Chapter 2 – Answers And Meetings
Alex walked back from MI6 to his house in Chelsea after his meeting with Alan Blunt; he had a lot to think about and the long walk provided more than enough time. He knew it was stupid to even think about going on the mission, but if he didn't then Jack would be sent back to America and that would leave him alone in England without a guardian. He kicked a random stone along the pavement as he drew nearer to his Uncle's house; it was obvious they knew he didn't want to go on this mission, it was more certain than any of his others that he would be killed in the process. When he'd left Point Blanc he'd very nearly been killed in one of the most inventive ways that anyone had thought up after that, unless you counted Cray's attempt to kill him in a real life stimulation of his game, and he had never wanted to do another mission again; but not long after MI6 had managed to drag him into another mission, he was only supposed to go to help some CIA agents into the country but he'd still ended up having to stop General Sarov from setting off nuclear weapons. Alex shook his head as he thought about what Blunt had said about a partner. Why do they think I need a partner now? He thought to himself, I could have done with one on the first one, someone who had a bit of experience maybe, but now? What's the point? They probably haven't got any experience at all, I'm gonna have to be watching out for them the whole time and probably end up getting us both killed because of it.
Alex kicked a stone and it went flying into the hedge by the side of the pavement. He didn't want to do this mission, he didn't want to do any more missions at all, but if he had to do it he didn't want to do it with another person; look what Turner and Troy had been like, they'd hated him from the word 'go'. When he walked through the front door he was in an incredibly bad mood; the walk had done nothing to calm him down after the meeting with Blunt and he knew he was going to have to go back with a positive answer for Blunt no matter what he actually wanted to do. Jack sensed his bad mood and tried to ask him about what had happened, with the muttered reply of 'MI6' she dropped it and silently fumed herself. Jack had never liked the fact that MI6 kept getting Alex to do missions for them, in her opinion he was too young and she was sure Ian Rider would never had wanted Alex to become a spy like him, though she had to admit he'd done a good job of training Alex to become a spy. The rest of the evening passed in almost silence, with neither Alex nor Jack venturing a lot in the way of conversation; when Alex was about to go upstairs to go to bed, however, Jack called him back.
'Alex, what exactly are they making you do this time?' she asked him; Alex sighed and went back into the living room, at times like these Jack was the only person he felt he could talk to. Jack listened quietly as Alex relayed everything from when he'd met Mr Crawley in the Headmaster's office right up to when he'd walked out of MI6 headquarters. When he'd finished Jack sighed.
'Well Alex it's up to you. I don't mind going back to America for a bit and then coming back and renewing my VISA as long as you've got somewhere to stay. Knowing MI6 I doubt we'd get away with you staying on your own and I'm not willing to take that risk anyway; if someone from Scorpio or something comes along and tries to take you out-'
'Jack, calm down' Alex said, 'No ones going to come after me unless I'm on a mission. And it's Scorpia not Scorpio.'
Jack rolled her eyes at the attempt to make light of the situation, 'Ok well, like I said it's your choice Alex.'
Alex nodded and then slowly made his way up to bed. Did Jack mean it when she said she'd go back to America and renew her VISA? He knew she would but Alex knew it would be a lot less hassle and a lot less expensive if he went on the mission, plus MI6 would probably try and stop Jack leaving the country, all so he'd go on one of their stupid missions for them. But why didn't they just send this new mystery partner by themselves? He was probably going to endanger the mission by going anyway in case he was recognised. Alex sighed, rolled over and attempted to get some sleep before school tomorrow, unfortunately for him, tomorrow was Wednesday and that meant that, in 48 hours time, he'd have given his answer to Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones and would most probably be preparing for a new mission.
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How Alex made it into school the following day he never knew, his thoughts were still filled of Alan Blunt, Mrs Jones, the new mission, and, most of all, the mystery partner. He saw Tom standing with the others from yesterday and walked over to join them.
'Hey Alex. What did they want you for yesterday?' Marcus asked.
'Some of my Uncle's things were found at the bank the other day and they wanted me to go and see if they were worth collecting; you know in case they had any sentimental value' Alex answered.
'What was it?' Marcus asked again. Alex shrugged.
