Not There
A.N. See I did it in a week, the next chappie…hope you enjoy it.
Word count: 1,600
Chapter 2: Unfortunate
The car arrived outside the Royal and General bank and he was pulled to the building. His eyes rested for a few seconds on a slightly darker patch of the pavement, he shuddered feeling slightly ill all of a sudden. His escort glanced at him warily and pulled him at a slightly faster pace into the building.
Mrs Jones was waiting in the lobby for him and indicated that he should follow her straight into the elevator, her heeled shoes clicking against the smooth marble floor.
The journey up to Blunt's office was taken in silence. Alex looked at Mrs Jones her usually calm demeanour ruffled and her face pinched in worry. Something was definitely up and Alex didn't like it!
The grey man, in the grey suit looked up as Alex entered the room.
"Alex," He said "we have a problem…"
"I'm not helping" Alex interrupted quickly "I told you…I'm not doing this anymore!"
"No Alex, it's not a mission," Mrs Jones interjected gently "There's something wrong"
Alex looked up at her, brown eyes serious, deliberately ignoring Blunt.
"What is it?" he asked her.
The man obviously didn't like to be ignored and decided to answer that question that had been obviously asked of Mrs Jones,
"You have been threatened by SCORPIA," Blunt said, well, bluntly (A.N. Pun intended XD)
Alex stared at him, blinked slowly and collapsed into the chair Mrs. Jones had conveniently placed behind him. He couldn't believe it SCORPIA again! Wait hadn't MI6 made a deal with them. Yes they had, at least they had told him so. He looked up at Blunt almost casually and said,
"I thought you sorted them out in regards to me"
Mr Blunt and Mrs. Jones glanced at each other before Jones answered cautiously,
"Well we did after the 'Invisible Sword' fiasco" she started
"But after the Snakehead assignment we assumed they would leave you alone…" she trailed off, watching Alex carefully, analysing his every move!
He didn't know what to say so he decided on nothing; he controlled the emotions inside him that were threatening to take over. None of his inner turmoil showed on his face; he knew Mrs Jones and probably Blunt would notice if it did!
"So what are you going to do about it? He demanded,
"Because this time, I'm not going on a mission because of an oversight on your behalf!" He finished fiercely letting the emotion finally crack through into his voice.
"Don't worry Alex…" Mrs. Jones began to say, before being cut off once again by the almighty boss of MI6.
"We have decided to send you back to the SAS. You will be under the best protection the country has to offer there, and," Blunt almost let a smirk show through his usually blank mask "of course you will be able to pick up some new skills while you are there!"
Alex stared at him wide-eyed, he knew there was no point in arguing though and just asked,
"For how long?"
"Only until the threat is neutralised Alex," Mrs. Jones said softly.
Alex looked at both of them, opened his mouth, as if to say something then closed it swiftly. He couldn't put words around the anger that was boiling inside him. Instead he asked another question which was bugging him.
"What will happen to Jack?"
"Miss Starbright will be under 24-hour protection until you are back" Blunt said
Alex nodded his head once; he knew that if he was with her the 24-hour protection would not be enough to stop SCORPIA. His previous entanglements with them had left him in no doubt of their skill and if they wanted him he would move to the other side of the world to protect Jack.
"Is that all?" he asked not bothering to be polite
"Yes Alex," Mrs Jones replied, "But, if you don't mind, will you go and see Smithers on the way out; he requested to speak with you."
Alex nodded again, Smithers' lab wasn't exactly on the way out but he always glad to visit the exuberant gadget maker. He slid out the chair and turned towards the door. He was on his way out when Blunt spoke up:
"Be ready by 4:00 tomorrow afternoon Alex" and then as an afterthought "Pack light"
Alex didn't look back at the accursed grey man but just carried on, out of the door and down the hall. At least they had given him enough time to explain to Jack and Tom what was going on.
