Hi everybody, I'm C.R. Richardson, your author for this fic :D
...How long has it been? Months? ...I'm such a bad person! And this chapter probably isn't even all that good yet I made you wait months for it! I'M SO VERY SORRY!
Ok, now that the apologies are out of the way... in this chapter they get there gadgets from Smithers! I just want you all to know that thinking of gadgets for girls is a lot easier than for guys which is why Alex's are pretty pathetic actually.
So, I finished Scorpia Rising the other day – I'm going to be honest I didn't really like it.. Spoiler Alert (for those who haven't read it): He killed off Jack! Why would you do that to poor Alex who has been through a heck of a lot! There's also the case of Smithers... ruined the allusion of which was a very fat man (unless of course Anthony Horowitz knew all along who Smithers really was, in which case bravo for keeping it hidden in all 7 books – but what was the suit made out of?) And at the very end when Alex goes to stay with the Pleasures – I mean I'm happy for him having a normal life. But that just ruins every hope of the two of them being together if they're siblings! ...anyway enough ranting! I have to respect that if Anthony Horowitz saw that as how the book was going to end the series then that is how he saw it, and it is his story.
Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Everytime someone story alerted this it made me feel so bad that I hadn't written anything, but it also motivated me to keep writing so please review and tell me what you think!
C.R. Richardson xx
(Disclaimer: It all belongs to Anthony Horowitz.)
Sabina had already packed her bags the night before. She was prepared. Her pulse was jittering around like a nervous butterfly. She had no idea what to expect, this was all so new to her and she felt like even after two days of intense training she was still not as prepared as she could be.
She would be leaving later that day. Sue, Jacob, Alex and herself would take the plane and be on their way to a small island in the Pacific Ocean. Titov Island was what Viktor Titov had named it. Original. She thought sarcastically when she had heard the name.
A car had sent to pick her up and would be there any minute, she had yet to tell her Mother the real reason that she would be leaving for at least a week. Mrs Jones and been in contact with her and asked her to tell her Mum that she was going to be away in a school trip. Paperwork had come in the mail the other day, when Sabina had reluctantly agreed to help MI6. Her Mother had willingly signed the papers as her mind was in a completely different space.
Ever since her Father had been put in hospital, Sabina had felt somewhat neglected. Not that she begrudged her Dad for this at all. She was still furious with Damian Cray for causing such a strain in her family.
A horn beeped out on the street. Her ears immediately picked up the sound and she sat up straighter. As her Mum thought she was going on school camp, she had asked the driver not to come to the door, instead just to beep the horn.
Sabina yanked her heavy suitcase off the bed and pulled it down the stairs to the front door. She left it there so that she could find her Mum and bid her goodbye.
"Mum?" Sabina knocked hesitantly on her Parents bedroom door.
When there was no response Sabina walked in slowly. Her eyes scanned the room quickly, and instantly picked out her Mum's figure sitting at a dressing table.
Mrs. Pleasure was staring blankly at her own reflection. Her eyes were dead, there was no sparkle that had previously inhabited them. Her hand pulled a wooden brush through her short brown hair like a robot. It was like life had become a chore rather than something that was to be enjoyed.
Sabina cleared her throat, causing her Mum to jump and turn around at the sudden noise. "Mum? Can I come in?"
"Of course!" The smile that was forced onto her face pained her daughter, who knew how fake it truly was.
"Is everything ok?"
"Fine, Sweetheart! I'm just about to go in and see your Father." She stood up and grabbed a braclet before trying to attach the clasp with only one hand.
Sabina sighed and walked over to her. She took the braclet in her hands and worked the clasp over the small metal circle that would close it. "I have to go... to camp. Remember?"
"Oh, that's today?" Her Mum looked confused, the days had gotten away from her. Between visiting her husband, worrying about the bills and trying to hold herself together, time had become a meaningless term to her.
"Yeah... will you be alright, Mum?" Sabina was worried she would forget about food or sleep without her constant reminding.
"Stop worrying about me." She insisted, making her way past her daughter and exiting the room. "I should be worried about you. Where are you going again?"
Sabina hadn't read the sheets of paper and so didn't actually know the lies her Mum had been spoon-fed. "Oh, um.. you know. It's just a... um.. yeah. Look Mum, I really have to go now!" She leaned over and kissed her on the check. "Give Dad my love!" She waved and rushed to the door grabbing her suitcase on the way.
A few doors down a black car was parked. It was supposed to be inconspicuous, but considering the family vans that cluttered Sabina's street, the car did anything but blend in. She sighed and made her way down to it.
A man in a black work suit stepped out of the passenger door and without a word helped Sabina put her bag in the trunk. He was wearing dark sunglasses and had an ear piece in. He was so stereotypically 'spy' that it was almost comical. He walked to the backseat door and held it open for Sabina.
