EDIT (14/12/11): Some grammatical mistakes have been made, and soem parts tweaked. Like chapter one, this will be rewritten at some point . . .
DISCLAIMER: Alex Rider bleongs to Anthony Horowitz
Riiiinnnggg. Riiinnnnggg. Riiiinnn-
"What?" Wolf barked out. It was 8 o'clock in the evening and he was in the middle of his dinner. He wasn't expecting any calls, and the only people who called him anyway were his teammates and his family.
It's probably some stupid salesman, Wolf thought to himself.
"Mr Costello?" a smooth, unruffled voice asked. Wolf cursed silently to himself, realising that it was someone from work and his rudeness was probably not well received.
"Yes?" he asked. He wasn't expecting an assignment for a few weeks.
"Your presence is required at the Royal and General bank, Liverpool Street. You will be expected at 0800 hours tomorrow."
"Right. Sure." Wolf answered. Royal and General . . . Wasn't that Military Intelligence? Was it to do with Fox then? He didn't see what else MI would want with him. He was SAS, and most of his orders went through them.
"Good. You are not to speak of this, understand?" the curt voice informed him.
"Ok," he replied, but the man had already hung up. Strange . . .
"Umm . . . I was told to come here today?" Wolf said to a stern faced receptionist at the Royal and General.
"Name?" she asked peering at him closely.
"James Costello"
"Right." She gestured to a man standing in a corner. He walked over and smiled at Wolf. "Agent Jackson here will show you up."
"Thanks" Wolf nodded at her and followed the man into a lift. The journey was spent in silence, with Wolf traipsing after the agent in what seemed like a maze of identical corridors. Eventually they stopped outside a nondescript black door.
"Mr Crawley and Mrs Jones are waiting for you inside," he informed the SAS soldier.
Wolf stayed still. Mrs Jones? Wasn't she, like, the deputy head or something? Why the hell did she want to speak to him?
"You're the first of your unit to arrive," Agent Jackson said and opened the door for him. Numbly, Wolf stepped inside. So his unit was coming to? Well, that wasn't completely unexpected, not if it was to do with Fox. Mrs Jones, however, was.
"Good morning," he greeted the MI6 members respectfully.
"Wolf," Mrs Jones said, "take a seat."
He did as she said. "Why am I here?" he asked curiously.
The man, Mr Crawley, spoke up. "All will be explained when the others arrive."
Wolf inclined his head and kept silent.
5 minutes later, Wolf was fighting the urge to tap his foot. He was insanely bored. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to get there early. Mrs Jones and Mr Crawley were looking through papers on the desk and every so often glancing up at him. He was growing increasingly uncomfortable in the silence.
Knock, knock
"Oh thank God," Wolf muttered. Finally.
"Come in!" Mrs Jones called and, accordingly, the door opened.
"Snake here to see you Ma'am," a man in a black suit informed her.
"Thank you." She nodded at him and he left. Another man stepped fully into the room and greeted the MI6 personnel. The Scottish man then sat in the chair next to Wolf and nodded at him with a faint smile on his face. Wolf returned the gesture. There was silence again.
When at last Eagle arrived, Wolf was ready to cry in frustration. And he didn't cry often. That was the worst 10 minutes of his life.
"Right then, now we're all here, let's get down to it." Mrs Jones announced. "Mr Crawley, if you would?" She nodded at him.
He inclined his head and stood up, handing each of them a file.
"One of our agents has been kidnapped by Scorpia. You will of course know that Scorpia do not forgive or forget, and it is essential that we get our agent back as soon as possible. He is very important and it would be a huge blow to lose an agent of his calibre."
"May I ask who it is?" Snake inquired.
"His name is Alex Rider. Anything other than that is classified," Mr Crawley declared. "The details of the place he is held are in the file." Seeing Eagle's confused look, he elaborated, "All our agents are fitted with trackers that activate when their heart is under severe stress."
"So he's being tortured then?" Wolf asked bluntly.
"Yes," Mrs Jones said quietly. An unidentifiable emotion flickered through her eyes. "That's why you must act soon."
"You are experienced soldiers and have worked together before. You will lead four other teams into Scorpia's complex and rescue Agent Rider. Is there any questions?" Mr Crawley asked.
"When will we meet the other teams?" Snake questioned seriously. "We'll need time to plan."
"You'll be flown up North nearer the complex and you'll meet the teams then. All clear?" He looked each of them in the eye and they all nodded.
"You'll need to meet back here at 1600 hours. Make sure you've read the file by then." Mrs Jones said, and stood up. They all copied her.
"You may go."
Agent Alex Rider was found to be missing from his home on the 20th March after a neighbour reported hearing screaming and seeing a body being dragged off by a few men. When police arrived, the body of Jacqueline Starbright, Agent Rider's legal guardian, was discovered. The cause of death was reported to be a bullet in the head and it was declared that she had been murdered only moments before. It was presumed that that is when Rider was taken and there were signs of a scuffle to back up what the witness claimed. The Agent's tracker was activated on the May 27th and the location was found.
20th March...Wolf thought. Shit. That was almost two months ago, and he dreaded to think what kind of state the agent would be in after that amount of torture.
Wait.
Legal guardian? That would mean he was young. Under 18? 16? How old did you have to be to live on your own anyway? It must be eighteen, no under sixteen year old would be allowed to be an agent surely, Wolf thought. But still, under eighteen . . .
