Built for Espionage: Chapter Seven
'Alex since you're not going to school right now, are you doing any study to make sure you don't fall behind?' Proposed Ben, the question gaining a groan from surprisingly both Cub and Wolf. Eagle and Snake didn't even seem to really care about the question both continuing in the kitchen where Eagle had nearly finished making cupcakes.
'Uh I guess, I mean I don't imagine I'll be going back to school anymore. MI6 will make sure of that' Frowned Alex the child spy having taken up a seat on the floor of the lounge room and had been texting on his phone, an ongoing war-conversation between he and Tom. Ben dropped a pillow on Alex, causing the boy to look away from his messages and watch the SAS and MI6 agent carefully.
'Did you bring any of your school books with you?' Alex felt like glaring at the soldier before him, Wolf had even raised an eyebrow at the engagement between the two. Another silent conversation between the two, much like they had done when they had met up again at the Royal & General Bank.
'God stop fathering the kid Fox' Called Snake from the kitchen as he pushed a tray of strangely coloured cupcakes while Eagle leant against the breakfast bar and watched the exchange between the teenager and disapproving father. Eagle frowned at Snake's comment, clearly unset to see his entertainment end.
Alex followed Wolf's tactics and raised an eyebrow, Ben fathering him? To be honest that fit in perfectly with his life, an SAS and MI6 agent as his make-shift father, sounds like Alex Rider's life.
'Sitting around, waiting to be kidnapped or killed. This is going to be the best week ever' He said sarcasm dripping from his tone as he groaned before starting off towards his room, climbing the stairs only to hear Eagle snickering behind him in the kitchen.
'I'm calling my sister, I'll be back later' Called Wolf as he followed Cub up the stairs, instead going to stop Alex before the young spy could go into his room. Alex cast him a confused and apprehensive look before taking a step away from his room, allowing Wolf to talk.
'Why do you get up so early?' Seriously the man cornered him in private so he could ask… why he got up early? His expression showed Wolf his regard to the question, clearly expecting something different. Just to see how the SAS leader would react Alex wanted to say classified, but he watched Wolf's own expression morph in a way that told him if he dared to say classified the people hunting him would look like angels.
'I just do, early raiser it's a good routine' Wolf nodded sarcastically before looking back down to the shorter with an unimpressed look, easily spelling out that he didn't believe him.
'I'm not lying'
'Sure, you're not' Then Wolf turned to his own room and disappeared inside, Alex stood outside his room for another minute before doing the same, ignoring the laughing and sweet smell of baked goods coming from downstairs. He could hear the complain that Wolf shouted, something about a broken phone. Then what followed was Wolf using his Bluetooth speaker so he could hear whoever who on the other line.
Alex meanwhile spent the first total of five minutes trying to work on his maths homework. In the end he switched to searching around his room for any secret bugs or cameras. Fortunately, he didn't find any, otherwise MI6 would know that he had spoken with Yassen, a person they apparently were trying to protect him from.
It wasn't till quarter to six that the sun began to set, the colours broadcasting on his bedrooms blinds. He had been told off multiply times throughout his second day at his "safe house" for even thinking about touching the blinds, every time he would enter a room one of the K-unit soldiers would quickly and swiftly close the blind before he could even get close.
He hated it, but they were good at their job.
He looked around his room once again, a cupboard, bed and not much else. His duffel was sitting in front of his bed nearly untouched, he didn't plan to unpack. Then there was his backpack, full of every secretly kept gadget and mementos from his home, a place that would probably never get to return to.
It was when he heard a sudden yell that he jumped from his bed, accidentally causing his untouched mathematics text book to fall to the ground. It gave a thump, but he didn't really notice, Eagle had probably burnt himself in the kitchen, or maybe Ben had hit him for trying to make dinner.
He walked to his bedroom door, having grown bored of his room hours ago. He opened the door freely, stopping instantly when he heard the commotion in Wolf's room and the continued shouts coming from downstairs. Quickly he ran to his backpack, grabbing the black flip phone before his sock clad feet returned to his door.
Carefully he began to peek outside his room before instantly stopping, leaving the door enough closed that someone couldn't see in, but he could see out. Two men shoved Wolf out of his room, the SAS leader having his hands restrained behind his back. Alex resisted the urge to dash out of his room, the were obviously under attack. Probably by the people who wanted him.
Still he let Ben and the rest of K-unit's lecturing echo through his head as he waited till they had descended the stairs before acting. Remembering faintly the hour when he and 'his protectors' had to understand the assignment. Understand what they were to do if Alex did come to harm, if he was hurt, kidnapped, killed, made a hostage. Everything was covered and he had received a lecture that would last a life time and probably longer.
He cautiously stood in the empty hallway, standing beside Wolf's bedroom door in case anyone returned to the second floor. He could hear voices on the first floor, along with shouts of K-unit.
Over the commotion of downstairs, he was only just able to jump into Wolf's room when the two men he first spotted returned upstairs, either looking for him or making sure the house was clear. The men ignored the room they ripped Wolf from and began searching the other three bedrooms and bathroom upstairs.
'No sign of the target in here Muller' One called as he left Eagle's room while the other man came out of Fox's room.
'Check the last bedroom Walsh, I'll double check the leader's room and bathroom' Said- who Alex had determined was Muller as Walsh went into his bedroom, while Muller made his way into the bathroom. Alex quickly whipped around, he had less than a minute before Muller would be in Wolf's bedroom.
He either needs to take this opportunity to take the man down or listen to K-unit and hide and escape safety. He groaned as he already knew what he was going to do.
'Sorry Ben'
Quickly to searched the room for anything he could use, Wolf's metal Bluetooth speaker was resting on the bedside table, still turned on but the call having ended. Quickly to grabbed it, testing the weight before he went to the second most obvious place to hide.
He had already hidden under a bed, now was for the next most obvious. He only just made it before the door opened and Muller walked in, alone. Perfect. Muller approached the bed, the door slowly and without creaking began to close. Alex moved from his spot as Muller had his back to the teen spy.
Muller on hands and knees looked beneath the bed, he moved quickly already going to climb back to his feet. But Alex acted quickly, swinging the Bluetooth speaker at the man's head. Muller gave out a low grunt before falling back to the floor, narrowly missing hitting his bed on the bedside table.
Alex gave out a sigh before checking the man's pulse and moving back to look out the door. He didn't make it before Walsh walked into the room, looking for his team mate. The adult's eyes fell onto his target and before he could even call out to his team downstairs, Alex spun around and delivered a swift kick to the man's side, effectively knocking him to the ground.
Walsh collapsed to the floor while Alex hoped the man would have fallen unconscious. The teen spy quickly moved to ensure Walsh was out, straddling the man and noticing the uneven breathing that began to level out.
Now though he had another problem, when Walsh had fallen, he had made a rather loud thud, hopefully no one downstairs had heard. He checked the hall before moving towards the stairs, his senses driving him crazy with the adrenaline coursing through him.
He waited a few minutes before determining they had either left or were in Snake's room or outside. He carefully walked down the stairs, his eyes landing in the lounge room where he spotted Eagle and Snake, both restrained with handcuffs and a single piece of duct tape across their mouths.
Snake spotted him as well, both knowing not to say a thing. Alex warily made his way closer to the SAS soldiers, he may have knocked out two of the men, but he didn't know if there were more as he believed and where Fox and Wolf were. He made it to the couch before he heard shouting from the dining room. Being behind the kitchen, it was nearly the farthest room from the lounge room, but he could still make out Wolf's voice as he seemed to be arguing with the other intruders.
Knowing where the attackers were made his job much easier. Keeping his eyes trained in the direction of the dining room he made it to Snake's side, ripping off the duct tape across the soldier's mouth before doing the same to Eagle.
'Alex you get out of here right now, they're looking for you, they don't care for us' Ordered Eagle the man always seemed to have two personalities, the jokester or K-unit soldier. When the sniper was on a mission or in a battlefield he controlled his personnel to someone who could handle the environment better.
'Where's Fox?' Ignoring the order to leave and looking between the two, he couldn't unlock the handcuffs that were not only around their wrist, but ankles too, which meant escaping without drawing attention to them would be impossible.
'Don't know, don't have time to care. Alex listen to Eagle, get out of here right now' Another order to ignore from the SAS soldiers, he turned instead to survey the room, trying to remember where he had seen something to get free of the hand cuffs.
As cliché as it was, his eyes fell on a small bowl that held hair ties, keys and finally a few bobby pins. Carefully he made his way to the bowl, watching for any movement from the dining room as he grabbed two bobby pins. As he crept his way back to the lounge room he worked on taking off the rubber on the ends before bending them into "L" shapes.
However, as he made it but to Snake's side, the voice grew louder and before he could act there were two men running into the lounge room. Both men instantly spotting the out-of-place teenage boy standing over two SAS agents with a bobby pin.
'Found him' Called one of the men as another two emerged from the dining room, no sigh of Wolf though. Four men now stood before the fourteen-year-old, who discretely dropped the bobby pin next to Snake before moving away from the SAS men, effectively drawing the four men's attention away from them.
'Alex you're coming with us okay, we're not here to kill you just have someone who really needs to meet you' started one of the men, two of the four were armed with rifles while the other two had dagger sized blades strapped to their thighs. Alex could see that if the men came at him right now, they would probably win, the room was filled with obstacles and they also had three hostages. But still as he watched the men, he couldn't help but feel they weren't that well trained, after all two of their team had fallen for a simple in the book attack. He let his body take on a fighting stance, edging himself with his back to the staircase, ensuring that he could focus on his two focus points, the four men and Snake and Eagle.
The two SAS agents had gone quiet, he chanced a glance to check on them, only to find the two men slumped on the ground. He snapped his eyes back to the men.
'All of them have been drugged kid, along with the other agent outside.' He adjusted his stance, the back of his foot coming into contact with the first step of the stairs, he may have backed himself into a corner. Still he glared at the men, four of them and he had a whole house at his disposal.
'Are you sure you want to do that Alex, you may believe us to be amateurs, I promise you we are not' Said the same man as last time, however as the men began to move forward, they stopped. Alex felt himself involuntary gave a flinch, he expected an attack, yet they stopped, one even smirked at him.
Maybe they had been called off or weren't meant to fight him. But why? He found only six agents, four in front of him and two unconscious… upstairs. He didn't turn around quick enough before two arms restrained his arms behind his back, two of the other four men came to him, passing a pair of cuffs to the man behind him as he struggled.
He fought against the three men, noticing the man behind him to be the one he had only kicked, clearly, he wasn't strong enough. Finally, tired of his struggling two of the men pushed him roughly into the wall, causing his head not only to hit the solid hard wall, but also for him stop long enough for the cuffs to be wrapped tightly around his wrist.
'See this could have been a hell of a lot easier if you hadn't struggled' One of the men whispered into his ear, coming far too close for comfort as he also patted Alex's cheek and walked towards the other team. Walsh who had been holding him tightly by the arm shoved him forward, the teen spy stumbling and nearly falling before being 'caught' by one of the four men.
'I'm going to help Muller, the brat knocked him out' Walsh said before climbing the stairs and disappearing from view. Alex glanced around him, still working on escaping the men who definitely weren't Scorpia.
So, who are they?
A single woman made her way confidently down the corridor, she had nothing to fear within these walls after all. For her profession, a man's world, yet she held a job above most others. To be honest the thought of working with a spy agency had never occurred to her as a child, she had enjoyed playing with dolls and making pictures of flowers and her family.
But of course, much like their youngest agent, she wasn't meant to have a normal life. Her father died of natural causes, her mother disappeared into the world of crime and her brother protected her. Until he got involved in MI6 at twenty-four years old, joining happily, ready to protect his younger sister and their country.
He didn't even make it to his first five-year interval, a special occlusion where one would be awarded with a discreet medal. She had been brought into MI6 after that, in many ways she viewed Alex as a younger version of herself. She had been persuaded to join just after turning 20 for her brother, Alex was forced into MI6 at after turning 14 for his uncle.
MI6 was like a twisted version of a family business.
She passed the final offices before making her way into the head office of MI6 – Alan Blunt's Office.
'Good morning sir' She was welcomed into the office, noticing the pot of freshly brewed tea resting on Blunt's desk, the smell of Earl grey filling his large and baron office. He nodded for her to join him, Ms Jones taking a seat at the desk in one of the guest chairs and pouring herself a cup of tea.
'How's the agenda for today?'
'Moderate, you have two scheduled meetings, I believe Mr Maurer also planned to discuss with you today. You'll also be signing off on Agent Muffor's latest assignment as well as an update from Agent King in Australia. Then to finish things off we have an expected update from Alex and K-unit at 1500' She sighed before taking a wisp of the tea and sipping.
Blunt sat before her, his expression as unreadable as ever, even around her he was guarded. She wondered sometimes what he was really like, if he had a wife, children not a chance, but just what he was like outside of work. Was he even anyone out of MI6?
'Very well, a full day. Let's begin shall we'