Anything you recognize is not mine.
Chapter 10
Feng swore when his idiot messengers brought news that the traitor Shen, Kristen and the boy had disappeared under the wings of MI6. Dammit! But the messenger behind the first was the bearer of even worse news, frantically praying that Feng wouldn't shoot him.
--
One of the men—Raptor—was listening to a hand-powered radio that he had to keep giving a crank or two now and then. Kristen was rubbing her arms to get rid of the goose bumps—damn the cold!—when she stiffened.
The government issued radio churned out a gravelly voice of a BBC broadcaster as he reported, "…with a mass amount of global arrests, spanning over three continents…no word yet on why…"
Kristen snorted, letting a satisfied smirk cross her face. Hawk saw it before it slid off her face. Did she and this Rider person have something to do with that? Why else would she have a smirk on her face?
She straightened, and left the cabin, shutting the door quietly behind her. Now.
"Have any of you heard of someone named Alex Rider?"
"Would he be related to a John Rider?" Falcon asked.
Hawk shrugged.
"Dunno him," the three chorused.
"Why d'you ask?" Eagle asked.
Hawk shrugged again. "Pried some information out of Chick earlier, and seems like she's here because of the guy."
"Maybe if we memo'ed Special Operations they'd know."
"Weren't they the ones who sent her here anyway? I wouldn't want to get in Special Op's way. 'Specially if they want to keep it hush hush."
"She'll be out in about two weeks anyways. In the real world then."
"How do they expect her to survive with that little training?"
The other men just shrugged, but before they could answer, the cabin door creaked open and Kristen popped her head into view.
"We need to leave. The sergeant wants us out now," she laid slight emphases on the last word.
All the men except for Hawk flinched at her voice, so different from their own. She withdrew and shut the door again.
"Blimey, what are Special Operations thinking, using an American for this sort of work?" Raptor muttered, getting up and reaching for the door.
"Next thing you'll know, she'll have gone and gotten herself killed and bloody hell the US government is swooping in on us like a bird on prey, and the tabloids having a field day."
They left the cabin and went to go see what new training they were going to be sent on.
--
Kristen was nervous like hell. Their new task was to scale a building, steal into a booby-trapped hall and snatch a leather satchel and she was to go first. Obviously, she'd never climbed before. She had no idea what to do.
It was supposed to be a 'team building' effort.
Hawk noticed her hesitation and showed her the basics of it, finding footholds, etc. They all roped themselves to each other securely and went in the order of their weight to the building; a relatively small specimen of twenty stories.
It was enough to scare the shit out of her. Taking a deep breath, she skimmed the brick with her fingers to find a hand hold. To her surprise, the area between each block was deep; it would be easier than she had thought to climb it. After she slammed the ice ax into the brick, she hoisted herself up and jammed her right toe into the hollowed out area of a brick beneath her; ascending a few more bricks until all five of them were on the wall.
Kristen felt the impact as Raptor—the stockiest of them—dug an ice ax into the material just in case they did fall.
Gritting her teeth and trying not to think about the height, she carried on. Soon, every time she pulled herself up burned, every muscle screaming and white hot pain burst into stars behind her eyes.
She kept going.
The only respite from the pain was the brief intervals where she waited for the other four to catch up.
Then, more pain as she hauled herself up and held herself there by her fingers holding on to her own ax stamped into the building. Everything went black and she closed her eyes, willing the darkness to go away. She didn't need this now!
It seemed like a like a lifetime until Raptor moved up a few more bricks.
And she had to ascend again.
--
During the time that Kristen was putting herself through the worst torture of her life, Alex and Jack were having a serious discussion.
"I don't know where they are! I want to know why they've gone," Alex was trying to prevent himself from snarling. Jack didn't seem to understand that, whatever had happened between the three teens, he still wanted to make sure they were all right. That MI6 hadn't gotten to them like they had to him.
"Alex, I don't see why you have to," she answered levelly. "That Kristen girl was as welcoming as a morgue, and it wasn't like the guy was a choir boy. You promised—swore that you'd get out of the business. Why're you poking your nose back in when it isn't even your life at stake?"
