I quite liked this chapter because I thought that the way in which Alex tracked down Ray Dunne and watched him was quite realistic. Feel free to disagree with me though :P Anyway, I'm just glad I had time post this today...

Chapter Five, Observation Point

By the time Alex got home, Jack was asleep on the cough. She'd stuck a note on the TV screen that was showing an Eastenders rerun turned on mute. Alex reached over, trying not to wake Jack up, and pulled the note off the screen.

Dinner's in the fridge if you want it. I don't want to know where you went, do I?

"Probably not," Alex muttered to himself before finding the remote control and switching the TV off. After that, he managed to find a blanket in one of the downstairs cupboards and tuck it around Jack. He felt bad for the way he'd yelled at her before; at least this way he was showing he still cared about her.

Walking into the kitchen, Alex opened the fridge and had a look inside. There was a plate of Tortellini and Peas with plastic over it sitting on the top shelf. Suddenly ravenous, Alex quickly pulled it out and stuck it in the microwave, taking the plastic off first. As he sat waiting at the breakfast bar, he heard Jack stir in the lounge room.

"Alex?" She sounded sleepy, which was fair enough considering he'd probably woken her up. Alex took his food out of the microwave, picked up a fork and walked back out to the lounge room.

"Hey." Alex smiled faintly at Jack, trying to look repentant for his earlier behaviour. Jack sat us blearily, holding the blanket tightly around her. It was a cold night and Alex hadn't turned on the heating yet.

"Hey," Jack replied, yawning widely whilst Alex sat in a nearby armchair and began to wolf his food down, "When did you get back?"

"Just now." Alex replied, "Thanks for dinner."

Jack shrugged.

"Thanks for the blanket…I didn't mean to fall asleep here, I just thought I'd close my eyes for just a second…"

Alex smiled and went back to eating whilst Jack went back to dozing on the couch. After awhile, something occurred to Alex.

"Hey, do you know anyone named 'Ray Dunne'?" He asked, putting his fork down. Jack turned to look at him, brow creasing in a frown.

"No…" She thought about it, "What's he look like?"

"Tall, brown hair, greenish grey eyes… He's American; I thought you might know him." Alex shrugged and went back to eating.

"Alex, there are 300 million people in the US," Jack said dryly, "So the fact that this 'Ray' guy is American is not enough to guarantee I'd know him. Why do you ask anyway?"

Alex hesitated; he didn't want to worry Jack about this man. However, things were already speeding up beyond his control; Michael had been shot, his Mum arrested, this guy was making threats against both him and Jack and top it all off, Yassen Gregorovich may or may not have been strolling around Greater London, casually saving kids from being run over. He figured Jack should get at least some warning that strange things were going on.

"Um, he knew my name and mobile number," Alex said, carefully gauging Jacks' expression, "He knew your name too."

Jack had gone very still, but Alex saw her eyes flickering around the room fearfully, as if expecting Ray Dunne to suddenly materialise behind a chair or coffee table.

"He…He knew all that?"

Alex nodded slowly, suddenly thinking that perhaps this hadn't have been such a good idea.

"Um yeah…He knew Mrs. Jones and MI6 too though, so he's probably one of them, or even MI5…"

Alex felt bad seeing how easily his quickly invented excuse cleared Jack's expression, but he knew he was doing the right thing; Jack didn't need to have the same fears and nightmares he did. He wasn't going to be the one to put danger into her life.

"Yes, that's probably it," Jack was yawning again, already falling back to sleep, "Alright Alex, goodnight. Make sure you go to school tomorrow."

Feeling bad about it, Alex nodded but again, hid his crossed fingers behind his back.

The next morning, Alex got up at his alarm, got dressed in his school uniform and had breakfast. Then, he walked out the front door, yelling a goodbye to Jack. As far as she knew, Alex Rider was going to school. Fifteen minutes after he left, she did as well, heading out for a movie and lunch with a friend. As soon she was out of sight, Alex quickly snuck back into the house.

As soon as he'd let himself back into the house, Alex bolted up to his room and quickly changed from his all too conspicuous school uniform into a pair of cargo pants and a grey baggy hooded jumper. He then double checked the contents of his backpack before turning on his computer and pulling out his mobile phone. He'd had an idea last night on how to track this 'Ray Dunne'.

Scrolling through the 'missed calls' list on his phone (it wasn't hard, he'd only had one call), Alex found Ray Dunne's mobile number. He then opened an internet search engine and typed in 'mobile phone locator'.

It took an hour and a half, but eventually Alex found what he was looking for: a website that used satellite GPS tracking to trace mobile phone numbers. It was designed for overly protective parents to trace their kid's mobile phones. There was a thirty pound registration fee, but Alex happened to know all of Jack's credit card details. He registered quickly; register Ray Dunne's mobile phone number. To his surprise, it actually worked, turning up a Notting Hill address.

