THE NEW SYSTEM!!! Right, the new system is where the more reviews I get, the faster I upload. If I get twenty or more reviews, I upload the very next day!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Alex Rider series.

Claimer: I do own the AIS and all characters from the AIS (e.g. Desiree Swan).

Oh, and SPECIAL MENTIONS have to go to Wolfmonsterfor writing the longest review I've ever received! Thanks to all my other loyal reviewers! You guys rock!

Chapter 12

They stood at opposite ends of the field, located just outside the holding cell of Tom and Desiree. Alex stood at one end, far enough away so that he could run for it if Scorpia didn't hold up their end of the bargain. At the other end stood William, two guards and Tom. The boy was staring at Alex, not quite sure if his friend was stupid enough to actually give himself up just to save Tom.

Alex started walking towards the group and Tom, with a shove in the back from one of the guards that almost sent him face planting into the ground, started walking towards Alex. The teenage spy couldn't help but be reminded of that video he'd been shown two years ago, of that day on the bridge with his father's faked death…

Alex and Tom passed each other in the middle. Tom glared at Alex, his expression clearly questioning the sanity of his friend. Alex merely gave him a small smile, reassuring him that he had everything under control. The teenage spy casually tilted his head in the direction of the MI6 van, and Tom nodded very slightly in understanding. The two boys knew better than to make obvious movements in front of Scorpia.

Tom reached the other side and paused, glancing back at his best friend, before turning and hurrying away in the direction Alex had pointed out. He knew that he'd have to inform MI6 of what Alex had done, and he knew that it wasn't going to be pretty. Spotting a van with people crowding around outside, he slowed. Then, recognising one of the six people as Agent Crawley, renewed his pace and made a beeline for them.

Alex let out a small sigh of relief when Tom was allowed away safely. If he was completely honest, he wouldn't have put it past Scorpia to shoot Tom at the last minute. But then again, Scorpia weren't stupid. They knew that they wouldn't have gained anything from killing the spy's friend, as Alex would then be so furious that he'd probably take out the rest of Scorpia's agents. Singlehandedly.

As soon as Alex was within grabbing distance, the two guards lunged towards him, one of them pinning down his arms and the other securing them behind the boy's back. Alex didn't even bother flinching; he was too busy glaring at William whom he figured was the one responsible for the kidnappings. The man stared calmly back, watching from behind a well rehearsed mask of indifference.

"Alex Rider," he finally said, after the boy had been fully secured with two handcuffs and a heavily knotted length of rope. Apparently, they weren't taking any chances, "It's good to have you with us, and to finally meet the boy whom was the downfall of at least two of our board members."

"They weren't that hard to kill," Alex said.

"Maybe so, but I think congratulations are in order. Of course I personally knew Julia, and to some extent liked her too. She was as much a friend as you can get in my business."

"Oh, my bad. Sorry for killing you're only friend! If I'd known you were a loner I'd have spared the woman who was about to kill every kid in the country," Alex drawled, his voice dripping with sarcasm. William smirked, then moved so fast Alex didn't even have time to respond. The man punched him full-force in the throat, and Alex jerked forwards as far as he could, choking. For several tense moments, the boy struggled to breathe through his coughing and spluttering.

"You'll learn soon enough that I don't tolerate cheek. Especially when they're from ignorant, good for nothing children. Take him away," William added, and the two guards proceeded to drag the still choking Alex towards the cell which had been "specially prepared" for him. In other words, made as escape proof as was humanely possible.

William gazed after them for a while, then entered through another door, navigating the twisted corridors until he found himself standing in front of Desiree's cell. Smirking slightly, he drew back the bolts, then pulled open the heavy door.

Desiree still lay crumpled on the floor, several of her wounds bleeding sluggishly. She'd regained consciousness a few seconds before William had ordered his guards to grab Tom. Dessi had been jerked slightly away from the boy, and the movement had reopened some of her wounds. Now she tilted her head up slightly so that she could see who was at the door. Upon finding William, she gave him the best glare she could under the circumstances, and allowed her head to drop back onto the concrete floor of the cell.

"Well, well, well," William drawled, "Looks like someone's not happy to see me. Oh well."

William walked towards the limp girl, and then knelt by her head. Dessi didn't even bother to respond. Truth be told, she couldn't exactly find the energy to struggle away from the Scorpia agent, so she just lay there.

"You know," William whispered, cupping one of his hands under Desiree's chin and forcing her head up so he could actually see her face, "Things would be so much easier on you if you just gave in. You know you want to," he added, tenderly stroking her bruised cheek.

"Yeah, when Hell freezes over," the girl rasped out, her voice extremely soft from her exhaustion.

The man chuckled quietly, though without humour. "Have it your way then," he said, patting the girl's cheek and standing. He left the cell, pausing only briefly to glance back at the defeated girl. As he passed through the guard room, he indicated for the three men to "have fun", and reminded them that Dessi had to still be alive when he got back. Then he turned out of the room to pay a little visit to their "guest of honour".

