Alex… meet Antonio and Jordan

For the next hour-and-a-half Alex sat on the edge of his seat while he watched the incredibly close football match against Chelsea and London. Alex watched in amazement in the last fifteen seconds while a London player shot a corner kick perfectly. Alex grimaced when the ball curved behind the Chelsea goalie. He stood up along with the other Chelsea supporters while they all held their breath.

The goalie jumped backwards quickly then outstretched her right arm swatted the ball away from goal making it roll past the forwards and defense.

Alex was blown away; it was the most amazing save he had ever seen in his life. But most great saves came from Chelsea's goalie, Antonio Barnett, whose face was always painted blue. Alex just assumed it was for good luck. He stood up and cheered loudly along with the other home team supporters as they cheered in victory about their 4-3 win.

Then his cell phone rang ruining his moment. He sighed then took his cell phone out of his pocket and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Alex, have you had sighting of Jordan yet?" he heard Mr. Blunt ask while his eyes were glued to the goalie who was being carried by his team towards the sidelines.

"What? Oh, yeah I have," he said once he remembered what she said while she entered the stadium. "While she was entering the stadium she was talking to someone on her cell phone saying 'yeah I know I'm late' and 'it's not like the game can start without me!'"

"Hmm…" he heard him say then he heard a shuffling of papers, "Alex, I'm going to get back to you on that," he told him sternly then the line went dead.

Alex quickly put his phone in his pocket and started to exit the stands just like everyone else… until he saw a man with a gun walk towards the players' tunnel.

Once Alex quickly ran down towards the field and, while trying his hardest not to be noticed, he silently followed the man inside the tunnel.

What could he possibly be doing? Alex thought while he saw the man open the door to a room in the corner of the locker room. Alex looked around and noticed that there was no one else in the locker room. So what could possibly be in the back room? A second later he heard grunting an a hard smack and then a loud thud and then more grunting until finally he saw through the open door, the man with the gun hit the cement wall with a thud then fell to the floor.

Alex ran into the room and looked at the unconscious man with a shocked expression, and then he looked up and stared in horror at Jordan Nommack.

"Hi… what's your name?" she asked awkwardly. Alex stared at her for a second trying to figure out what kind of question that was.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked rather loudly and her face went from beige to maroon in a matter of seconds.

Then Alex finally noticed what she was wearing… the Chelsea football uniform. Her face had streaks of blue that were barely noticeable but Alex saw it.

"Yu, yu, yu… you're the… the… goalie," he managed to say out of pure shock. She nodded then walked up to him and she put her hand over his mouth.

"Not a word," she whispered to him.

"Wh, wh, wh, why?" he stuttered again, only his voice was muffled because of her hand.

"I can't explain here, I'm going to change and you will wait in the main locker room for me… and then we'll go somewhere, and then we'll talk."

"Okay," he tried to make his voice sound clear, and then out of habit, he licked her hand slightly just so she would remove it from his mouth.

"Ew!" she wined taking her hand off of him then she glared at him, "you are so immature." She told him darkly then smeared his saliva all over his face. Alex's face scrunched as she did that.

"Gross!" he spat and then she laughed at him.

"Okay, now get out, whoever you are!" she told him before he left he turned around.

"Alex Rider."

"What?"

"My name's Alex Rider."

"I know who you are…" she smiled at him, which made him nervous.

"Huh?"

"You're a spy for MI6," she stated and he just nodded.

"Okay well… obviously I'm not Antonio Barnett. I'm Jordan. Now it's time for you to go though… wait out there I'll be done changing in a minute." then he left the room and shut the door behind him and sat down on the bench.

"Okay I'm ready," Jordan, told him as she walked out of her personal locker room.

"How come the rest of the team isn't here?" Alex suddenly wondered.

"Oh they always find some way to stall for me so I can quick change," she told him simply and they left the locker room out of the back door.

"Who was that man with the gun?" he asked, suddenly remembering him.

"He was buddies with that gang member I took down… he's pretty upset about it," she shrugged.

"Imagine that." Jordan laughed making him smile.

"Didn't you park over there?" Alex asked pointing to the red Ferrari Enzo parked in the main parking lot.

"Oh…" she felt like hitting herself on the head then starting walking away from the players' parking lot and towards her car, "I usually park in the players' lot but today I didn't have time to go around back," Alex nodded and walked in silence.

"Hey hot stuff wanna ditch the blonde and come on over to my place?" a brunette haired boy called to her, Alex guessed he was probably sixteen or fifteen.

Alex looked at her and watched her face turn red with anger. All she did though was stick up her middle finger at the boy making Alex grin.

She swore under her breath when the harassing teenager wouldn't stop shouting out catcalls to her. Which made Alex have the impression that she had a short fuse that was hard for her to control.

Finally they reached her convertible she got into the drivers' side and Alex sat in the passenger's seat.

"Do you know how to drive?" she asked while slipping on her black, oversize Chanel sunglasses. Jordan checked the mirrors then pulled out of the parking lot.

"Yes, my uncle taught me," he said simply while admiringly the car's sleek features. They sat in silence for a few minutes while Jordan made her way out of the city and onto a paved road that seemed as if it led to nowhere.

"Do you live with your uncle?" she asked trying to break the ice.

"No, he died, along with my parents," he said plainly, Jordan noticed that there was no emotion in his voice but there was a lot of it in his expression.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Where are your parents?" he asked then watched her face turn from soft to hard.