'A few letters, one or two pictures, that sort of thing' he answered; he was saved any more questioning by the registration bell. The group of boys walked into the school building and into their classroom; the other students at Brookland milling around them.
They had PE again that day; Alex never understood why the school didn't separate their two sessions of PE up to different ends of the week instead of one day after the other. They were doing the same as they had been yesterday; Alex stayed away from the ropes not wanting to repeat what happened yesterday, instead he and Tom headed towards the bags. The bags were a row of four punch bags that the students could use to enhance any skills they had that required the bags, in Alex's case it was karate that he usually used the bags for.
'I'll sit and watch for a bit' Tom said, Alex nodded; mostly the bags were used for people to let out stress, since his first mission with MI6, and a lot more since meeting Scorpia and Nile, Alex was keen to enhance his karate skills; if he was ever faced with another opponent like Nile he wanted to stand a little bit more of a chance than he had last time. For almost the entire lesson Alex used various karate moves to keep the bag swinging, administering others whilst it was still swinging round back to him; when he finally stopped and sat down to watch as Tom started to attack his bag he looked around at the rest of the class; some girls were on the mats doing various gymnastics moves, at the edge stood the girl who had started yesterday, Alex still wasn't sure what her name was, it seemed the other girls were laughing at her, probably saying she wasn't very good and therefore didn't want to do anything. He watched as she stepped forward and the other girls stopped laughing to watch her, though they still had arrogant smiles on their faces. The girl straightened up and then performed a series of flips, cartwheels and springs that wiped the smiles off of all of the girls' faces; Alex had to admit he was impressed. Just then Mr Phelps told them to go back to the changing rooms and get ready for their next lessons.
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Their next lesson was Spanish, one of the few lessons where Alex could get away with not paying a lot of attention; thanks to Ian Rider's help Alex had become fluent in French, German and Spanish, meaning these lessons could be used to do any extra homework he had gained. When the lesson began the teacher turned to the new girl.
'Do you speak any Spanish at all?' she asked her, the girl nodded.
'I was taught Spanish at an early age' she answered. The teacher nodded and Alex couldn't help but listen to what was being said instead of trying to finish his Maths homework.
'Could you tell us about yourself in Spanish then, please' the teacher asked her.
'Mi nombre es Nikita, Soy 14 años y me moví adentro con mi madre después de que mis abuelos murieran hace un año. Me trasladé a Brookland después de ir a St Harvey. Mi padre murió cuando era 3 años y me moví adentro con mis abuelos alrededor de un mes después de que él muriera' she said clearly. (A/N: I'm using an online translator seeing as I can't speak a word of Spanish coherently, so if it's all wrong don't blame me, please)
'What did she say?' Tom whispered to Alex; Alex always sat next to Tom as Tom wasn't very good at learning Spanish, so usually helped him out in the lessons.
'She said: "My name is Nikita, I am 14 years old and I moved in with my mother after my grandparents died a year ago. I moved to Brookland after going to St Harvey's. My father died when I was 3 years old and I moved in with my grandparents about a month after he died."' Alex replied.
'Wonder why she didn't move in with her Mum' Tom whispered; Alex shrugged, and spent the rest of the lesson trying to do his Maths homework whilst the teacher had her back turned.
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After school had finished the next day Alex started to make his way out of the school gates he noticed Michael Cook and two of his friends following Nikita out of the school grounds and along the road; frowning slightly, knowing that they probably up to nothing good, he followed them. When they turned the corner into a quiet street that went around the outside of the park Michael and the other two caught up to her and grabbed her arm, spinning her round and taking her school bag off her shoulder.
'New kid right? Well we forgot to tell you a few of the rules concerning Brookland-'
'Firstly that you mind your own business and leave people alone unless you want another lesson behind the bike shed' Alex said, coming up behind them; Michael and the two boys next to him turned around, Michael paling slightly at the sight of Alex; before anyone could say anything else, one of the boys, Anthony, yelled in pain as his legs went out from beneath him. A fist slammed into the side of Matthew's head and another found itself a place in Michael Cook's stomach. Gasping in pain and shock the three boys moved off, shooting glares at Alex and Nikita.
'Good moves' Alex commented, handing Nikita her bag.
'Thanks' she muttered, taking it off of him and putting it over her shoulder. They stood in silence for a few moments.
