a/n: hey guys, sorry it took so long. I'm back for a while, not sure how long. I might get up a few more chapters before I go to camp in July but no promises. Dirty Little Secret is next to be updated, maybe tomorrow. And Alex's hair may be blonde in the books but it's light brown here. Guess I never caught the fact that it was blonde. Whoops. And I guess I forgot to say that I know Yassen died on Air Force One, you'll see in this chapter how he's still alive. I gave a little hint on it in the first chapter though. Review. –Steph
Note: in the last chapter I said something about one year. That one year has been changed to two years. You'll understand later if you're confused.
Disclaimer: Everything recognizable belongs to Anthony Horowitz.
Triple Threat
Triple Threat
By: Steph (Akers2)
Chapter Two – Operation Triple Threat Is About To Begin
MI6 Headquarters
Wolf and Yassen were sitting at the table patiently talking to Blunt and Mrs. Jones about mindless things. How SAS training camp had been, the weather, that sort of thing. Despite their calm and patient exteriors they were bursting with curiosity on the inside, but they would never let that show. They were professionals, trained by the best, but that didn't mean that they weren't allowed to be curious.
Wolf and Yassen eyed each other suspiciously but did the smart thing and said nothing.
The door banged open and Alex Rider barged through, his fair hair messy. "You have great timing, whatever this is for. Got me out of the worlds' most boring history class. You know what we were learning about? The explosion of the Murmansk fleet! If you read some of the things they said about it…" Alex looked around the room. First his eyes fell on Wolf. Alex was surprised to see the leader of his bunk unit from training camp sitting with Blunt and Mrs. Jones. He eyed him warily, as if he expected his to pull another one of his tricks. Wolf had tried to get Alex thrown out of training camp on various occasions but Alex had ended up saving Wolf's career at the end of his training and then Wolf had helped Alex complete one of his missions. They weren't best mates but they weren't enemies either. They had a mutual understanding. "Hey Wolf," Alex greeted as he dropped his book bag on the floor and dropped into a seat. "What are you doing here?"
"Hey Cub," Wolf responded lightly. "I don't know why we're here; we were waiting for you to get here."
"Oh," Alex said. Alex surveyed the rest of the room. He eyed the Russian questioningly but when Yassen lifted his head and his clear blue eyes met Alex's brows ones Alex jumped backwards, almost knocking the chair over in the process. "What the hell is he doing here?" Alex exclaimed outraged. "You're supposed to be dead!" he accused.
"Well obviously that is not the case," Yassen replied calmly with a light laugh, only the smallest trace of a Russian accent present in his voice.
"But I… how… Damien Cray shot you! I was there! I saw! You died!" Alex stopped when he realized he was speaking in two to three word phrases.
"Alex," Mrs. Jones addressed the fourteen-year-old boy calmly, "just sit down, we'll explain everything to you now," she asked. It was more like an order though and Alex knew that. His only choice was to sit down like asked, so he did.
The entire room was silent for a long, slightly awkward minute. "So," Alex finally broke the silence, "are you going to tell me what's going on?" he asked casually but there was a definite edge in his voice.
"We will, Alex, please have some patience," Mrs. Jones requested.
More silence.
Alex eyed the Russian contract-killer warily. This was the man who had single-handedly destroyed his whole life. The man that had almost been the cause of Alex's own death, a number of times. And now, here he was. Sitting calmly across the table from Alex, looking as though everything was perfect and he had every right to be in the room.
"I'm sure you all know each other," Mrs. Jones began again, apparently Blunt was not in much of a speaking mood today. His gray eyes just soaked up every little detail about everyone in the room. When her statement did not receive so much as a nod of the head or a grunt Mrs. Jones elaborated, "Perhaps you don't all know each other yet," she mussed, sucking on a peppermint and twiddling it between her white teeth. "We have Agent Alex Rider, Agent Anthony Mason," Mrs. Jones pointed out Alex and… Wolf. So, Alex laughed internally, Wolf has a name. "And of course," Mrs. Jones said with a sweep of her hand in Yassen's direction, "Agent Yassen Gregorovich."
"What!" Alex exploded almost exactly once Mrs. Jones had stopped her introductions. "Agent?" the single word, the two syllables, startled Alex so much that all thoughts of Wolf having a real name were banished.
"Yes, Alex, Agent," Mrs. Jones said slowly as if she were speaking to a slow child and not the worlds youngest spy.
"Agent for who? Scorpia? Satan?" Alex bit back sarcastically. "He's supposed to be dead!"
"Quite on the contrary… Alex," Yassen said Alex's name very carefully, almost as though he wasn't quite sure how to address the boy. "I do not work for Scorpia. Or 'Satan' as you put it," Yassen laughed deeply.
"You don't work for Scorpia?" Alex said in mock surprise and astonishment. He then preceded to hold up his arm and look at his wrist carefully. "Well, would you look at that!" Alex exclaimed. "I'm growing spots! And you'll never guess what I saw on my way into this place, flying pigs! Quite amazing, isn't it?" he abruptly stopped his act and glared at Yassen.