"Awesome…" Alex muttered before quickly erasing his internet history and turning the computer off. He wrote the address down on a scrap of paper before he could forget it, picked up his bag and left the house.

Catching the Tube to Notting Hill, Alex emerged onto the Westbourne Park station. Painfully aware of the number of CCTV cameras in not only London, but especially in places like Tub stations, he slipped on a pair of sunglasses and pulled the hood of his jumper up. Fortunately, it was a cold, sunny day so he didn't look out of place.

Quickly walking away from the station and keeping his head down (Alex knew his identity was protected somewhat by the hood and glasses, but enough of his face was revealed for him to worry about face recognition software in the cameras), Alex slipped the scrap of paper out of his pocket and took a quick glance. 17 Saint Luke's Mews. Only a short walk from where he was now.

As he walked onto Saint Luke's, Alex began to formulate a plan in his head. He'd already had a few rough details ready last night, when he'd lain in bed awake for hours, but now he was really starting to put things together. The first step was pretty simple: see if anyone was home.

Alex stood with his head low until a kid of around seven or eight came walking by with a Labrador puppy on a leash. Alex called him over.

"Hey, want to make fifteen quid?" He asked quietly, shifting a little to make sure he was out of sight of number 17. The kid's eyes widened, he nodded eagerly, long brown hair flopping into his face.

"Yeah!" He gasped, picturing fifteen pounds to bit a fair bit more then what it actually was, "Sure! What do I have to do?"

Alex smiled encouragingly at the small boy and pointed to the house in question.

"You see number 17 there?"

"Yep," The boy nodded again, big brown eyes serious.

"Well, I want you to go up to that house, knock on the door and when the person comes to answer you, ask them if they've seen your dog."

The boy frowned, his mind a little hesitant over the obvious problem with that.

"Lucky's right here." He pointed to the small, sleepy looking puppy he had on the leash. Alex nodded and spread his hands out reassuringly.

"Yeah, we're only pretending though. I'll take care of Lucky, hiding behind this car here and you go pretend like you're missing your dog. Only you can't let the man who answers you know that I'm nearby, okay?"

The boy considered the request with an innocence that only young children have.

"So it's like a game then?"

Alex nodded again.

"Yeah, one that you get paid for playing. So do you think you can do this for me?"

The boy was nibbling on his lip now and looking excited.

"You promise you'll stay right here? You won't steal Lucky?"

Alex looked at the boy solemnly.

"I promise. Now off you go."

The boy grinned, already turning his mind back to the fifteen pounds. Without another word, he quickly trotted up the road whilst Alex crouched behind a nearby parked car, holding the Labrador puppy under his arm.

Tim's Mum had always told him not to speak to strangers, but this boy was really nice and besides, he was going to give him fifteen whole pounds! Not to mention he was a kid too, so he couldn't be mean or a kidnapper or nothing.

Tim, smart for a seven year old, had one flaw though: he was as naive as they came. He hadn't thought about whether the man he was supposed to be talking to counted as a stranger.

The door's bell was a little bit too high for Tim to reach, so he knocked instead. His little fists didn't seem to make much noise against the sturdy wood door, so he yelled out as well. To his credit, he was playing his part excellently; not even glancing down the road to give Alex's position away.

"Hello?"

Tim waited when he heard footsteps on polished boards inside the house. He knew the sound, he had a floor like that at home and his Mummy didn't like him to let Lucky on it because his little puppy claws scratched the wood apparently.

Tim's train of thought was interrupted as the door suddenly opened.

Alex's heart leapt up as the door was opened. It sunk back down to the right level quickly however; whoever was inside the house had only opened the door a little. Alex could just see the faint outline of a man inside the house. He couldn't see the man's face or hair, but he did see that the man was wearing an expensive looking black bomber jacket.

Alex peered frantically at the indistinct man as Tim began to speak.

Tim was scared of the man, he looked mean. He wore expensive clothing like his Daddy, but Tim knew that his daddy would never turn such a cold, unfriendly expression in is direction.

"What?" The man was keeping well back from the door, in a dimly lit hallway, but Tim thought that maybe he had dark brown hair with lighter streaks. Like when his sister Freddie accidentally gave herself a bad hair dye job.

"Um, h-have you s-seen my dog?" Tim stuttered when he got nervous, and this was definitely making him nervous, "His n-name is L-Lucky and he's a-"

"I haven't seen your dog," The man said, not as nastily but still quite obviously trying to get rid of Tim, "Go home."

"B-but I-" Tim didn't have chance to finish however, the man had shut the door in his face and he heard the distinct noise of a lock being slid into place. A little worried he hadn't done his job properly; Tim stumbled over his feet in an effort to hurry back to Alex.

"S-s'cuse me?" Tim peered around the car uneasily, "You still there?"

