Hi! I am soooo sorry that it has been forever since I last updated…. But I want you to know that I haven't forgotten about this story…..there is no excuse as to why it took so long for me to update this story but I am back so on with the story!
Smithers had just finished reading the first chapter. Everyone wasn't sure what to think yet especially Alex who wasn't all that keen on reading the book anymore. Alex had to think over what he had just learned. Like how his uncle and father were spy's and how Ian is supposed to die in less than a year.
Alex got up. Everyone looked at him "I need to walk around a bit my legs are falling asleep" this was a thin lie but he had to get away from Ian so that he could clear his head. No one believed what he had said but he brushed it off as though he were telling the truth.
Alex walked for about two minutes. He walked around table upon table and shelf upon shelf and began to survey the room. He hadn't noticed it before but now looking around he saw that the room was huge. He also noticed that he was lost. He was in a maze of shelves and didn't know were the exit was. He knew that he could simply call out for help and someone would find him but that also meant the embarrassment of someone knowing he got lost this room. So he kept walking.
Alex was about to lose hope and call out for help when he came to a strange machine. The machine was a large steel circle big enough for a small car to drive through. It had many switches and nobs but what really caught his attention was the small glowing orb in the middle of the steel circle. Alex got closer to the machine. It seemed to be humming almost like it was powering up.
The orb started to expand and get brighter. The orb was now taking up the whole circumference of the steel circle. Alex was blown of his feet and hit his head of a steel table. He wasn't knocked unconscious but he was hit hard enough to fell woozy and to have his vision blurred.
Alex could feel a presence next to him. A callused hand took hold of his shoulder and helped him up. He could hear his uncle and Jack coming near to the spot that he was at. Probably to see what the explosion was. Then he heard nothing. Alex began to think that maybe he did fall unconscious but he could steel feel the ruff hand on his shoulder. His vision was starting to come back and he looked at the person that was holding him steady. First he could see a slim but well-muscled man no taller than 6ft and blond hair. Alex almost cried out in shock when he saw who was standing in beside him.
It was himself but this new version of Alex was a little older than he himself who was only the age of fourteen. This Alex looked almost sixteen but the way he stood and held himself made him look much older.
Everyone was surrounding them now looking in amazement. Smithers was stammering about how this all was impossible while on the verge of hyperventilating.
Ian was the first to come over his shock first and began to speak "who sent you and how are you here?"
Future Alex, who came with a stone hard face, now looked at Ian with love and respect "Smithers sent me, well future Smithers did, he said that there were books written about my adventures and I insisted to come and make sure that they got the story strait….i also came to see if what they said was true that I would be able to see Ian and Jack again."
At this comment Jack spoke up "Why won't you be able to see me in the future?"
Alex voice became grim "Things have happened… and I don't really want to talk about it right now" Alex paused "So are we going to read the book or what?"
The past Alex (14 year old Alex) had just noticed that when everyone came to see what the explosion was Smithers had thought to bring the book! Alex was not at all surprised that Smithers was almost jumping up and down with joy that another person wanted to read the books.
"Well then" Smithers was shaking with joy "Who wants to read next?"
"I will" Said Jack.
WITH HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE just ahead of him, Alex left the river and swung his bike through the lights and down the hill toward Brookland School.
The bike was a Condor Junior Roadracer, custom built for him on his twelfth birthday. It was a teenager's bike, with a cut down Reynolds 531 frame, but the wheels were fullsize so he could ride at speed with hardly any rolling resistance. He spun past a delivery van and passed through the school gates. He would be sorry when he grew out of the bike. For two years now it had almost been part of him.
" I'm so glad you like it" both Ian and Jack said at once.
" What are you talking about!" Ian told Jack "I bought the bike!"
"Ya well I chose it for him!" Jack yelled back. Both of them stared long and hard at each other daring the other to turn away in defeat.
"Enough!" Yelled Alex #2 (Future Alex) " This is in the past… or the presents… but either way it doesn't matter to the story so let it go!"