With one last longing glance at her own quaint home she stepped into the dim seat. Sabina hoped that she wasn't going to hurt herself when she finally reached the bottom of the rabbit hole.
"We're taking you to MI6." The tall man who had helped Sabina said once the car pulled away. He spoke formally and chose his words carefully. It was clear that he was going to say what needed to be said and nothing more.
She was starting to get a feel for all the people who worked for the British Secret Service – cold, hard and like they had seen too much. Sabina just hoped that she didn't turn into that herself.
That's not going to happen. She reasured herself. It's purely an informative mission. To see if anything is happening. Mrs. Jones would have told be if anything serious was going on.
She was watching out the front windscreen, she wasn't really paying attention to the route they were taking as she knew the end destination. Sabina saw the passenger glancing in the review mirror every 30 seconds like he was searching for something in particular.
Curiously, Sabina turned and looked out the back window. She noticed nothing suspicious, just normal cars on a normal road. The man must just be overly cautious. Sabina summed up.
Alex was leaning against the cool grey wall of the fake bank that was infact MI6 headquaters. His sandy blonde hair was perfectly tousled and his face was slightly tan. He wore dark jeans that hung low on his hips and a t-shirt with 'keep calm and carry on' printed boldly on the front. "Hey." He greated Sabina nonchalantly with a nod of his head.
"Hi." She responded politely. Her tight jeans clung to her long legs and her comfortable cardigan hung down to her thighs. She had to drag her suitcase up the steps that led to the entrance of the bank. The public must have found it very odd, her taking a bag into the bank, but then again they were used to strange people entering and leaving the bank on a daily basis.
"Want some help with that?" He pushed himself off of the wall and walked a few steps over to Sabina, nodding to the suitcase in her hand.
She gave him a disbelieving look. "Yeah, that probably would have been helpful before I got to the top."
"Right." He realised his mistake. "Ready to go in?"
"Sure." She followed Alex through the glass doors and into the big foyer.
He walked straight up to the receptionist and spoke directly to her. "Alex Rider and Sabina Pleasure to see Mr. Smithers. He's expecting us." He added quickly to the end.
The blonde, young receptionist eyed them both and then looked at her computer. The man, Mr. Smithers, did work for MI6. He wasn't a spy like most of the people in the building, instead he created gadgets and weaponary for the spies. He was talented at what he did and any spy to get work by him were considered lucky.
She nodded her head and motioned for them to make their way over to the elevator. "Level four. You can leave your bag with me, Sabina." She came out from behind her desk and took the suitcase off of Sabina, before wheeling it back around behind her.
"Alex, m'boy!" Came a voice as joyfully loud as birds on a summers day. The door had only been cracked open and Alex barely had a toe through before the man had yelled at them. Alex didn't seem worried by it, instead a huge grin spread across his face.
"Smithers." Alex greated him with a small chuckle, finally making his way fully into the room and shaking the man's hand.
Sabina followed closely behind, anxious to meet this cheerful man. He was huge. That was her first impression of him. There was just so much of him to take in. His gigantic size, his bright eyes, and his mischevious grin.
"And you must be Sabina?" He noticed the third person in the room. "Welcome to my humble... office." He giggled at his own joke. "Well, what can I say? I've been expecting you. These gadgets were exceptionally fun to make!" His voice was alight with excitement.
"What have you got for us today?" Alex asked as he plonked himself down on one of the two seats sitting opposite Mr. Smithers.
His office was rather dull. It was just like you'd imagine an office to be – no personal touches, just a wooden desk, stacks of paper and abstract colourful painitngs surrounding the walls.
The gadget-maker sat down along with Sabina, only he found this more difficult than the latter did. His weight made it hard for him to squeeze into the office chair made for skinnier people. "I think you're going to be very happy!" He said, turning into his computer and typing a few things into the keyboard.
He paused for 30 seconds before opening a drawer in this desk. It was empty apart from a small pink iPod. "You first, Sabina." He placed it on the desk in front of all three of them. "After seeing photo's of you, I realise that you go nowhere without your iPod so I figured this was appropriate."
She picked it up and started scrolling through all the songs, recognising all of them.
"When you click into Podcasts and plug the headphones in you can listen to anyone in a four meter radius. Hit play/pause and you'll record the conversation. Anything recorded will be automatically sent here to me. Even if you're not sure whether it could be important push record anyway. Oh, and I also took the liberty of adding all your own songs onto it."
He let the information settle in and pushed a few more keys into the keyboard, watching as Sabina admired his handy-work.
"This is a braclet." He pulled out a simple metal charm braclet. The charms attached to it were cute but meaningless to Sabina. "There is a small tracking device here." He fingered a small pigeon charm. "If you're in trouble just twist the head twice and it will start transmitting a signal to me, I'll be able to find you wherever you are."