That's crazy
Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he stood up and stretched. He'd been sitting at his desk for hours, just reading and hopefully memorising all the information in the file. He knew perfectly well that every little detail could be important in this kind of job. He would be damned if he messed it up. For the agent and for his unit, he had to succeed. Checking his watch, he saw that he still had several hours before he needed to leave. Sighing slightly, he walked out of his room and into the kitchen. Time for lunch.
"Damn," Snake swore quietly in a Scottish accent. He sucked on his finger gently before rising to get a plaster. He'd been perusing the file he'd been given earlier when his finger had slipped and been sliced open on the edge of the paper. Being in the SAS, he was well used to pain, but hell,paper cuts stung.
He wrapped the plaster around his finger and slumped back heavily on the sofa next to the pile of papers he'd been reading. Like Wolf, he'd noticed the mention of a guardian and was just as worried. He'd joined the SAS to protect innocents like children; he hated the idea of them getting involved in something like this.
Like Cub
It couldn't be him though, could it? Why would Cub be involved with terrorists? But then, he was at Brecon Beacons . . . Why would he be sent there unless he would actually need those skills? Unlike Wolf, he'd never truly believed Cub was sent there just because he had a rich father. It didn't fit. Plus, Cub was much better at the exercises than any spoilt rich brat would be. Admittedly, Snake spent most of the time ignoring him, but he didn't agree with the campaign of hatred in which Wolf seemed to partake. Calling him Double 0 Nothing was harsh and unnecessary.
But he'd have to wait and see. He might be getting ahead of himself. It was possible that the agent was someone completely different.
"Hello?"
"Hey Matt, it's me!"
Eagle groaned at his sister's voice. Just what he needed . . .
"Lucy! How are you?" he responded.
"I'm doing good actually. Chris has just got a large bonus at work which is great. How about you?"
"Well. But I'm going to be away for a while again so I might not be able to speak with you for a few days." He heard her sigh.
"You're always going away" He could practically imagine her pouting. "Oh well, better make up for it now then."
Eagle lounged back on his armchair and prepared for a verylong conversation with his sister. Sometimes, she just didn't know when to stop.
An hour later, Eagle finally hung up and, yawning, went to grab a cup of coffee. He caught sight of the file of information on the side and cursed. Loudly. He hadn't read through it yet and with his sister's call and the long time it took to go to and from London, he didn't have long to memorise it. Thank God I have a good memory, he thought. Being in charge of communications did help that though. You learn pretty quickly when you know that your knowledge could mean the difference between life and death for your team. His mind drifted back to when that situation became all too real . . .
Don't think about it.
Don't ever think about it.
"Can you tell me where I'm supposed to be going? I'm here to meet Mr Madison."
"Name?"
"Ben Daniels"
"To your left."
Help me. Please, please help me. I can't take this anymore, I can't-
Please.
"Ah, Agent Daniels." The middle-aged, greying man stood up. "Let's go sit in my office."
"Yes sir."
It hurt. God, it hurt so much. The blood was everywhere. Too much. He was drowning in it, dying in it.
Help. Please.
"Your unit will be arriving soon. I believe you have already been given your instructions?"
"Yes sir. Get Agent Rider out as soon as possible. Kill anyone in the way."
"Very good."
The knife came down again.
'Will you help us?' 'Tell us, and it'll all be over.' 'Tell us.' 'Tell us'. 'Tell us.'
No. No, no, no, no, no.
Pain. Blood. Fear.
"Ben?" Wolf called suddenly. The three of them had arrived minutes ago.
"Wolf!" Ben greeted him happily. "Hey guys."
"What're you doing here?" Wolf asked bluntly. Unless someone knew him well, it wouldn't have been possible to see the glint of warmness in his eye. But Ben had known him for a long time.
"Nice to see you too," he laughed, "I've been asked to help."
"It's great to see you again." Eagle stepped forward and embraced him briefly.
"So, what exactly are we doing here?" Snake asked practically, looking around at the large converted warehouse they were standing in. SAS soldiers were milling around everywhere, chatting and catching up with each other.
"You've been briefed on the plan already, right?" Ben questioned.
"Yeah" Wolf answered, "On the plane here."
"So, now all you've got to do is tell it to them." He grinned, and pointed at the other soldiers.
"Great." Snake sighed.
5 minutes
"I win!" Eagle cried, throwing down his cards.
"Cheat!" Fox declared, "There's no way you could've won otherwise."
Snake sighed and rolled his eyes.
"I did not!" Eagle pouted. "I'm just amazing at this game."
"I'm sorry Eagle, but you're clearly deluded," Wolf stated impatiently, careful to use codenames whilst on a job, "You're bloody awful at cards."
"I am not!"
"Give it up Eagle." Snake butted in. "How much longer have we got before we leave, anyway?"
Fox glanced at his watch. "Four minutes."
Four
"So, little Alex, are you going to tell us?"
Alex looked away.
"Come on, it's not difficult," the man gloated, "One tiny bit of information is all we need."
The spy refused to turn around.
"You have five seconds."
He didn't move.
"No? What a shame."
Help me, help me, help me, help me. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts . . .
Three
"How's your wife then Snake? Still working for that company?"
"Yeah," Snake said, "And she still hates it." He grinned.
"Her boss is fit though." Eagle murmured.
"Shut up, Eagle!"
Two
He dragged himself over to the wall, his body thoroughly exhausted from even that small movement.
"Why is it always me?" he muttered, "Sometimes I hate my life."
Help me, help me, help me, help me . . .
One
Wolf checked his watch and stood up. "Nearly time guys. We need to get ready."
"Right" Snake replied grimly and rose. The rest followed.
Time to go.
ForeverChasingDreams