"Alex, please," Mrs. Jones held both her hands up in front of her chest, as if to say 'spare me', "you are not fully aware of the situation and that was not appreciated," she reprimanded him sternly.
Alex leant back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well then, please enlighten me. I'd just love to know why I am in the same room as the man who killed my parents and my uncle and countless other people. Who, by the way, should be dead," Alex added once again.
"Enough, Alex," Mrs. Jones began but was cut off.
"I have not killed anyone," Yassen defended himself.
"And just last night I saw a fat man in a red suit with a beard coming down my chimney," Alex replied sarcastically.
"Should I find this amusing?" Yassen asked in disgust and grimaced. "I have not killed anyone," he repeated. His fair eyebrows furrowed. "I have killed some people but never have I killed your family," he amended.
Alex opened his mouth to deliver a nasty retort but Mrs. Jones jumped in once again. Mr. Blunt just continued watching them intently.
"Alex, for this to work I'll have to ask you to stop the inappropriate comments to Agent Gregorovich," Mrs. Jones said sternly.
"For what to work?" Alex asked suspiciously.
Mrs. Jones sighed. Nothing escaped Alex. Blunt, on the other hand, almost smiled at Alex's comment. He was feeling more confident and cocky then ever. Operation Triple Threat would work and by the end of their meeting it would began.
Mrs. Jones never got the chance to reply to Alex's question though.
"Your inquiries are well based, Alex," Blunt finally decided that it was time for him to join in on the meeting that he had ordered. All heads turned towards the head of MI6.
Alex grew frustrated when Blunt did not expand on his statement anymore. "Are you going to tell me why a supposed to be dead contract killer that works for the people that tried to kill me is here?" Alex prompted.
Yassen glowered at Alex's words and his blue eyes turned to ice. He opened his mouth to fire back a witty retort but Blunt held up his hand for them to stop. Yassen did not want to but, in the end, respect for Allen Blunt won out over all emotions even though it was hard. Yassen was a powerful man, loosing his control was a thing of the past.
"Alex," Mrs. Jones warned.
Alex held up his hands in surrender and waited patiently for Blunt to continue.
"You have all been brought together today," Blunt began in a voice that full of authority but a voice that lacked any emotion whatsoever, "because you are the three single most strongest and powerful men we have in our organization," Alex opened his mouth to challenge Blunt's statement, but Blunt himself beat Alex to it. "Yes, I know, Alex, Agent Gregorovich is not apart of MI6, at least as far as you know," Blunt watched Alex's face change emotions rapidly. "In fact, Agent Gregorovich has been with us all along…"
Alex's expression didn't shift an inch. He blinked slowly and deliberately. "That's not possible," he finally said.
"Isn't it, Alex?" Yassen challenged in his silky smooth voice.
"No, it isn't," Alex repeated with more emphasis. "You can't be with MI6. you've killed people. For God's sake, you killed my parents and my uncle!"
"No, I did not kill your family," Yassen said once again. "I have already told you this."
"Yeah, you did," Alex said.
"I would never have killed John Rider," Yassen said, "he helped me when I was in Scorpia, he trained me. He was a great man. He saved my life," here Yassen subconsciously ran a finger along the scar on his neck. "I did not know that John Rider was with MI6 too."
Alex narrowed his eyes. "If you are supposedly 'with MI6' how did you not know who your fellow agents were?"
"I…"
"That would be our fault, Alex," Blunt cut in. Blunt folded his hands on top on the glossy table top. "Agent Gregorovich has worked for many years. We found him shortly after we found John and Ian Rider. John, as you know, was sent into Scorpia to spy for us, to put it quite simply. Agent Gregorovich then came into the picture. We sent him into Scorpia too, John had done so marvelously. He risen to the top and no one suspected him. So, we sent in another agent. Neither John nor Agent Gregorovich were informed that another of their kind was inside Scorpia. Neither Agent suspected anything, we had succeeded."
"But he's a… contract killer," Alex pointed out.
"No," Yassen denied Alex's accusation.
"Agent Gregorovich was never a contract killer," Blunt continued. "He'd always been wonderful with guns and yes, in a sense, at killing too. That seemed to be where he could make it in Scorpia. So we had him do it. Many of the people he was meant to kill were spared but there were a few that we could nothing about."
"I never killed your parents, Alex," Yassen said. "I was not assigned to that mission but I would not have been able to do it anyway. I did not kill your uncle either. I was sent on that mission, yes, but another, a younger recruit that I was meant to train was with me. He was the one who killed Ian. I never knew that they worked with MI6."
"But if you knew it was going to happen, why did you say nothing to MI6?" Alex inquired. Much to his horror, he found himself being drawn into what Yassen was telling him.
"Like I said, I did not know that he worked for MI6. I had been away; overseas at the time I got the call from Harold Sayle. I was ordered to immediately return to England and take care of it. I was not given a name, just a car description, person description and where and when I could find the car. I was not the one to fire the shots that killed Ian Rider though, that was the man that was with me. He was young and new and eager."
"Why did you tell me to go into Scorpia?" Alex demanded.
"I did not know that John worked for MI6," Yassen said once again in his Russian accent. The accent seemed to come and go as it pleased. Yassen was a master at every accent in the world and only when he truly did not have to disguise his voice did he let his true Russian accent through. "I still believed, at that time, that John Rider worked for Scorpia."
"But you knew that I worked for MI6! Why did you tell me to go to Scorpia?" Alex exclaimed.
"I was injured, that was real enough, I was not thinking clearly. I thought that maybe you were already working for Scorpia and that Scorpia had done to you what MI6 had done to me. I thought that they were using you to spy on MI6. naturally, I'd try to get you away. I should have seen it though, you were so determined that John was not an assassin, but I shrugged it aside as a… something that Scorpia was telling you," Yassen tried to defend himself.
"You died, I was there, I saw. Damien Cray shot you in the chest."
"Yes, he did shoot me, that was not planned. The bullet and the gun were real enough. I did not die though, as you can see. I merely fell into unconsciousness. MI6 paramedics later found me and I am here now. I was asked what had happened on the plane, I told them everything. About the boy called Alex Rider. I was then, and only then, told about who the Rider's truly were. But by that time I had already sent you into Scorpia, turned you against MI6."
The room was silent.
Alex turned to Blunt. Blunt's gray eyes studied Alex very carefully.
"Is he telling the truth?" Alex directed the question to Mrs. Jones. She would tell him the truth.
"Yes, Alex, that is the truth," Mrs. Jones said sadly.
"Fine, say I believe all of it?" Alex said. "Why are we all here?"
Blunt sat up straighter in his expensive leather chair. The stiff leather creaked underneath his weight slightly. "You three are here because you are three very powerful men," Blunt looked from Wolf to Alex to Yassen and back again as he spoke. "The three best men that we have in this organization. The three men with the highest potentials, three men that have all completed important, challenging missions where the odds have been against you. What do you get when you bring the three most powerful men in our country together? You get an unstoppable force," Blunt spoke affectionately about his plans.
"You are here today," Blunt continued, "Because you three are the most powerful men in this country. Take every assignment you have each successfully completed, an impressive list for you all, and multiply that by one hundred. No! One thousand! What you have done so far will become baby steps in the things you will do!
"This is Operation Triple Threat. You three will be taken to a remote and highly secure island that is a new, high class training facility for MI6. You will be the first to use it. You will spend two years there. You will train together, learn together, bunk together; you will be together 24/7. Only separate when your individual studies call. You will all become fluent in every language there is to know, we have experts for every language awaiting your arrival, and, Alex, you will continue your studies with a private tutor. You will cover the next three years of material in two years. You will have no contact with the outside world in the time you are there. No phone calls and there will be no one there besides you and your teachers. Of course you will watch the television and read the newspapers. You will learn computers and automobiles inside and out. You will learn guns and bombs and missiles like you know the back of your hand. You will be sent on mock missions on the islands. You will learn all there is to know about one another.
By the end of the two years, you will be brought back here. You will all be two years older but many years wiser and stronger. You will come back a force to reckon with. And, from then on you will work for MI6 once again… though maybe work for is too strong of a term. You will be your own force, Triple Threat," Blunt concluded his passionate, for Blunt anyway, speech.
"Am I being given a choice?" Alex asked uncertainly after a minute of mulling through the idea.
"The choice is yours, Alex," Mrs. Jones cut in. "For this operation to work and be successful you have to want to do it. I understand that you will resent us for a time while you are on the islands. You will even grow to… shall I say hate?... each other. But, in time you will become a legendary force, a force that will match and exceeded that of any other country."
Alex looked at his hands in his lap.
"I'll do it," Alex didn't need to look up to see who had spoken. The Russian accent gave it away.
"I'm in," Wolf said after several more minutes of thinking.
Alex felt every eye in the room turn on him.
"I don't want to do it," Alex said, "but even I can tell that I don't have much choice in the matter," Alex sighed. He then had to practically force the words out of his mouth. "I'll do it."
"Fabulous," Blunt said. "From this moment on you will not be know as Alex Rider or Anthony Mason or Yassen Gregorovich. Alex, you are Cub, Anthony, you are Wolf and, Yassen, you are Hunter. That is what you will be called and what you call each other for the next two years.
"Congratulations, gentlemen," Blunt said as he stood up from his chair. Alex, Wolf and Yassen followed suit partially out of politeness and partially because they were surprised at what they had just gotten themselves into. Blunt shook each of their hands with a slight enthusiasm that was a rarity in Blunt.
"Operation Triple Threat is about to begin."
a/n: so? Good, bad, horrible? Tell me what you think in a REVIEW. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on the two years. I think I'll do one chapter for year one and one for year two. Any ideas for what I should do/include in this story? Review! -Steph