Ian and Jack looked down as thought they were five year old caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Alex#1 (Past Alex) was astonished! He had never seen either of them ever ashamed this much over such a petty argument!
"Now Smithers" Alex#2 began ", if you would like to continue…"
He double locked it in the shed and went into the yard. Brookland was a modern school, all redbrick and, to Alex's eye, rather ugly.
"I don't believe that it is that boring" Jack spoke up.
Both Alex's looked at her and said in union "You have no idea" while shaking their heads
He could have gone to any of the exclusive private schools around Chelsea, but Ian Rider had decided to send him here. He had said it would be more of a challenge.
"Ian that's not a challenge if you wanted to give him a challenge you would have home schooled him and taught him all you know" Smithers said in disbelief.
"And when would I have found the time between spying on insane scientists and not trying to be killed" Ian retorted shortly.
At this opening Smither said "Ahh but you have been killed" That shut Ian up.
The first period of the day was algebra.
When Alex came into the classroom, the teacher, Mr. Donovan, was already chalking up a complicated equation on the board. It was hot in the room, the sun streaming in through the floor -to -ceiling windows, put in by architects who should have known better.
As Alex took his place near the back, he wondered how he was going to get through the lesson. How could he possibly think about algebra when there were so many other questions churning through his mind?
The gun at the funeral. The way Blunt had looked at him.
The van with STRYKER & SON written on the side. The empty office. And the biggest mystery of all, the one detail that refused to go away. The seat belt. Ian Rider hadn't been wearing a seat belt.
"You know what Alex" Jack began ", I believe you think too much." Everyone shook their heads in agreement and laughed as both of the Alexes huffed in annoy meant.
But of course he had. Ian Rider had never been one to give lectures. He had always said Alex should make up his own mind about things. But he'd had this thing about seat belts.
The more Alex thought about it, the less he believed it. A collision in the middle of the city. Suddenly he wished he could see the car. At least the wreckage would tell him that the accident had really happened, that Ian Rider had really died that way.
"Alex?"
Alex looked up and realized that everyone was staring at him. Mr. Donovan had just asked him something. He quickly scanned the blackboard, taking in the figures. "Yes, Sir," he said. "X equals seven and Y is fifteen."
"Good job Alex! That my boy!" Ian shouted out. Both Alex #1 and #2 beamed in pride.
"What are you congratulating him for? He isn't paying attention in class!" Jack got up and smacked all three of them on the head.
The math teacher sighed. "Yes, Alex. You're absolutely right. But actually I was just asking you to open the window. . . "
"See now he is in trouble!" Jack called out.
Somehow he managed to get through the rest of the day, but by the time the final bell rang, his mind was made up. While everyone else streamed out, he made his way to the secretary's office and borrowed a copy of the Yellow Pages.
"What are you looking for?" the secretary asked. Miss Bedfordshire had always had a soft spot for Alex.
"Auto junkyards . . ." Alex flicked through the pages. "If a car got smashed up near Old Street, they'd take it somewhere near, wouldn't they?"
"I suppose so."
"Here. . ." Alex had found the yards listed under "Auto Wreckers." But there were dozens of them fighting for attention over four pages.
"Is this for a school project?" the secretary asked. She knew Alex had lost a relative, but not how.
"Sort of . . ." Alex was reading the addresses, but they told him nothing.
"Alex you need to get better at lying if you're going to become a spy!" Ian said.
"Don't worry Ian" Alex #2 said "I become one of the best!"
"Great now look what you did! Alex believes it's all right to lie!" Jack said jokingly.
"This one's quite near Old Street." Miss Bedfordshire pointed at the corner of the page.
"Wait!" Alex tugged the book toward him and looked at the entry underneath the one the secretary had chosen:
J. B. STRYKER. AUTO WRECKERS
Heaven for Cars
CALL US TODAY
"That's in Vauxhall," Miss Bedfordshire said. "Not too far from here."
"I know." But Alex had recognized the name. J. B. Stryker. He thought back to the van he had seen outside his house on the day of the funeral. Stryker & Son. Of course it might just be a coincidence,but it was still somewhere to start. He closed the book. "I'll see you, Miss Bedfordshire."
