The Devil's Sources
Nico only went to sleep when he knew that everyone else was out. He wouldn't have gone even then, but after two days of no sleep he needed a few hours.
The nightmares had gotten worse since the war ended, because there were more horrible and blood-stained moments to relive. Nico always slept fitfully in the Hades cabin, and he just prayed he could get a few undisturbed hours.
Except an hour into his slumber, a demigod dream swirled into his mind.
Nico was standing in an oddly sterile room, like a hospital. A man stood to one side, bending over a table on wheels that held a tray. The contents of the salver was hidden from view.
Suddenly the door next to Nico opened and a woman with ginger hair in a tight bun and a white coat walked in, holding her hands together business-like. The man didn't turn around before he spoke.
"What have you got for me?" He asked. His voice was soft and sightly accented, and Nico caught a glimpse of a waxen Chinese face. The man's hair was jet-black, and looked dyed. The woman stopped a few paces from him and produced a clipboard from her coat pocket.
"Hardly anything, sir," she replied meekly. "There is no complete file anywhere in the world. This boy seems to have just popped up."
Nico furrowed his brow.
"Do you have a name for me yet?" The Chinese man snapped and the woman jumped. She fumbled the folder over to him and he scanned a cold eye over it before his lips twitched down in a grimace.
"This tells me nothing," he said heatedly. He swung around and faced the woman. "Is this all they had on him?"
She nodded in response. The man went back to the paper.
"Name: Nico di Angelo. Age: Fourteen. Family: Unknown."
Nico stiffened at the sound of his name. He instinctively shrank into the shadows of the corner. He knew his file said more than that, but it seems the CIA had erased the rest of his information. Thank the gods, Nico thought. He knew this man was someone who would end up in the Fields of Punishment.
"What does our intelligence say?" The man spoke again and the woman winced.
"Nothing again," she whispered. "Only that he seems to be acquainted with Alex Rider."
Nico's eyes widened at the sound of his fellows name. He knew Alex had enemies – his eyes told more than he'd care to admit – but how was learning about Nico going to help them?
"Would Rider come to retrieve Master di Angelo if he were to be… taken?" The Chinese man said, sneering the question. Nico puffed his breath out in annoyance. He could deal with mortals himself, thank you very much.
"I think so, sir. They're in the same unit at the training grounds."
The man stroked his pasty chin.
"Fine," he said. "Send in a team."
The woman bowed.
"Yes, Dr Three."
The dream started twirling out of focus, signalling the end. But before he was whisked back into sleep, Nico saw the contents of the platter.
Handfuls of scalpels and knives shone from the tray. One of them had a rag underneath. It was stained red.
Nico's eyes shot open to see Eagle hovering over him. The man looked surprised, and his hand was raised to prod Nico's shoulder. Nico breathed in deeply for a moment to stop his heart racing.
"Well that was scary," Eagle commented, before literally jumping onto Cub's bed. Nico heard an oof sound come from the SAS soldier, and smirked when he saw Cub walk in through the door, towel in hand. His fair hair was stained brown from water and strands were dripping onto his shoulders. Nico blinked slowly to shake away the comparing images between Cub and Percy. He had a serious problem here.
Dr Three.
"Cub, where have you been?" Snake asked, tying up his mossy-green boots. Cub flashed him a grin.
"Showers," he replied. "Some of us don't want to smell like Wolf's underpants all day."
Said leader was, thankfully, still sleeping. Jaguar threw a boot at the man and a grunt came from the covers before Wolf, in all his bed-headed glory, immerged. He looked mad already. Nico quietly slipped out of the cabin before the unit leader blew.
"Enter."
Nico pushed the door to the Sergeants office open and walked in. Sanders leaned away from his desk and looked up.
"Devil," he said, clearly surprised. "What do you want?"
Nico sighed. He hated telling people about his dreams, or anything in them. But there was no way Cub would tell him what he needed to know, so the Sergeant it was.
"I have a couple of questions," Nico said. Sanders nodded for him to continue.
"Who's Dr Three?"
Whatever the man was expecting, that wasn't it. His face drained of colour and he stared at Nico with wide eyes.