Alex sat up, passing Lucky back over.

"Yep, you did well," He told the small boy, "I got everything I needed."

Tim beamed and as Alex passed over his 'pay', he frowned.

"Hey, you gave me too much!" He declared with an admirable honesty, "You gave me twenty!"

Alex smiled, inwardly hoping the boy's Mother wouldn't hassle him over the money.

"Keep it; you did an extra good job."

Alex was gratified to see Tim's happy expression as he ran off, dragging Lucky along. Once the boy was safely gone, Alex considered what he knew.

One, Ray Dunne's mobile was supposed to be at this location. Two, a man that could have been Ray had answered the door. The problem was, it was only a 'could have'; Alex hadn't been able to see the man's features. Not to mention there could be other people in the house.

Alex frowned at that thought and turned to point three. Point three; he can see a narrow lane that was bordered by one of the walls of the house. Alex figured he could sneak down that lane and hope that there was a window he could peer through to get a better idea of the house's interior.

However, something happened at that moment that completely changed Alex's plans. A man came out of the front door. He was wearing aviator sunglasses, but the black, hooded bomber jacket gave him away. It was the same man who's answered Tim at the door. The man quickly locked his front door before leaving in a BMW he had parked outside the house. Alex knew then that the man was alone in the house; you don't lock the door if there's someone else in there.

Absolutely thrilled by the opportunity he was being presented with here, Alex waited a moment or two to make sure he hadn't missed anything before slipping out from behind the car and hurrying down the narrow lane. As he'd hoped, there was a small window and a sort of side door that led from the alley into the house. As was to be expected, both were locked. Fortunately however, Alex had come prepared.

Staying hidden from the street by crouching behind a couple of garbage bins, Alex opened up his bag. The first thing he did was take out a pair of gloves. He slipped them on. The last thing he wanted to do was to leave fingerprints for anyone to find. Then, he also pulled out a dark grey ski cap and put that on too, careful to cover his hair. He didn't know what sort of resources the man he was going up against might have, but the less DNA evidence and fingerprints he left behind, the better.

Once his hands and hair were safely covered, Alex produced a belt from his bag. Originally, he'd been meant to use it in his Snakehead mission, but Ash's thieving and treacherous ways had put a stop to that. However, Smithers had felt bad that Alex had never had a chance to use such a useful invention, so he'd secretly provided Alex with a new one, complete with hidden blade.

Very carefully, Alex used the blade in the belt to slice a small circle into the glass on the door. Putting the belt back in his bag, Alex used one of his gloved hands to put the circle out and the other to catch it before it fell and shattered against the floor. He gently placed the portion of glass in his bag and reached into the hole where it had just been and unlocked the door from the inside.

The door swung open silently, a temptation to explore inside.

"And who am I to resist?" Alex murmured before walking inside and closing and locking the door behind him.

The inside of the house was a little small, but decorated in a modern and tasteful style. Everything was fairly clean, but in a lived-in sort of way; there were dishes drying by the sink and a laptop (Alex ignored it as it was sure to be password protected) and papers left on the kitchen table. There was a half finished cup of coffee sitting with a coaster underneath.

Alex raised a brow. Ray Dunne, a man who made casual threats against fourteen year old boys and their guardians, used coasters?

Slightly bemused, Alex pushed that thought aside and looked at the papers. To his surprise, and growing confusion, they were personnel files. MI6 personnel files, to be precise.

Alex saw his photo on the top folder and knew that whoever this man was, he had managed to get his hands on a lot of Top Secret MI6 material. On a whim, Alex flicked open his own file. Most of what was there he'd expected, but one thing caught his attention.

Family:

-Father (see 'John Rider') (deceased)

-Mother (deceased)

-Uncle (See 'Ian Rider') (deceased)

-Godfather (see 'Ash' and 'Snakehead') (deceased)

-Godfather (file currently open. See MI6 restrictions placed) (ACTIVE)

Alex's breath came out in a strangled gasp. He had another Godfather? He'd never been told! He'd always presumed that when Ash had died, so had the last trace of his family…

Alex's eyes fell on the words that followed the second notation under 'Godfather'. File currently open. See MI6 restrictions placed…What did all of that mean? Did it mean his Godfather was under some sort of limitations placed by MI6? Was that why Alex had never been told? Alex looked at the word ACTIVE with a painful feeling. Whoever this man was, he was alive and no one had, including the man himself, had bothered to tell him.

Shaking himself and realising that he probably didn't have much time to look around left, Alex pushed his file aside and began flicking through the others. There was one on several old missions, from before Alex was born…More recent ones such as a 1990 one in Germany and even some short notes on Alex's missions…Then; another personnel file caught his attention.

