The Devil Rolls His Dice

Anyone in the surveillance and tech room the day Nico di Angelo stormed Scorpia would rather have resigned and consequently be killed cleanly by their employers than suffer the Devil's wrath they did.

Nico left them gibbering and screaming in the corner with fear clouds bobbing low over their heads, invading their senses and driving them insane with terror. The son of Hades ignored them all, his eyes blood red and burning with rage, his fingers tapping on the keyboards before they found the controls for the intercom system. It was turned off, and a wave of his hand to keep the previous operators silent, he switched it on. He pulled the iPod he'd taken from Alex's bag out of his pocket and set it on the bench beside the microphone. Nico drew breath and began speaking.

A bucket of cold water and ice cubes dumped over his head woke Alex up, pumping his body with adrenaline, before it sapped away and he slumped. Dr Three and his friends were still in the room, and all of them were grinning.

"Passing out is so cowardly, Alex," Three said, his voice condescending. "Really, it's rude to ignore your hosts."

"They told me I could be anything I wanted," Alex breathed. "I chose to be rude."

"Insolence," the Scorpia man sighed, and motioned for one of the men behind him. Alex watched the fist and braced himself for pain.

Suddenly the PA speakers in the room coughed to life and a voice washed through. Alex felt his knees turn to jelly with a cocktail of emotions searing his stomach. Annoyance, anger, fear. Mostly relief though. About 50% relief.

"If this thing is working like it's supposed to, everyone in the building should be listening to me," the voice said. "And if you're listening, you'll know a few things. Firstly, there is a problem with your security if a lone soldier can break into your coms room. Secondly, it's a major problem if the soldier is in fact a fourteen year old boy. Thirdly, if a fourteen year old boy soldier can break into your security, disable tens of men and get onto the PA system, you should be very, very, afraid of that boy."

There was silence for a moment and Alex got his breathing under control.

"Hello," Nico di Angelo said.

Dr Three stumbled over to the PA and tried to override the system and shut Nico out, but the moment he got his hand near it a black energy zapped him. His fingers were smoking and he gritted his teeth before turning on Alex and his men. The speaker made a static noise before Nico spoke again.

"This compound is going to be a crater in the ground when I'm finished," he said, his voice dangerous. "And it'll only be that much harder for you if you don't give me what I came for right away."

Alex could hear Nico drawing a deep breath.

"Where is Alex Rider."

The way Nico said it didn't make it sound like a question. More like a demand. Dr Three, his face burning in anger, looked over at Alex, who shrugged.

"I'm not a virtuous person, so my patience is, for the most part, non-existent," Nico continued. "I mean, I'm going to kill you anyway. What's the point in drawing it out?"

Alex distinctly felt Nico wasn't really helping much. Dr Three seemed to feel the same way, and Alex was expecting it when he clicked his fingers and his followers swarmed the child spy and unchained him from the walls and floor only to click his wrists behind his back and make him walk to the door.

"He can say it's pointless all he wants," Three said venomously. "I'm not giving up my hard work to some brat."

"If I had to choose," Alex said as they lead him down the corridor, "I'd say the only brat around here is you. You're being unreasonable and stupid trying to-"

Three whipped around slapped Alex's face before he could finish. The child spy bit his tongue by accident and more blood dribbled onto his lips.

"You're not going anywhere." Then the Scorpia man turned around and resumed his brisk walk down the corridor, turning corners until they came to another door. Nico had been silent their whole walk, which told Alex he was planning something. It made Dr Three and his employees think he'd been detained and hopefully killed. Once again, Scorpia was grossly underestimating a serious enemy that had the ability and means to sink them much lower than their metaphorical knees.

Alex stopped thinking about how nuclear Nico could go when he was pulled to a stop in front of a set of grand double doors. Three withdrew a key from his pocket and unlocked them, but he didn't push them open. Instead he shifted his weight and held his face close to the side of the frame. A light spat out and zoomed over his eye, scanning the blood vessels and pigments to make sure it was the owner of whatever lay inside the room. When it was apparently satisfied, the eye scanner disappeared and another panel popped out. Three jabbed his thumb in this one, and after a second, it whirred back into the wall and the doors swung open by themselves. Hydraulics, Alex thought. Or just a really megalomaniacal contraption that he wanted to smash.

Dr Three stalked into the room beyond and the guards tugged Alex along as well, and the doors closed behind them, followed by a hollow and loud click as several impossible security systems locked into place. Nobody was getting in without Three wanted them too. Again though, Nico wasn't a nobody who ever let a closed door get the better of him.

Alex was given the incredibly comfortable spot on the floor in front of a large oak desk, which Dr Three promptly sat behind like he owned the world.

"You know, Alex? Thank you." Alex looked up at him, his eyebrow twitching. "I wanted to get rid of your friend before you, and you managed to get him back here." Three reclined in the plush leather chair he was in. Alex shuffled on the carpet that was scratching his knees.

"He's a far too loose cannon," the torture master muttered. "Mind you though, if I could break him down and rebuild him, he would be invaluable to restoring Scorpia…"

Alex scowled. Nico wasn't a bloody building project, he was a human being! Or, half human. But it was the other half that would make it way past impossible for Dr Three to do anything to him. Apparently, Nico had the same thoughts.

"Break me down, what? Do you intend to use a hammer? Do you even know how to replace organs or something? I'd be no use as a misshapen lump just because you didn't know what order my intestines go."

Three jumped slightly in his chair as Nico's voice came through the speaker in his office. Alex wondered since when did evil leader genius's put microphones in their private offices. To order sandwiches? He didn't know, and he wasn't particularly interested in finding out why. He was content with first getting out.

Dr Three and his guard friends glared at the speaker but before they could respond, Nico spoke again.

"Well, anyway, thank you, Dr Three. Just, stay there in that office and I'll be there as soon as I finish planting my special explosives around your complex and am done disposing the bodies of your employees."

Alex couldn't not snigger to himself a little.

"And Alex." Nico's voice got a little softer then. "Keep your soul burning, my friend.

"Now, enjoy some incredibly situation-suiting music and sweat it out in there. See you soon!"

Then he was gone, according to the blip of the PA system as it was shut down. Alex thought Nico was being oddly chipper. It was probably how he was handling the circumstances, as Old Nico would have burned everything in sight, New Nico had a plan that induced fear better than his powers. It also held an air of controlled badass-ity. Alex appreciated that.

Three whirled on the bound boy giggling silently on the floor and his expensive, loafer-clad foot slammed into Alex's side and propelled him across the room before any brain cells caught up with what actually happened.

"I don't believe we have a threat on our hands, but…"

He pulled out a scalpel that seemed to have just been hanging around in his pocket.

"Best make good of our time together, eh, Alex?"

The Sargent was fuming as K-Unit hung over his desk, waiting for him to calm down.

"You better have a fucking miracle excuse, Wolf," Sanders finally snarled. Wolf nodded and gestured to Jaguar and Eagle, who came forward holding something. Sanders peeked his eyes open to see it.

"What in hell is that?" he asked angrily. Jaguar grinned to himself.

"Something we gave Devil," he replied as the Sargent examined it. Eagle smiled maniacally.

"You know, for luck."

A bleeping dot appeared on the laptop screen before him, interrupting the expanse of map that spread over it.

"Luck indeed," the man said quietly. "Get all Units ready to mobilize."

Yay, an update! I hope to have this finished before Blood of Olympus comes out, but it might not. I don't mind though. Unless Nico dies. Then it'll just suck.

See you soon!

Jasmine Out!