Alex bit back a snarky reply. There was something incredibly infuriating about the whole situation and he didn't know what, didn't know why; and that just aggravated him further. Without another word, he turned, wrenched open the front door and let it bang shut behind him.
His own house wasn't a refuge anymore.
--
One week, five days. Kristen was counting down the days until she could just get the hell out of here and start on a whirlwind storm of payback. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? Try a ruthless teen with nothing but revenge on her mind.
Hell would welcome her as their new Ice Queen.
Kristen didn't notice her thinning lips, or that her eyes, already so close to black, flashed with anger and grew even darker. She didn't notice the set look that said she would square off with anyone, or more likely telling them to go to hell.
The men did though. What Eagle saw there didn't belong on any face—except perhaps the devils; much less someone as obviously young as her. He wondered how, and why, that look was on her face. Why she already seemed to weigh down with experience that didn't fit her years. With a silent curse, he pulled his attention back to the task at hand—staying away from her. It wasn't any of his business, and within a few days, she would be gone.
Eagle just wasn't sure if that was relief or disappointment coloring his thoughts.
--
Kristen had thought that the building was a huge skyscraper by the time they had climbed inside of it. By the way her arms ached when she tested flexing it, her body thought that too.
Eagle had booted up his laptop to hack into the security and see what was out there to warn them. Hawk was working on deactivating most of them; some could not be removed without causing suspicion though.
Finally, the alarms deactivated, they padded lightly to the hub of the tower.
Kristen held her breath as they moved in.
--
Surprisingly, it had gone rather well. Raptor and Falcon had covered for them as Hawk, Eagle and she had slinked into the security vault. She'd had to hold up a device that aimed invisible lasers around so that when they stole the bag, their bodies wouldn't have triggered the alarm. Kristen had wondered why they chose her to do that when it was an important job and they were both taller than she was; meaning they could have held it higher or she could have gotten the satchel more easily than they could have.
But she wasn't here to question what the men in her team did.
Besides, she didn't really care. What she did care about was seeing the destruction of Scorpia, and having the satisfaction of knowing that she'd played a part in it.
That was her goal, the only reason she was here, the only cause worth fighting for. Maybe later she'd find more, but for now, this would have to do.
--
Alex closed his eyes and saw Kristen's face swim into view, half-smile intact, eyes dancing with humor or mischief.
Her voice, telling him about her own life…Shen's voice, telling Alex about Kristen herself…
When she had worn a dress and he had broken into Feng's apartments…
The memories rushed like a tidal wave, surprising him with its force.
He couldn't even remember Sabina, his closest girl friend's own facial expressions, but he remembered the two black-haired teens' dark good looks like they were his own.
Why?
He didn't know.
What he did know was that his gut was telling him that yes; there was something strange and bad going on with the two of them.
He knew that MI6 was going to be at the heart of it.
He knew that Kristen had done it willingly.
He didn't know why.
He didn't know why Shen was going along with it.
And he didn't know why Kristen was working with them.
Hell be damned if he didn't bloody well find out.
If MI6 wouldn't help him, at least his good friend Smithers would, and value his personal loyalty.
It was too bad he would have to keep missing school.
Jack's words suddenly blared in his mind.
Why're you poking your nose back in when it isn't even your life at stake?
Alex knew why, but he didn't want to share with her; afraid of what she would say.
But maybe he did care too much about those two people.
--
The messenger fairly bolted from the room as Feng barked out curt, harsh orders in retaliation to the fact that Kristen and Shen had disappeared. Alex Rider was under the shadows of MI6's authority. No way that the Triads could get at them now.
But Feng never forgot.
He never forgave.
He always got even.
And the deepest circle of Hell was reserved for traitors.
Where ever those three were, he would find them, and wreak the full power of the Triads on them.
Vengeance was indeed sweet.
--
WOW that took me forever. Seriously! WTF!
Reviews pleaaaaase?
P.S. I hate how I have like 25 people reading this but one person reviewing…
Review reply:
KlutzyQT: Thanks.
SheWeapon1: Well they can't both be doing the same thing can they? : ) Alex will definetly make an appearance, but I can't say how soon…I hope this chapter answered a few questions : )