"My dad left two years ago and my mom's a drug addict who lives in Manchester," she told him darkly.

"You don't live with her?" he asked.

"I live by myself," she said sternly, Alex decided to drop the subject. After three minutes of silence they arrived at their destination.

It was a large, old, Victorian house that was light blue with white shutters. A gravel road met the driveway that led to a garage and a walkway that led up to the large porch. Jordan parked the car next to a metallic blue Honda Element, and then she got out of the car.

"You don't park in the garage?" Alex asked. Why wouldn't she want to park two expensive cars in a garage for safekeeping?

"I have two other cars in there," she shrugged then started to walk towards the front door of the house, Alex followed.

"What kind?"

"Mercedes-Benz S600 Guard and a Cadillac Escalade Platinum," she said without turning around to look at him, she already knew what his expression would be.

And she was right, he stumbled a bit when she told him her two other cars. How could she afford it?

"Alright now we can talk," she told him once they were both sitting in her large office in the tower of the house. They were sitting on the wood floor with all of her large three ring binders spread out between them. The books were filled with pictures, articles from newspapers and then Internet, and evidence.

"Why are you posing as Antonio Barnett?" Alex asked quickly, Jordan wasn't surprised at the question and looked up at the boy's face.

"It makes it easier for me to spy on him."

"Why are you spying on him?" she that one coming too, and she took in a deep breath before answering.

"You know how the Prime Minister and my coach, Bryne Sovact, are friends?" Alex nodded and she continued, "Well Sovact is forming a mob to take Brown down. He wants power and he's mad that the Prime Minister fired him from his job as his personal secretary."

"Why was he fired?" Alex asked, interrupting her.

"He started to let the roll of 'personal secretary' get to his head caused trouble in the office and from getting bad press."

"What did he do?"

"In 2007 he got a DWI and fined 5,000 lats and has a twelve year ban on his license," Alex nodded and she continued. "He played football in college so he decided to be the coach of Brown's favorite soccer team, Chelsea, as a way to become closer to him. Brown thinks everything's first-class between them… but it's not. Sovact is going to assonate him if I don't take him down before he does but I just don't know when he will," she pouted then looked away.

"I still don't get how you are able to be Antonio Barnett," Alex confessed feeling idiotic.

"Antonio died six months ago in a car accident and I am taking his place, nobody knows that he's dead besides his family and friends who all signed confidentiality agreement, and the team did to."

"How can you afford to live alone and own four cars?" she starred at him with an 'are-you-kidding-me' expression.

"What do I do for living Alex?" she asked with a smirk.

"Oh yea…" he whispered and he face turned red with embarrassment. Then his cell phone rang. "OH CRAP!" he shouted remembering that he was supposed to meet Blunt and Jones in the parking lot.

"What?" she jumped.

"Hello?" he answered the phone.

"ALEX WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?" Blunt yelled in his ear.

"I'm sorry I just got sidetracked-"

"What? Did one of the players ask for you to join the team or something?" Blunt continued to yell with sarcasm obviously leaking from his voice.

"Sorry," Alex muttered, he didn't like to be yelled at.

"THAT'S ALL YOU CAN SAY?" Blunt yelled again, guilt washed out of Alex and anger took its place.

"OKAY!! I SAID I WAS SORRY WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, ROLL ON THE GROUND AND BEG FOR MERCY?" Alex yelled back, Alan Blunt was about to yell back but then Alex heard Mrs. Jones in the background telling Blunt to calm down. Blunt sighed then lowered his voice. "Where are you, Alex?"

Alex bit his lip nervously then put his hand over the end of the phone.

"Where am I?" he asked Jordan.

"Want me to tell you where you really are, or a fake place?" she asked.

"Fake place," she thought for a moment then answered.

"Ed's Easy Diner, I can get you there in five minutes," Alex seriously doubted it but told Blunt where he'd be anyways.

"Where are we really?" Alex asked once he hanged up the phone.

"Fulham, now come on… we need to get you to Ed's," she told him and got up, he got up and followed her down the steps.

As she drove a hundred miles-an-hour to the dinner while weaving through the angry cars that blared their horns at her, the two teens were silent until she finally spoke.

"You're going to sign a confidentiality agreement."

"You don't trust me that I won't tell?" he asked, trying not to sound too surprised. Even though he truly was.

She pulled up against the curve next to the dinner and he got out of the car but still stared her down for an answer.

"Quite frankly, Alex," she sighed, "I don't trust anyone."

And then she drove away leaving him alone on the sidewalk.

"Goodnight, Alex," Blunt called to him and as the teenager opened the door to his house. Alex turned around and waved goodbye then Blunt drove away.

Since Jordan drove to the dinner with incredible speed, Alex had time to get inside the diner and sit at a table and wait for Blunt to arrive on only thirty seconds later.

Jack Starbright was waiting for Alex to arrive on the sofa in the living room. They exchanged 'hello's. Once Alex sat down at the dining room table waiting for his supper to heat up, he stuck his hand inside his pocket to take out his cell phone, that's when he felt a folded piece of scratch paper. He pulled it out and read.

Hey Alex, here's my number:

1-800-2-hot-4-you, just joking :)

It's:

Alex pulled out his cell phone and added her to his contacts and then he read on.

Text me your number once you add it to your phone. I'm going to need a partner in crime for my mission. But you better not screw up!

No pressure ;)

TTYL,

Jordan

A grin spread widely across Alex's face as he quickly texted Jordan.