"Be careful." The secretary watched Alex leave, wondering why she had said that. Maybe it was his eyes. Dark and serious, there was something dangerous there. Then the telephone rang and she forgot him as she went back to work.
J. B. Stryker's was a square of wasteland behind the railway tracks running out of Waterloo Station. The area was enclosed by a high brick wall topped with broken glass and razor wire. Two wooden gates hung open, and from the other side of the road, Alex could see a shed with a security window and beyond it the tottering piles of dead and broken cars. Everything of any value had been stripped away and only the rusting carcasses remained, heaped one on top of the other, waiting to be fed into the crusher. There was a guard sitting in the shed, reading a newspaper. In the distance a bulldozer coughed into life, then roared down on a battered Ford Taurus, its metal claw smashing through the window to scoop up the vehicle and carry it away.
"What a lovely place I would sure love to visit it some sad." Ian said sarcastically.
Alex's#2 eyes grew dark and dead. They caused shivers to run down everyone's spines. "Not me"
A telephone rang somewhere in the shed and the guard turned around to answer it. That was enough for Alex. Holding his bike and wheeling it along beside him, he sprinted through the gates.
He found himself surrounded by dirt and debris. The smell of diesel was thick in the air and the roar of the engines was deafening. Alex watched as a crane swooped down on one of the cars, seized it in a metallic grip and dropped it into a crusher. For a moment the car rested on a pair of shelves. Then the shelves lifted up, toppling the car over and down into a trough. The operator sitting in a glass cabin at one end of the crusher pressed a button and there was a great belch of black smoke. The shelves closed in on the car like a monster insect folding in its wings. There was a grinding sound as the car was crushed until it was no bigger than a rolled-up carpet. Then the operator threw a gear and the car was squeezed out, metallic toothpaste being chopped up by a hidden blade. The slices tumbled to the ground.
"This place seems kind of dangerous" Jacks motherly side kicking in ", are you sure you should go in there?"
"of course they have to Jack! How else is this story going to get exiting?" As Smithers said this his smile grew wide and maniac like. As though he was rooting for Alex to go in the junk yard!
Leaving his bike propped against the wall, Alex ran farther into the yard, crouching down behind the wrecks. With the din from the machines, there was no chance that anyone would hear him, but he was still afraid of being seen. He stopped to catch his breath, drawing a grimy hand across his face. His eyes were watering from the diesel fumes. The air was as filthy as the ground beneath him.
"I am telling you this isn't safe… I have a bad feeling about this!" Jack shouted out.
He was beginning to regret coming-but then he saw it. His uncle's BMW was parked a few yards away, separated from the other cars. At first glance it looked absolutely fine, the metallic silver bodywork not even scratched.
Certainly there was no way that this car could have been involved in a fatal collision with a truck or with anything else. But it was definitely his uncle's car. Alex recognized the license plate. He hurried closer and it was now that he saw that the car was damaged after all. The windshield had been smashed, along with all the windows on the driver's side. Alex made his way around to the other side. And froze.
Ian Rider hadn't died in any accident. What had killed him was plain to see-even to someone who had never seen such a thing before. A spray of bullets had caught the car full on the driver's side, shattering the front tire, smashing the windshield and side windows, and punching into the side panels.
Ian paled. He knew that he was going to die someday but being killed by a shower of bullets! This caused his mind to ache knowing now why he had a closed casket funeral. His body was probably maimed to badly from the bullets!
Everyone looked at him sympathetically and then quickly turned away knowing that Ian would never want sympathy.
Noticing the awkward silence Smithers began to read again.
Alex ran his fingers over the holes. The metal felt cold against his flesh. He opened the door and looked inside. The front seats pale gray leather, were strewn with fragments of broken glass and stained with patches of dark brown. He didn't need to ask what the stain was.
He could see everything. The flash of the machine gun, the bullets ripping into the car, Ian Rider jerking in the driver's seat …
Both Alexes and Ian closed their eyes not wanting to think about what happened to Ian.