The three guards waited for William to leave, before setting off to the cell with excitement. It had been a while since they'd had a human punching bag, and being the sadistic men that they were, revelling in someone else's pain was their favourite form of entertainment.

William pushed open the door to Alex's cell. The boy had been tied down extremely securely to a chair, his captors not taking any risks. The highly uncomfortable chair had been placed in the centre of the dimly lit room.

"Ah, Alex Rider, our honoured guest," William smirked. Alex glared at the man, unable to move anything except his head, "You know, when our intelligence first suggested that MI6 was using a teenage boy to do all their dirty work, I thought that our sources had been corrupted and had them all killed. But when the same report kept coming back again and again…Then you went and killed two of our board members. You have no idea how badly I've wanted to meet you, and now here you are!"

"It's great to be here too, all tied up and that you know," Alex said sarcastically.

"Oh, you children, always like to joke around. But tell me Alex, how is it that you became recruited into MI6? I know that your uncle was an agent, as well as your godfather Ash, though he deferred into Scorpia." At the mention of Ash, Alex's traitorous godfather, the teenage spy froze, and scowled heavily at William. Alex was perfectly happy to just live the rest of his life without ever hearing Ash's name again, however it appeared that that was not going to be the case.

When it became apparent that Alex wasn't going to answer the question, William sighed and began pacing in front of the blonde boy.

"You know," he said, his eyes never leaving the teenage spy's face as he walked around, "You're not the first kid whose been recruited into this world. Nor will you be the last. But still, the CIA attempted to put a teenage boy out onto the field! Such copy cats! Well, the boy was killed. I can personally vouch for that," William smirked when he saw a flicker of recognition and understanding pass through the boy's eyes, ""You on the other hand, being the son of the famous John Rider and all…well, I sure as hell wasn't about to kill you! In fact it was rather fun, hearing all about your, ah, adventures. Kept me entertained to say the least-"

"Are you going to kill me now? Because I'd rather you get it over and done with instead of just boring me to death," Alex interjected. He was backhanded across his face for the effort. Alex gasped in pain, before turning back and glaring at William again, his face stinging like hell.

"You are just like Desiree; both of you just don't seem to understand that I don't take cheek, especially not from good for nothing children," William spat, before resuming his pacing.

"What do you want from me?" Alex demanded. He had no idea why he was being held prisoner in the first place. Well, he did ruin Major Yu's operation, but that had been two years ago for crying out loud!

"What do I want from you?" William repeated, "Well, I want to meet you of course. You have to imagine my excitement when I first found out that Desiree wasn't the only teenage spy in the world."

Alex froze. "You know Dessi?"

William smirked. "Oh, I more than just know her. You see, for a while before I moved to England, but after I left America, I lived in Australia. Sydney first, but then I found it too noisy, so I moved across to the rather remote city of Perth. There, I signed onto Australia's foster care system. Then when Dessi was put into the foster system, I volunteered immediately to take the girl. She was just too much of a catch, if you know what I mean.

"I was her first foster family, all the way back when she was just six years old."

They were gathered in one of MI6's larger briefing rooms. K-unit was present, as well as D-unit and M-unit. Also there were Agents Crawley, Allende, Garnett, Ibsen, Alving, Creelman, Daniels and Banks. Oh, and Tom Harris too, who had refused point blank on going to St Dominic's for a check up, insisting that he wanted to help rescue his friend. Jake was still in hospital, along with the rather hysterical Jack, but both Ben and Andrew had been discharged. Right now, the twenty people were listening to Mrs Jones as she went through the intelligence which had been gathered on the scouting trip.

Agent Rose Allende listened with only half her mind. The other half was crippled with worry. In the few short hours which she'd spent time with him, Rose found herself taking a real liking to Alex. Perhaps because the boy was so similar to her deceased younger brother. When they found that he'd gone missing, she'd been frantic with worry. She had also felt an overwhelming sense of guilt, because she thought that if she figured out Alex's missing presence sooner, maybe the boy would still be with them.

Matters were not helped when half an hour later Tom turned up, telling them that his best friend had officially gone mad and given himself up for Tom. Rose bit her lip in worry. She didn't want to know what was happening to Alex, but hoped with all her heart he wouldn't be facing the same treatment as the other kidnapped teen. Tom had taken it upon himself to describe, in highly graphical detail, the extent of Desiree's injuries.

"…And D and M-units will be surrounding the compound in case any of Scorpia's agents manage to escape the infiltration unit," Mrs Jones said, "You are to cover all the exits, to make sure that we don't have any escapees."

The eight soldiers nodded.

"And I want any escaped agents to be taken alive," Mrs Jones stressed the word. This whole incident with Scorpia had allowed MI6 to take custody of a huge number of Scorpia's agents. A few more wouldn't hurt, at least until they found a way to make those agents whom they did have custody of talk.

"All of you will be armed with live bullets, so please exercise your judgement and not everyone just because you feel like it," Jones strained. Apparently, she didn't want to deal with dead bodies, at least not if she could help it. Dead bodies mean a whole load of paperwork, and she had enough on her plate as it is.