She reashed over and took the braclet off Mr. Smither. "A Homing Pigeon. Cute."
"I was quiet pleased with it." He answered smugly. "Now for you Alex." He opened his drawer and the teenage boy sat up a little straighter in anticipation. He pulled out an iPod identical to Sabina's new one, except in blue. "This does the exact some function as Sabina's. If you hear anything suspecious - record it."
Alex thought the idea was cool but he would have liked something that was different to what Sabina got. "Thanks." He said, smiling politely and taking the iPod. He scrolled quickly through the songs and noticed all his favourite bands on there.
"Now this," the fat man had a excited glint in his eye as he reached into the drawer for yet another gadget, "is a wallet." He pulled out a small brown, leather wallet. It was rectangular and folded in half so that it could fit into pockets. "It has a small in-built camera right here on the logo." He pointed it out to Alex and showed him how to work it. Opening the wallet he pulled out a small coin. It wasn't one that Alex had seen before, so he assumed that it was native to the island they would be going to.
"Don't mistake this with any other coins you may pick up." Smithers warned. "You can tell which one it is, as it is slightly bigger than the normal coins." He compared it to another one already there. "When you need it, snap it in half, drop it and run - it's a smoke bomb."
Alex nodded, committing this to memory. When the time came for him to use these gadgets he didn't want to have to wait and try to figure out how to use them.
"That's all I have for you!" Smithers stood up from his chair with great difficulty, the other two followed suit. "Good luck, try not to get hurt!" He said as a way of goodbye.
"Thanks." Alex shook his hand then exited the room.
"Thank you." Sabina said gratefully and followed after Alex, wondering how many others he had said that to and then not returned.
Sabina shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. The hard padding wasn't helping at all. She had already checked out the in-flight movies but she had already seen them all or they didn't look very interesting. So instead she had opted to listening to her iPod and trying to sleep.
They had been on the plane for 12 hours and they were just over half way. They were travelling in economy class because this was, apparently, fitting for the family role they were playing. Alex had been kind enough to offer her the window seat but it wasn't much good when it was night time. He had fallen asleep hours ago but no such luck had come to Sabina. For her it was 11pm but the plane was making it impossible to sleep.
She wasn't sure if it was the constant thrumming of the engine, or the murmer of people, but whatever it was she had an unrelenting headache that meant the sweet release of sleep was unattanable. She needed to get up, her legs were aching, but Alex was boxing her in.
Very slowly she unclasped her buckle and took her headphones out. Alex's legs were spread out under the seat in front of him, she had no idea how she was going to get past. Slowly and quietly she brought up her right leg and took it carefully over the top of his. She shuffled a little, twisting and turning around, trying to get over him without waking him up.
Tripping over something on the ground, she managed to stumble into the aisle with only a small yelp. Looking behind her, she worried that she had woken half of the plane up but nobody stirred.
After using the toilet and having a small walk around the plane her legs felt stretched and a lot more comfortable than before. She stood in the small bathroom, barely big enough for her to stand in let alone spend any time in, and stared at herself in the mirror. The smile that was usually spread across the bottom of her face was missing as she repeated the words 'Sabina Mathews' in her head. She didn't know why she was so upset; this was an adventure she should be excited! But this wasn't the case. She was scared, worried for her life.
The brunette girl turned spy hadn't known Alex long, but she knew that this was part of his life, and he was forced to risk it whenever MI6 want him too. When he had first explained that to her she had found it odd. Why would someone let another control them like that? Until she was manipulated in much the same way and realised just how easily one could succumb to the pressure forced on her.
Taking a deep breath she managed to calm herself. Knowing that there were going to be other people with her to help, making sure that she wouldn't get hurt made her feel better. Sabina left the bathroom and made her way back, sighing when she realised that Alex was still asleep in the same position he was in before.
She attempted to make her way back to her chair but failed miserably when she got tangled in Alex's legs and ended up falling over. He awoke with a jolt and was surprised to find Sabina half sitting on him.
"Sorry!" She moaned. "I didn't mean to wake you! I got out alright but then I tripped..."
"That's ok," he helped her up and sat up straigher, tucking his legs under his chair into a less troublesome position.
"What time is it?" Sabina asked as she took a seat and buckled up.
Alex looked at his watch and answered still in British time. "How long have I been out?"
"A couple of hours..."
"Have you slept yet?" He asked through a yawn, wiping the sleep out of his eyes.
"No."
"Oh. Did you want to get out?" Alex gestured towards the aisle.
Sabina explained how she had already left but was trying to get back in when she fell. When the conversation fell to a stand-still she decided that it was time to try and sleep. Placing a complimentary eye-mask over her face, Sabina rested her head back and let her mind wander to what was lying ahead on the road for her.