It was under the name 'Yassen Gregorovich'. Ray Dunne was interested in Yassen too…

But why? Was Ray Dunne suspicious that he was missing something because Alex was suddenly showing an interest in the Russian? Was that why he was looking through old, Top Secret files he shouldn't have had? With trembling fingers, Alex opened the file and began to scan through quickly.

Ray Dunne had barely left his home when something in his pocket began buzzing. Frowning, he took out what looked like the sort of key ring buttons that go with cars to unlock the doors and such. However, there was only one button, marked 'reset' and a light, which was currently flashing.

"Shit." He muttered to himself. The buzzing and flashing was because this small gadget was connected to the system of locks in all of his house's doors and windows. Whenever he left the house, he turned on this alarm system so that if anything was unlocked whilst he was gone, he'd know about it.

Muttering both English and foreign curses under his breath, Ray Dunne spun his car around (drawing large amounts of hostility from other drivers on the road) and sped towards home.

A lot of what was in Yassen's file was just expanded details of what Ash had told Alex previously. Yassen had come from a small but not too badly off family in Estrov. His Mother and Father, Alex had already known about. What he hadn't known about what the younger brother, who disappeared after going out in the woods alone at age seven.

Feeling saddened, Alex kept reading. He'd just gotten to a large section marked 'RECENT ACTIVITY', when there was a small sound: wood rasping and the tiniest sound of a footstep. Heart leaping up to his throat, Alex promptly put all the papers back the way he'd seen them and backed away rapidly from the table. He'd originally meant to just leave by the way he'd arrived, gluing the removed section of glass back into place, but that plane was quickly removed from consideration. Ray was home, and somehow, he'd remotely locked all the doors and windows again.

Alex stayed by the locked door nevertheless, trying to figure out what to do. He could sense Ray approaching, carefully checking every hiding spot as he moved. He knew that if he was caught here, there would be hell to pay. And possibly more. Alex looked around wildly for an escape, heart pounding and pulse racing. In the end, only one option presented itself. It was going to hurt, and it completely destroyed all his efforts to leave no trace of his visit, but that was too bad. Alex just needed to get out.

Acting quickly, Alex reached into his bag and pulled out the ski mask he'd been keeping in there. Pulling it on quickly, Alex readied himself. Directly ahead was a large window that had a drop of about a metre down to the street. Alex was going to have to use it to escape. The only problem being of course, that the window was in the exact same room that Ray Dunne was currently searching. He was going to have to move fast.

Before he could psyche himself out of doing it, Alex bolted straight ahead. He briefly saw Ray Dunne jerk back, nearly run into, and then heard clicking metal. He didn't stop to consider it though; he only had one option here. Alex jumped side first. He prayed Ray's windows were made of safety glass.

Luck was on his side; the window shattered at the impact of Alex crashing through it. Shutting his eyes so no glass would get in them, Alex fell to the ground on the other side. Not wasting any time, he jumped back to his feet and took off again down the street. To his shock, he heard muffled thumps and saw bullets crash through the windows of nearby cars.

'He's shooting at me!'

That one lent Alex the desperation he needed to put an extra burst of speed and get the hell out of there. Ray Dunne stood in his shattered window, watching Alex go. Once the boy was out of range, the man turned away shaking his head. He needed to reload his dart gun.

As soon as he was sure he was out of range of Ray's gun, Alex quickly ripped off his mask and stuffed them into his bag. The last thing he needed was some civilian calling the police on him because he looked like a robber. Trying to fix his 'hat hair', Alex let out a shuddering breath, tried to calm the frantic beating of his heart and then shakily headed back towards the Tube.

On the train, Alex realised that the school would have called Jack because he was absent again. Wincing, Alex got off at his home stop and headed towards a nearby shop. Maybe he could try to lessen the imminent fury with an expensive box of chocolates and a bouquet of flowers? Alex didn't know if it would work, but he figured anything at this point was worth a try.

As he browsed through the shop, searching for Jack's favourite chocolates (Turkish Delight), his new phone rang. Alex began to panic, thinking it would be Ray Dunne again. Then, he saw the number on the caller ID screen. Home. Jack was calling. With a relieved sigh, he answered.

"Hey Jack."

"Alex," Jack sounded worried or stressed. It was hard to tell which. "The school called me again…Where are you?"

"I'm actually on my way home now," Alex said, walking to the counter to pay for his purchases, "I'll be back soon."

"Alright, but hurry up." Jack hung up, leaving Alex frowning at the phone. She must have really been upset with him, she'd sounded sort of ominous.

-Cue dramatic music!- So, Alex has another Godfather!! Strange yes, highly unorthodox yes, but you'll find out why this is very soon...Let's just say the second Godfather was appointed on 'in case' basis... Your guesses as to how Ray Dunne, Yassen Gregorovich, MI6 and Alex's mystery 'second Godfather' are all connected are very welcome! I look forward to seeing lots of theories and questions when I get back from holidays...

Adieu!