"You will all be on the lookout for these two teenagers," Here Mrs Jones put up two pictures onto the projection screen. The picture on the left was of a blonde haired brown eyed boy, while on the right was a blonde haired girl with crystal blue eyes. The picture of the girl was quite fuzzy; it actually came from Dessi's "passport", which they had to enlarge and transfer into the MI6 database since MI6 didn't have any previous photos of the girl.

"These two are your main priority," Mrs Jones went on, "Do whatever it takes to make sure they get out alive. And if anyone so much as thinks about aiming at them, not only will MI6 be after their head, but the Australian Intelligence will be after the rest of their body too."

The people gathered stared in shock at Mrs Jones. They were all asking themselves the same question; Did that woman just make a threat? It was widely known that Mrs Jones was the nicer one of the two heads of Special Operations, so if she had to make a threat…

"Are there any questions?" Mrs Jones asked. The twenty people shook their heads. "Good. Mr Smithers will be up shortly to arm you all. Good luck." With that, the second in command of MI6's Special Operations turned and left the room.

Tom sidled closer to Rose, whom he thought was the only agent in the room who actually looked at him with a friendly expression. Rose looked up as the boy plopped himself down on a seat opposite her, and she gave him a warm smile.

"How old are you?" Tom asked. Well, the boy wasn't exactly known for his tact.

Rose looked slightly taken aback at his bluntness. "Twenty two. You?"

"Sixteen."

"Why did you ask?"

Tom smirked. "Because you make everyone in this room, well aside from me, look like they're eighty," he said, not bothering to keep his voice down, and thus getting a lot of sour looks from the agents and soldiers present.

"Is that so?" Rose laughed, and they sour looks were then directed in her direction, "You know your friend asked me the exact same question when-" she broke off, remembering what had taken place right after the conclusion of the scouting mission.

Tom nodded, his expression slightly sad. He knew what she was thinking of, and why she'd broken off mid sentence. "Well you know what they say, great minds think alike," he said in an attempt to cheer the both of them up.

Rose giggled quietly. She was starting to like this kid too. At that moment, Mr Smithers bustled into the room, holding a large box that was no doubt filled with the weapons they were to use on the rescue mission. He gave them all a broad grin, and proceeded to hand out the guns. The larger military styled ones were given to the SAS soldiers, while the smaller pistols were given to the MI6 agents. Finally Smithers turned to Tom, and raised his eyebrow at the boy.

"I don't think it's legal to give someone as young as you a gun," Smithers said in a good natured voice.

Tom grinned. "Don't worry, I can fight them off with my awesome kung fu ninja skills!" Everyone within hearing distance of the boy started laughing, Mr Smithers perhaps the loudest.

"That's a good one!" Rose exclaimed, gasping for breath.

"You're a funny one, kid," Smithers chuckled, patting Tom on the head.

"Thanks," Tom grinned wryly.

"Alright, I think we better get moving," Agent John Crawley said, standing and gesturing towards the door. The room sobered up almost immediately as they all remembered the reason they were there. Tom followed Rose and Ben out of the room, down the lift and into one of the five waiting cars outside. He would be sharing the car with Rose, Ben and Andrew.

The sun was already setting by the time Andrew turned on the ignition and pulled out, following the not very conspicuous MI6 issued car ahead of him, while behind him the other three cars followed in a line. All the cars were black. Tom shook his head slightly; they may as well have put up banners that boldly declared "Hey Scorpia! We're MI6 and we're coming to get you!"

Rose settled into her seat and looked across at Tom. "You may want to get some sleep while you can, it's going to be a long night, and the trip will take at least an hour."

"I'll just be staying in the car though, won't I?" Tom asked.

"Yeah, but you'll still feel the adrenaline rush, and if that doesn't keep you awake, I'm sure you'll hear gunshots too."

"Great," Tom mumbled. He shifted, leaning his head against the door frame trying to get comfortable. There was a short silence in the car. Andrew was concentrating hard on not losing the black car in front of him. Ben had fallen asleep, his mouth hanging open. If it weren't for the seriousness of the situation, Tom would've never let the man live it down.

There was a soft click beside him, and Tom turned to see Rose with her phone out, taking a photo of her fellow colleague. She saw the boy's questioning look, and shrugged.

"I always need blackmail material," she said. Tom smirked and nodded.

"Do you think that they'll be alright?" He asked. He hadn't wanted to say anything, he really didn't want to know, but he just couldn't help it. After what he saw them do to Dessi…well, he was hoping against hope that she was alright. That they were both alright.

Rose bit her lip in worry. "I hope so," she answered softly, "As long as they don't give up. As long as they just hang in there for a little longer."

Tom nodded. He hoped that his two friends would be able to hold on for that long. We're coming guys, he thought grimly, Just a little longer. Please, for the love of God, don't give in.

Outside, the sun dipped below the horizon, and the sky lit up with stars.

Ooooh, another cliffie! Okay, I don't know why the ending was slightly poetic.

So anyways, how did you all like that chapter? Was it good? Did it suck?

And how about William's revelation about the whole foster family thing. Did any of you see that coming?

Please review! It really makes me so very happy!

Love Chariots99