"Why? How do you even know him?"
Nico stuck his tongue out a bit in concentration, thinking of an explanation. Eventually, he just shrugged. Sanders narrowed his eyes.
"Is this about Cub?"
The question threw Nico off and it took a second for him to nod. Sanders sighed.
"Devil, I shouldn't be telling you this. It's classified. But… Dr Three is one of the leading heads of a criminal organisation called Scorpia. They've disbanded from criminal activities though, instead…"
He looked uneasy. Nico shrugged, gesturing that the man could skip that bit of the story.
"Well, Dr Three's the world's leading expert in torture. Even written books on it, the sicko. But… he has a grudge against Cub. That's all I'm telling you. Scorpia has it out for that kid."
Nico nodded. He stood up.
"You're not to tell anyone," Sanders said. Nico smirked.
"I wouldn't dream of it."
"Cub."
Alex spun around from where he was gleefully watching Eagle get pummelled into the sparring mats. The grin wiped itself across his face when he saw the look on Devil's, though.
"Can I talk to you for a moment?"
Alex nodded slowly, ignoring Eagle screaming something about chocolate, and followed Devil down to the base of the hill. Alex sat beside his friend.
"What's up?" He asked. Devil looked straight ahead.
"You do a very good job, Cub," he said suddenly. Alex raised his eyebrows.
"Uh, thanks?"
Devil shook his head, a small smile on his face. He balanced his arms on top of his bent knees and looked through his black fringe at Alex.
"I mean about hiding it. You do a very good job of hiding your pain behind your eyes, Alex."
Alex went stiff as a board. Emotions jumbled through him and he couldn't decide which one to feel the strongest about. Fear. Anger. Uncertainty. Devil shook his head again.
"I'm not a double-agent if that's what you're thinking," he said, seeming to read Alex's mind.
"How do you know my name?" Alex asked when he found his voice. Devil turned to face him, shifting his legs around. He looked right into Alex's eyes and the teen spy knew at that moment that Devil could see straight through him.
"I was told it when I did a job for Mr Byrne of the CIA," he said. Then he hesitated, but said no more. Alex started becoming suspicious. Devil loosened up his eyebrows.
"If it really bothers you that I know your name, mine's Nico. But that's not what I wanted to ask."
Alex looked at the walking stick on Devil's hip and nodded for him to continue. He heard the other boy take a short breath.
"I suppose I'm being hunted, Alex. You'll know the man. You've met him. Can you tell me everything you know about Dr Three?"
Wolf watched as Cub and Devil's conversation continued at the base of the hillock. No one had told them off, because they were far more advanced than the soldiers in hand-to-hand. Eerily advanced, as though they'd had to fight for their lives many times over.
Wolf shook his head to clear it. It wasn't his business. He waited for Eagle to be taken down – again – before their shift was up and they had to move on to the next training exercise.
"Oi, Cub! Devil! We're moving on!"
The two boys seemed to have finished their talk, and Devil yanked Cub up by his jacket before speeding towards K-Unit. He stopped in front of them, not even flushed. Cub came by soon after, and the men moved off towards the lake.
"What're we doing?" Devil asked, eyeing Eagle as he whined about his bruises. Snake sighed in content.
"Swimming," he replied wistfully, "a chance to cool down."
Devil stiffened, as did Cub. They shared of look that said HELP, and Wolf raised an eyebrow.
"Scared of water, Devil?" He asked, trying to sound teasing. Devil shot him a dark glare.
"Not so much scared," he said slowly, "more I value myself as a whole, not as tiny pieces."
They reached the lake, and Devil stubbornly sat down as far as he could from it, eyeing the still water like it would swallow him whole. Wolf exchanged looks with the rest of his unit as Cub sat down too.
"Don't tell me both of you are bailing," Jaguar snorted as he pulled off his shirt. Cub and Devil crossed their arms in sync and glared at Jaguar, whose face paled and he practically ran for the water to get away. Wolf looked between the two boys, frowning.
"It's a swimming test," he said sternly, "and all soldiers are required to do it."
Devil rolled his eyes.
"Why?"