'Well I better be going, I've gotta meet someone in a bit. See you tomorrow' Alex said and turned to walk towards Brookland so he could pick up his bike and make his way to MI6 headquarters.
'Yeah; and thanks Alex' Nikita said; Alex smiled slightly and then started at a jog back towards Brookland.
About fifteen minutes later Alex found himself locking his bike up outside the Royal and General bike and climbing the stairs into the foyer; inside he saw Mrs Jones talking to the receptionist, she turned when she heard someone enter.
'Alex! Alan Blunt is waiting for you in his office. I'll take you up there but then I have to meet someone down here, your new partner in fact' Mrs Jones said, seemingly a little uncomfortable with the topic of his partner and led Alex up to Alan Blunt's office; once there she left them again almost immediately. Alex was left standing by the door facing Alan Blunt from across the room.
'Come in and sit down Alex, this may take a while and we have to wait for your partner anyway' he said, indicating one of the chairs in front of his desk. Alex didn't move.
'I haven't given you my answer yet' he said; Blunt sighed irritably.
'Alex I'm in no mood for stupid games. If you are doing the mission then sit down if you're not then you can go back to the foyer and wait whilst your guardian is arrested so we can sort you out with somewhere to stay.'
Alex went and sat in the chairs, looking determinedly out of the window.
'Good, now all we need is for Mrs Jones to return with her niece' Alan Blunt said.
'Her niece?' Alex asked, despite him not wanting to say anything to Blunt at the moment.
'Yes, her friends got into a spot of trouble with some drugs; she agreed to help us out if we let them go' he replied; just then the door opened and Mrs Jones returned, leading a girl with reddy brown hair and two red streaks either side of her face.
'Nikita?' he asked, slightly shocked; the girl looked up.
'Alex?'
'I take it you two have met' Blunt said and indicated that Nikita should sit down in the chair next to Alex's. Neither of the teenagers made any move to answer, just looked at anywhere in the room except straight at him; it appeared that Nikita didn't really want to be there either.
'Now you are both here we can tell you a little more about the mission you are about to undertake. Here are two prospectuses about the school; you will be going as if you are in an arranged marriage. What we want you to do is look around the school and see what happening at different places; it is to like Point Blanc to be immune to suspicion, the success rate is almost as good as that of Point Blanc and we want to make sure nothing similar is happening there. From what our surveillance teams have come up with it seems as though large trucks are going in and out of the academy more times than is normal for a school or institute. You can make up your own backgrounds if you wish, I would advise you not to use real names though, it could be dangerous to your families-'
At this both the teenagers tensed slightly, Blunt carried on regardless.
'And to your friends. We are going to make you both into slight delinquents so that, if we have to, we can alter the idea of your going under the pretence of an arranged marriage; however I would like to stick to that as it means you will both be together quite a bit and therefore you may get more done. Now I believe all that is left is for you to go and visit Smithers. Any questions?'
'We just have to make up a complete history for ourselves?' Nikita demanded, 'And then be sent to an academy run by someone whose related to a lunatic? No thanks on second thoughts my life's brilliant.'
Blunt looked at her with a fixed stare, 'I'm sure your friends would appreciate a few years in prison for your happiness. Possibly even life is we can manage it.'
Nikita glared back at him for a moment then looked at the floor.
'Good. Then I'll send for Smithers' Blunt said; Alex stole a glance at Nikita but her hair was covering a part of her face.
'Whose Smithers?' she asked.
'He's the guy that'll supply us with gadgets' Alex replied, he had to admit he liked Smithers best out of everyone at MI6; he'd been the one to supply Alex with a bike when he thought he had to go after Cray by himself, Smithers was Alex's only real ally at MI6. The door opened and an enormously fat man with several chins walked in carrying a very large brief case and wearing a very large smile.
'Nice to see you again, old chap' he said, extending his free hand to Alex.
'Hello Smithers' Alex said, accepting the offered hand.
'I'm guessing your Mrs Jones' niece' Smithers said to Nikita.
'You could say that' Nikita replied, shooting a glare at Mrs Jones.
'Smithers; I'm in charge of all your gadgets for missions. How do you do?' he offered his hand to Nikita who took it with a small smile.
'Alright, Smithers, enough small talk what have you got for them this time?' Blunt interrupted.