To Kill A Mockingjay and I are organizing what will hopefully become the annual Alex Rider Fanfiction Awards. Check it out here: forum. fanfiction .net/forum/The_Royal_General_Bank/93073/ . Nominations are open and will be until November 1.

13

"Eagle, are you sure you'll be able to do this? If you're not going to be able to focus, we'll leave you here."

Neal shot Ben a scathing look. "It's been two days. Who knows what kind of hell they've put her through? I'm coming."

Blue eyes studied the soldier's face, taking in and disregarding the bandages still wrapped around his head. He sighed. "Alright. Just don't do anything stupid. Alex would never forgive either of us if anything happened to you."

Neal snorted slightly, turning away. "She'd have to be alive first," he muttered bitterly.

Neal yelped in surprised pain when his shoulder was grabbed and he was shoved against the wall, his head bouncing off of it. He stared at Ben in surprise as the spy fisted his hands in the other brunet's collar.

"Do not talk like that. Do not give up on her."

"C'mon, Fox, what are the odds she's still alive?" Neal scoffed, doing his best to hide how much that thought pained him.

"It doesn't matter. You can't give up on her. You've seen her, you know how she is. You think she isn't doing her damnedest to get out? I pulled strings to make sure you and Wolf and Snake could come - hell, so I could! Are you going to tell me that it was a mistake?" he hissed.

Hazel eyes blinked then dropped. "No... But how can you be so sure?"

Ben sighed again, letting go of his friend and stepping back. "I know Alex. I know a bit more about her than you do and it's because of that knowledge that I can be so sure." He ran a hand through his hair. "And no, I won't tell you. It's her place to. I do know that she hasn't told you yet because she's afraid of what you'll think, of how you're going to react."

"About what?"

Ben shook his head. "I've said too much as it is." He turned toward the opening door.

"Ben," Neal started, reaching for his shoulder.

"No." Ben shook his head. "It's Alex's secret, not mine. Just... Promise me you'll listen to her?"

Neal looked at him for several seconds then nodded. "Alright." He turned toward where Wolf was stood.

"We're moving out now."

Alex groaned softly, swimming her way back into awareness. Her head throbbed in time with her pulse, her joints ached, and her wrists were rubbed raw and bloody. What the hell had happened?

Oh yeah. They had been using electricity to torture her for information on something she had no idea about.

From what she had managed to gather so far, this group was doing something with drugs or weapons or human trafficking or some combination thereof - they had been talking a lot, the idiots. They might even be affiliated with those guys who had kidnapped Tom. Apparently, one of the men in the group had been training at Malagosto while she had been there and recognized her in the park, somehow. For once, her reputation had prevented her from being shot at immediately. They wanted to know what she knew and had dropped a remote detonated bomb into a trash bin not too far from where she and Neal had been.

Neal. A flash of sadness quickly stifled by anger went through her. They had killed him and she was going to make them pay. Her two years of retirement had let people forget just what she was capable of and she had every intention of reeducating them; she may not have used most of training from Scorpia, but that didn't mean she had forgotten it either. And when she was done here, then she was going after everyone these idiots associated with. No sense in putting it off - she had already done similar and look at where it got her, or rather what it had made her lose, who it was she had lost. She'd give them reason to fear her again.

As soon as she could get herself free that is. One more bout of torture should do it, if this last one hadn't.

She lifted her head from where it rested against her shoulder and looked around, taking in how she was alone this time. Small favors, she thought irritably. Waiting to be tortured sucks. I'd rather just have it done with. She tugged at the ropes around her wrists, feeling how they slid around, slick with her own blood. Well, I may not need to wait around.

Getting one hand free, Alex made quick work of the rest of her restraints, ignoring how her muscles twitched and contracted painfully. She pushed to her feet, casting her eyes over the junk littered around the room, and grabbed the knife they had used to cut into her arms and legs and stomach, its blade slightly curved, her blood dried along its edge.

Alex padded over to the door on bare feet. They had taken her boots earlier, not happy with the amount of damage she could do with them - that was when they had wised up and tied her ankles - and there wasn't much point in leaving her socks on, she'd be more likely to slip wearing them. She tried the knob, rolling her eyes when it turned easily in her hand. Either she was being underestimated the same way as she had used to be or they really had managed to forget the way she derailed plans half-accidentally. Well, this time, it wouldn't be on accident.

Easing the door open a bit, she peered into the hall before slipping out herself. The first person she came across, she recognized as one of the group who had taken Tom. Why the hell wasn't he in jail?

Alex sneaked up behind the man, catching him off guard as he turned the corner. Before he could do or say anything, the knife she held flashed in the light, cutting through stubble and skin and sinew, scraping against bone.

Leaving the mess behind her, Alex continued down the hall.