When he reached the elevator he released the breath he hadn't realised he was holding and the rage, yet again, reared its ugly head! He punched the wall, next to the opening elevator doors, hard not noticing the pain that shot up his arm.
He took a deep breath and counted down from ten, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was being ridiculous; Alex Rider did not lose control, it was not in his nature to. He glanced down at his sluggishly bleeding knuckles and sighed, that man made him so damned angry!
After calming down he stepped into the elevator and stabbed the button marked 'Basement'. It was sort of ironic that the Gadget Makers lab was in the lower levels of the building, just like James Bond, he thought. He cursed himself silently, this was not a film. This wasn't some cheesy movie where the main character couldn't get hurt…couldn't die.
The elevator beeped shrilly, signalling his arrival, he stepped out, looking at his familiar surroundings.
A man, or maybe two, looked up, a smile lighting his face as he saw who his visitor was.
"Alex my dear boy, how are you?" Smithers said in his typically British way.
"Holding up, Mr Smithers, holding up" He replied,
Smithers' smile faltered and he said,
"Well I suppose I know why" he glanced at Alex's still bleeding hand knowingly, "He gets you down sometimes, doesn't he?"
"Yep" Alex replied genuinely smiling now, no matter how far he fell after a meeting with Blunt, Smithers could always bring him back up.
"Anyway…" The Gadget maker interjected tactfully "down to business, I have been making some gadgets and although they aren't exactly according with the boss' rules, I think they may be useful."
Smithers leant down and pulled open the bottom draw of his desk, he rummaged for a few seconds before bringing out a long, chunky, leather belt and laying it on the desk top.
"This," He said "contains a weapon, so I would appreciate it if you didn't tell Mr Blunt"
Alex nodded (He seemed to be doing that a lot this afternoon) and gestured for Smithers to continue.
"Well… here," Smithers pointed to a leather ring on the side of the belt,
"Is where you will keep the knife I will show you in a second, but that is not the magic of this belt. All you have to do is pull the front off the buckle" He demonstrated slowly-for dramatic effect, Alex was sure- raising the front of the buckle, revealing a miniature pistol with a mother of pearl handle.
"And you will find a miniature pistol, to be used only in emergencies." He said glancing at Alex meaningfully. " It has two bullets already in it but if you slice open the belt you will find another 6 normal bullets, 6 darts full of sedative and 4 blanks."
"Great, thank you Mr Smithers," Alex said "but why the sudden change of heart about the gun thing"
"Well I feel that if you have SCORPIA after you, you have got to have something to protect yourself with. I also have this," He pulled out a short lethal-looking dagger with a beautifully carved white ash handle. "Again, for use only in emergencies, I trust you know how to use it?" Alex just nodded; taking the dagger tentatively from the gadget-master and slid it into place on the belt; he then, pulled the belt around his waist, pulling his school shirt over it hiding it from sight. Smithers sighed as he watched this young boy handle a dagger with such familiarity but carried on without regret, the boy needed something protect himself.
"Okay, next we have a refill of the spot cream –from your first mission- you know what to do; a set of exploding coins like you used in Bangkok, but in 5p, 10p and 50p denominations and finally a watch that will send a signal to MI6 if you set the time to 12:00," Smithers took a deep breath.
"That was a long sentence," Alex remarked, the gadget maker handed over the gadgets after placing them in a plain black duffel bag.
"The bag itself is also a gadget; there is a secret pocket on the inside that will hide anything from metal-detectors and all sorts of signals. Now get out of here you, I have work to do!" Smithers said, nearly sounding affectionate.
Alex didn't comment but pulled the bag onto his back and headed out the room calling his thanks over his shoulder.
Alex left the Royal and General in a slightly better mood than when he entered it. He was about to start humming as he hailed a Taxi. Then he suddenly realised…He had to tell Jack!
A.N. Thanks for reading, hopefully this story will be different to other 'going back to the Brecon Beacons' stories, but please Read and Review. Constructive criticisms are welcome!
~ Yassen Obsessive