember the practically miniscule earpiece that was in my ear the allowed them to talk to me and me to talk to them.
"What?" I groaned and sat upright but groaned again as my head started to pound more than before.
"Oh good you're awake! Are you okay?" Mrs. Jones asked.
Why does everyone always ask you if you're okay when you are clearly not? "I'll survive."
"We are working on pinpointing your exact location," Blunt told me.
"That's good."
"Alex can you… is there anyone else around you?" Mrs. Jones asked… nervously?
I sighed, "I don't know, I think so," I said as I remembered seeing the blurry outlines of 'people' last night.
"Can you see who they are?"
"No it's too dark, I can't see anything. Would you like me to ask them who they are?" I added as an after thought.
Blunt quickly said, "No no that's okay."
"Is Wolf okay?" I asked suddenly as I remembered about him.
"I'm doing better than you," Wolf's deep voice responded.
"I'm not the one that got shot."
"I'm not the one locked up," Wolf retorted.
"You 2 are just like little children, always bickering!" Mrs. Jones reprimanded us.
"Well Alex just hang in there, we'll think of a way to get you out," Blunt told me.
"Okay."
"We don't know how much longer we'll have contact with you so just know that," Mrs. Jones said.
"Okay," I said again.
"Be careful Alex," Mrs. Jones told me before I heard the earpiece go dead and sighed.
I crawled in the direction I thought was the front of the cell and looked around. I strained my eyes against the darkness but my attempts were futile as I could only make out the outlines of what I believed were people. I sighed and sank backwards.
"Alex?" I sat straight up as I heard a voice say my name.
I knew that voice, "Jack?" I said in disbelief.
"Oh Alex I'm so glad to see you!" She exclaimed and it sounded as if she were crying.
"Jack I'm so sorry, this is all my fault."
"Alex I…" but she was silenced when the guard that was walking down the isle gave her a swift kick. I heard Jack give a yelp of pain and saw the dark shape that was her sink back against the wall.
"Be quiet girl," the guard continued down the isle and stopped in front of my stall. I heard the key slide into the lock and the lock 'click' open. The door creaked open and the guard sneered at me, "Let's see if you will survive the first leg of your torture Rider," as he grabbed my arm and hauled me up. He shoved me out the door and I felt eyes on me and thought I heard a gasp but I ignored everything as the guard grabbed the back of my shirt and forced me down the hall.
I blinked rapidly when the bright sunlight hit my eyes, blinding me momentarily. When my eyesight cleared I found myself in a large room facing a group of about 50 people who were all staring at me, none too nicely.
I was shoved to the middle of the room and forced onto my knees.
The crowd laughed at my expense and I saw the man I had talked to yesterday approach me.
I stared forward determinably and awaited the torture I knew was coming…
&
Author Note:
Not my longest or best chapter but I hope you like it! Review!
Missmeliss4251: Thank you for the review! That's awesome just downloaded the 'Dirty Little Secret' video for my iPod!
Deniche: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you think so highly of my writing and my story! I'm guessing you speak Spanish? Lol, I take Spanish in school and… well it's not going very good!
xkristy101: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you like my story!
Lil Lupin: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you like the chapter! I loved writing that chapter!
jumanji: Lol poor Alex is right! I'm glad you're enjoying my story! Thanks for the review!
sophiajisu: His friends are pretty annoying aren't they? Lol I'd probably explode at them Lol. Thank you for the review! This chapter has many little hints as to the event that will change Alex's life and in chapter 6 when 'mystery guy' was talking there was 1.