But why? Why kill a bank manager? And why had the murder been covered up? It was the police who had delivered the news that night, so they must be part of it. Had they lied deliberately? None of it made sense.
"You should have gotten rid of it two days ago. Do it now. . ."
The machines must have stopped for a moment. If there hadn't been a sudden lull, Alex would never have heard the men coming. Quickly he looked across the steering wheel and out the other side. There were two of them, both dressed in loose-fitting overalls. Alex had a feeling he'd seen them before. At the funeral. One of them was the driver, the man he had seen with the gun. He was sure of it.
Whoever they were, they were only a few paces away from the car, talking in low voices. Another few steps and they would be there. Without thinking, Alex threw himself into the only hiding place available: inside the car itself. Using his foot, he hooked the door and closed it. At the same time, he became aware that the machines had started again and he could no longer hear the men.
Jack began to bit her nails. A nasty habit she picked up while living with the riders.
He didn't dare look up. A shadow fell across the window as the two men passed. But then they were gone. He was safe. And then something hit the BMW with such force that Alex cried out, his whole body caught in a massive shock wave that tore him away from the steering wheel and threw him helplessly into the back.
The roof buckled and three huge metal fingers tore through the skin of the car like a fork through an eggshell, trailing dust and sunlight. One of the fingers grazed the side of his head … any closer and it would have cracked his skull. Alex yelled as blood trickled over his eye. He tried to move, then was jerked back a second time as the car was yanked off the ground and tilted high up in the air.
Everyone was terrified for Alex now. Even Smithers who wanted Alex to go in there.
He couldn't see. He couldn't move. But his stomach lurched as the car swung in an arc, the metal grinding and the light spinning. The BMW had been picked up by the crane. It was going to be put inside the crusher. With him inside.
He tried to raise himself up, to wave through the windows. But the claw of the crane had already flattened the roof, pinning his left leg, perhaps even breaking it.
He could feel nothing. He lifted a hand and managed to pound on the back window, but he couldn't break the glass. Even if the workmen were staring at the BMW, they would never see anything moving inside.
Both Alexes saw there were tears on the rimes of Jacks eyes and walked over to comfort her.
His short flight across the junkyard ended with a bone-shattering crash as the crane deposited the car on the iron shelves of the crusher. Alex tried to fight back his sickness and despair and think of what to do. Any moment now the operator would send the car tipping into the coffin-shaped trough. The machine was a Lefort Shear, a slow-motion guillotine. At the press of a button, the two wings would close on the car with a joint pressure of five hundred tons. The car, with Alex inside it, would be crushed beyond recognition. And the broken metal-and flesh-would then be chopped into sections. Nobody would ever know what had happened.
"Alex you shouldn't think so depressingly" Ian joked trying to lighten the mood. But it had only gave him glares to shut up.
He tried with all his strength to free himself. But the roof was too low. His leg was trapped. Then his whole world tilted and he felt himself falling into darkness. The shelves had lifted. The BMW slid to one side and fell the few yards into the trough. Alex felt the metalwork collapsing all around him.
The back window exploded and glass showered around his head, dust and diesel fumes punching into his nose and eyes. There was hardly any daylight now, but looking out of the back, he could see the huge steel head of the piston that would push what was left of the car through the exit hole on the other side.
The engine tone of the Lefort Shear changed as it prepared for the final act. The metal wings shuddered. In a few seconds' time the two of them would meet, crumpling the BMW like a paper bag. Alex pulled with all his strength and was astonished when his leg came free.
"Yes! Go Alex you can still get out!" Yelled Jack.
It took him perhaps a second one precious second-to work out what had happened. When the car had fallen into the trough, it had landed on its side. The roof had buckled again just enough to free him. His hand scrabbled for the door-but, of course, that was useless. The doors were too bent. They would never open. The back window! With the glass gone, he could crawl through the frame, but only if he moved fast.
The wings began to move. The BMW screamed as two walls of solid steel relentlessly crushed it.