"Because in a situation where the only escape is water, we need to know that you're able to swim fast," Wolf replied. Devil smirked.
"I don't need to swim fast," he said, "I just need to know where I'm going."
Beside him, Cub shifted. Wolf glared at Devil.
"Water," he growled, "now."
"I'll be blasted to bits before I even get a stroke in," Devil argued, and Wolf's face contorted in confusion. Devil sighed and stood up. He looked into Wolf's eyes and started making the man relive some of his worst fears. He hated to do it – K-Unit had grown on him, like a family now – but he was not going in the lake. Poseidon would never forgive him.
Wolf shrank back and scampered for the water, not giving the two a second look. Devil sat back down, feeling slightly bad. Cub stared at him.
"What did you do?" He asked. Devil shrugged.
"Convinced him," he said tonelessly. Then he looked at his friend. "Why'd you not want to go in?"
Alex drew breath at the question. Devil raised an eyebrow at him and the young spy exhaled.
"Had some nasty experiences with water," he half-lied. He had developed a distaste for swimming since all the things that had happened to do with it, but mostly he didn't want to reveal his scars. The many littering his arms and chest and back, and most of all, the closed bullet wound above his heart.
Devil seemed to know he was lying – it was written all over his face – but he accepted the excuse.
"Yeah," he muttered, "same here."
After K-Unit finished their laps, it was almost dark, and they were eager to get to the cabin. They changed into their normal army fatigues in the bathroom on the way, Cub and Nico taking quick showers since they didn't swim, and headed to the hut the unit shared.
Wolf looked troubled, his brow creased in concentration as he entered the cabin.
"What's wrong, Wolf?" Snake asked, popping his head into the doorway to look inside. Wolf shuddered slightly.
"Don't know, Snake," he said, "but I feel like someone's been in here."
Behind him, Nico snapped to attention, his eyes narrowed.
"Someone's been in here?" He repeated. "Can I see, Wolf?"
Wolf nodded slowly as Nico skittered forward, Cub close behind. Jaguar looked on worriedly. No matter how many times those two kicked his butt, he still saw kids, and he still saw kids who were in danger.
Nico stepped into the cabin and walked towards the furthest point. Wolf was right. Someone had been in here. And they still were.
K-Unit suddenly stumbled inside, exclamations of surprise echoing around the cabin as the door slammed shut, leaving the windows to filter in light. That's how the men and two boys saw their attackers before the ambushers activated their gas masks and the room was flooded with a white mist. Nico felt a spurt of panic in his chest as he slumped forward, fighting the gas. The others were already out, but his demigod resistance allowed him to counteract the knockout substance. He saw Cub lying a few feet away, and tried to reach him.
"That one's still awake," a gruff voice said above Nico. He twisted around to see who it was, and only saw clumpy books and a dark green jacket.
"Well, fix that!" Another replied, and Nico barely rolled out of the way before the butt of a gun slammed the wood where he was seconds before. He got unsteadily to his feet, his eyes watering as he fought the gas. Five men converged on him, mixed looks of annoyance and surprise showing behind their masks.
"Green jackets," he mumbled as they moved towards him. One of them snorted.
"Yeah kid, and we're gonna make you wish you'd never been born."
"No," Nico murmured, smirked tiredly, "you're going to wish you never met me."
His sleepy limbs still had power in them, and as the men came forward he struck out. One fell to his knees and hunched over, holding his gut while Nico brought and glancing blow down on his back. Another green jacket attacked from behind and Nico crouched, tripping him. The man went flying across the room and landed on top of Wolf, dazed. Nico felt for his walking stick and pulled it out. It transformed and his sword started glowing eerily. The rest of the men backed up, fear written on their faces.
"What the bloody hell…" one of them cursed, gazing stupidly at Nico. The son of Hades grinned devilishly at him.
"Boo."
To his eternal amusement, the men jumped back. Nico laughed as their expressions turned angry, then conspiratorial. Suddenly something behind him moved and Nico felt a sharp jab in his shoulder. He cursed himself for letting the gases get to his head as the sedative needle did its work and he slumped over again. He just had time to Mist his sword into his ring – they would take a walking stick – before his eyes closed against his will and he was out.