More glass shattered. One of the wheel axles snapped with the sound of a thunderbolt. Darkness began to close in. Alex grabbed hold of what was left of the backseat. Ahead of him he could see a single triangle of light, shrinking faster and faster. He could feel the weight of the two walls pressing down on him. The car was no longer a car but - the fist of some hideous monster snatching at the insect that Alex had become.
Jack went back to bighting her teeth.
With all his strength, he surged forward. His shoulders passed through the triangle, out into the light. Next came his legs, but at the last moment his shoe caught on a piece of jagged metal. He jerked and the shoe was pulled off, falling back into the car. Alex heard the sound of the leather being squashed. Finally, clinging to the black, oily surface of the observation platform at the back of the crusher, he dragged himself clear and managed to stand up.
"Yes! He's free" both Ian and jack screamed while jumping up and hugin each other.
"I'm not out of danger yet" Alex #2 spoke up causing Ian and Jack to sit down.
He found himself face-to-face with a man so fat that he could barely fit into the small cabin of the crusher. The man's stomach was pressed against the glass, his shoulders squeezed into the corners.
A cigarette dangled on his lower lip as his mouth fell open and his eyes stared. What he saw was a boy in the rags of what had once been a school uniform. A whole sleeve had been torn off and his arm, streaked with blood and oil, hung limply by his side. By the time the operator had, taken this all in come to his senses, and turned the machine off, the boy had gone.
Alex clambered down the side of the crusher, landing on the one foot that still had a shoe. He was aware now of the pieces of jagged metal lying everywhere. If he wasn't careful, he would cut open the other foot. His bicycle was where he had left it, leaning against the wall, and gingerly, half hopping, he made for it. Behind him he heard the cabin of the crusher open and a man's voice called out, raising the alarm.
At the same time a second man ran forward, stopping between Alex and his bike. It was the driver, the man he had seen at the funeral. His face, twisted into a hostile frown, was curiously ugly: greasy hair, watery eyes, pale, lifeless skin.
"What do you think . . ." he began. His hand slid into his jacket. Alex remembered the gun and, instantly, without even thinking, swung into action. He had started learning karate when he was six years old. One afternoon, with no explanation, Ian Rider had taken him to a local club for his first lesson and he had been going there, once a week, ever since. Over the years he had passed through the various Kyu-student grades. But it was only the year before that he had become a first-grade Dan, a black belt. When he had arrived at Brookland School, his gentle looks and accent had quickly brought him to the attention of the school bullies; three hulking sixteen-year olds. They had cornered him once behind the bike shed.
"Alex why didn't you tell me people were being mean to you at school?" Jack asked worryingly.
"Because I could deal with it myself … I am sure that the book with tell you if you read on."
The encounter lasted less than a minute. The next day one of the bullies had left Brookland, and the other two had never troubled anyone again.
"See." Alex said with pride.
Now Alex brought up one leg, twisted his body around, and lashed out. The back kick Ushirogeri is said to be the most lethal in karate. His foot powered into the man's abdomen with such force that the man didn't even have time to cry out. His eyes bulged and his mouth half opened in surprise. Then, with his hand still halfway into his jacket, he crumpled to the ground.
Alex jumped over him, snatched up his bike, and swung himself onto it. In the distance a third man was running toward him. He heard the single word "Stop!" called out. Then there was a crack and a bullet whipped past.
Alex gripped the handlebars and pedaled as hard as he could. The bike shot forward, over the rubble and out through the gates. He took one look over his shoulder. Nobody had followed him.
With one shoe on and one shoe off, his clothes in rags, and his body streaked with oil, Alex knew he must look a strange sight. But then he thought back to his last seconds inside the crusher and sighed with relief. He could be looking a lot worse.
"I have never been more afraid for your life Alex" Jack said jokingly " you better not do anything like that again!"
Alex#2 snorted "Good luck with that."
Ok that's a rap for chapter 3! I would like to thank all of you for being so patent and as soon as I can I will update this story! And remember I love comments plus I need some votes if I should bring a new character in and if so who? Also give me some ideas of what you would like in the story! Thanks for reading! (: