Sorry for the (exceptionally long) wait – my university offers came out. Guess what?! I GOT INTO MEDICINE!!! Anyways, the whole enrolment process took up like all my time…hope this chapter makes up for it!

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), and any other characters you don't recognise from the Alex Rider series.

Oh, and thanks to my anonymous reviewer SqweekA for your very flattering reviews for both this story and the one before it. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 14

If he was completely honest with himself, there was no way Alex expected for K-unit and Ben to be able to rescue him without the boy even hearing any commotion. They'd disarmed and knocked out the three men in the guarding room so fast that Alex doubted the now unconscious men had any time to react to the attack.

Alex ran alongside Ben as Wolf, Eagle and Shark each dragged along one of the three unconscious guards. Snake led the way out of the compound and out into the dark. They met up with four men who made up D-unit, according to Ben's whisper. Wolf, Eagle and Shark handed over their captives. Ben pushed Alex towards the men, and the boy walked a few steps before realising that K-unit were planning to go back in to get Desiree.

He abruptly stopped.

"I'm coming with you," he whispered.

"No way in hell," Wolf growled. The light in the guard room had revealed Alex's exhausted form. He was still weak from the electricity which had coursed through his body, and could hardly keep up with the men. But he was adamant about this.

"I'm coming with you," he repeated, "Dessi is my friend, and she is in trouble. You're going to need all the help you can get, and at least I know what Scorpia are capable of."

"You can barely stand on your feet!" Wolf hissed, "Look, you're leaning against Fox right now! If you came, you'd just be putting yourself at risk!"

The argument went on for a few seconds before Snake interrupted the two.

"Cub just got permission to come," Snake said. Alex grinned in triumph while Wolf growled at him, probably cursing the hell out of the boy. Shark and Eagle moved forwards just as Ben grabbed Alex and pinned his arms by his side. Snake reported back to base.

"Hey, what-AARRGH!!!" Alex's shout was muffled by Eagle, who cupped his hands around the teenage spy's mouth just in time. Shark had just jabbed the boy with a shot of adrenaline; it was the only thing that could get him through the ordeal to come. The adrenaline would mask the boy's pains and allow him to keep up and fight with the others. This way, he wouldn't get himself killed for being out of energy. But the thick needle hurt like hell.

"Honestly Alex, you think this hurts?" Ben asked in disbelief, though there was a teasing tone to his voice. Snake, Shark, Eagle and D-unit sniggered softly, and Wolf had a small smile on his face that no-one could see in the dark.

Alex scowled at them all, another expression which couldn't be seen due to the non-existent light surrounding them. One of the men on D-unit placed something on Alex's ear. The teenage spy waited until the man had removed his hand before using his own to inspect it. It was an earpiece. Well, now he could listen to the orders that were being given. Alex nodded his thanks at the man, before turning to leave. It was then that he realised the man probably couldn't have seen his thanks in the dark. Damn it.

The six people crept back into the compound. This time they turned in the opposite direction, going down a corridor that Alex had yet to see. This corridor branched out into two hallways. Wolf gestured for them to go left. At the end of the rather short hallway was an opened door, which they entered in single file. Wolf first, then Eagle, Snake and Shark. Alex was about to go through when Ben stopped him. The teenage spy turned with a questioning look, only to have Ben thrust his spare pistol into Alex's hand.

Alex raised his eyebrows slightly, before realising that Ben had his gun out. Looking back, the teenage spy saw that the rest of K-unit were also armed, though their guns were slightly larger than his. Nodding his thanks at the MI6 agent, Alex went through the door.

The six people crept further along, before they met up with six familiar MI6 agents. Agents Allende, Crawley, Ibsen, Alving, Garnett and Creelman. Upon seeing the teenage spy, Agent Rose Allende's expression lit up and she hurried over to the boy, enveloping him into a tight hug. Before letting go. Though they weren't allowed to even whisper, Alex understood the message which the hug had conveyed, and smiled in appreciation at Rose.

The twelve people crept further down the hall together. There was a single door at the end, which the six MI6 agents had previously already gone through before they had to double back for them. Now all twelve people stepped through the door, their guns all drawn and held at the ready. They were in another hall, this one quite short, though there were two doors that lined the walls and another right at the end. Agent Crawley indicated that they hadn't had time to check out the end doors, but the two on the wall were clear.

Wolf and Agent Allende led the way to the end of the hall, where Rose opened the door and Wolf passed through it. Soon, everyone else had gone through the door. And surprisingly, they weren't in another hallway.

They were actually in a room, with a bare table in the far corner. But no chairs. Each of the four walls had at least one door, bar the wall directly opposite the group. The wall on the right actually had three. Unsure of which door they should try first, Wolf pointed to the one furtherest away from them on the right wall.

The six MI6 agents, four SAS soldiers, one SAS soldier turned MI6 agent and one teenage spy all nodded in agreement, and together the twelve of them crept towards the chosen door. They were in the middle of the room when simultaneously, all their earpieces crackled to life with Agent Andrew's frantic voice literally shouting at them, "All agents, this is base. Pull out, pull out NOW! It's a trap! Get out, GET OUT!"

And suddenly, all hell broke loose.

When the heat signals of their agents and SAS soldiers began reappearing on the screen, Andrew almost felt like dancing around for joy. Instead he settled for a triumphant grin. He looked across at Tom to see a similar expression on his face. It was then that he tempted fate. This was going so well! He thought. Famous last words.

For suddenly, the heat signals of all the Scorpia agents showed up too. Andrew's triumphant smile slid off his face, to be replaced by an expression of upmost horror. The room in which the MI6 agents and SAS soldiers were in had been completely surrounded. On all sides, except for the direction in which the twelve had come from, there were at least thirty people just waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting MI6 agents and SAS soldiers. And judging from their heat signals, they were all armed.

In panic, Andrew grabbed at his mic. He knew it was too late, but if he could just get a warning out…maybe they had a slight chance.

"All agents, this is base. Pull out, pull out NOW! It's a trap! Get out, GET OUT!"

It was chaos. Complete and utter chaos.

Exactly two and a half seconds after Agent Andrew Banks' panicked warning, every single door (bar the one they had come through) burst open. A hail of bullets flew towards the group. Immediately, Crawley went down, along with Creelman and Shark. The only thing which the group had going for them was the fact that the Scorpia agents hadn't known their exact position, so had merely shot in their general direction. Oh, and the MI6 agents as well as the SAS soldiers were all wearing bullet-proof vests. Well, except Alex.

As soon as Agent Andrew had effectively deafened him in one ear, Alex threw himself onto the ground. It appeared that he wasn't the only to do so; ahead of him he saw Agent Rose Allende rapidly crawling towards the only table in the room. A wave of bullets from a single gun cut the agent off. Without missing a beat, she raised her own weapon and shot in the direction in which the bullets were coming from. With that, Agent Rose claimed the first Scorpia life.

Wolf had shouted some order or other. It sounded like he'd just said 'Hippogriff', and in the heat of the battle none of the other agents, who admittedly were more worried about dodging the fatal bullets than figuring out the code of the SAS, had any understanding of what the SAS soldier was trying to say. Only his unit and Agent Ben Daniels seemed to understand. Immediately K-unit and Ben leapt into action, the five of them forming a sort of circle so that they only needed to worry about the hail of bullets coming from one direction. Simultaneously, the five of them fired their guns, momentarily halting the wave of bullets being directed at them.

Rose took the chance to lunge for the table. She turned on its side, positioning it so that she was able to use the metal top as a shield against the bullets. Alex looked at her from his position on the ground to see her frantically motioning him over. With a glance around, the teenage spy dived for the table, ducking behind it just as the gunfire began again.

"You alright?" Rose asked in a harried whisper.

"Yeah," Alex replied. The woman nodded, then looked out from her position of safety, raised her gun, took aim, and fired three times before ducking back down to avoid the hail of bullets.

"Ever been in crossfire?" She asked, before raising her gun again and emptying the clip. She ducked back down to reload.

Alex thought about his answer as he raised the gun and fired, without needing to aim. The bullet flew the length of the room before impacting with a Scorpia agent's chest in a spurt of blood. It appeared Scorpia hadn't bothered with bullet proof vests.

"Well, not really," the teenage spy answered as he ducked down again. He hadn't actually been caught in between so many flying bullets, but he'd had his fair share of 'crossfire'.

"I hate this part about my job," Rose muttered, before raising her gun again and taking out another man, "I really hate this part."

Alex gave her a small smile, peeking out from behind the table. K-unit and the MI6 agents weren't faring as well. Despite the bullet proof vests, Agent Alving was down, bleeding profusely from a wound in his thigh. Agent Garnett was trying to drag him towards the door while at the same time aiming and firing at the opposing agents. It wasn't going too well for her, but at least the woman hadn't been hurt yet. John Crawley was firing determinately at the Scorpia agents despite the wound he'd already received to his upper arm that was obviously causing him a great deal of pain. Ben had been injured; a bullet had penetrated his hand which he was now gripping extremely tightly. K-uni had closed up the ranks, encircling the former SAS soldier so he would not be shot.

"…little bit of trouble. I'll try get the others out, but don't count on it. Over," Rose was talking rapidly into her throat mic. It took an extremely strained effort to be able to hear the reply which Agent Andrew Banks gave.

"Blossom, this is base. Don't risk your life again, but…do your best. Over."

"Base this is Blossom. I copy that. Alert the others since they don't appear to have heard. We're going to do an Eye Catcher on three. Over."

"Blossom this is base. Good luck. Over and out."

Rose glanced at Alex, seeing that the boy had been able to hear Andrew's voice above the clatter of bullets, and gave him a reassuring nod.

"Alex," she started, "Now is the perfect time for you to show off your running skill."

"What?" The boy looked at her, confused. Rose smiled tightly.

"It's perfectly obvious we're not going to make it out if we keep this up-"

"So you want me to leave?"

"Alex, I'm not going to risk your life if I can help it!"

"Who put you in charge of my life?"

"I'm just doing what I think is right!"

Alex looked at Rose, taking in the woman's serious expression. He knew that she was trying to do what she thought was best – though she may also have been ordered to keep him safe. But Alex Rider was not a coward. He didn't run away from battles, not if lives were at risk. And he couldn't leave Rose; she was the only other MI6 agent that was civil to him, and regarded him as an actual human being instead of a weapon. Added to that the fact that Desiree had still not been found…

"I'm staying, and there's nothing you can do about it," Alex said stubbornly, taking out another three Scorpia agents.

Rose sighed. "Okay, fine, but please be careful. Try not to get killed."

"Don't worry, I'd rather be alive for the next couple of years," Alex said as cheerfully as he could manage over the gunfire.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Okay. When I count to three, here's what we do…"

Ben was in pain. A whole new world of pain. Well, maybe not, since he'd been shot before, but still…Oh God! His hand! It hurt, it caned…ARGH!!!

Dimly he was aware of K-unit standing protectively around him, shielding him from any further harm. He wished he had the strength to tell them not to bother, to just run away while they still could. Unfortunately, the only thing he was aware of right now was his throbbing hand. It bled profusely; the bullet had passed right through ripping a hole through the centre of his hand.

Ben was breathing heavy, ragged breaths. He wasn't sure how much longer he could hold on for – he may have only been shot in the hand and not some vital organ, but he was still losing a substantial amount of blood at a very rapid pace.

"Hang in there Fox!" A faintly familiar voice, probably Snake's, drifted into Ben's world.

The MI6 agent dazedly turned his head so he could look in the direction of the voice. He could see K-unit's medic looking at him with worry, before firing off another round of bullets. Ben attempted to smile reassuringly at him, but it probably ended up looking more like a grimace than anything.

Snake turned to the remaining three soldiers in his unit, and shouted to them something that sounded like "Cover me!". Then he knelt beside Ben, and wrenched the man's hand towards him, causing Ben to cry out softly in pain. Snake frowned in worry, and quickly and expertly tore off strips of material from his shirt to wrap around the bullet wound. He bound the bleeding hole as tightly as he could, using pressure to try and stop the bleed.

"Come on Fox, take a deep breath," Snake muttered over the gunfire. Ben had been close to hyperventilating, which would have been bad news if he actually decided to faint. The MI6 agent closed his eyes and forced himself to take one long drawn out breath. After that his breathing slowed enough to ensure that he did not collapse.

"…THREE!" A voice almost shouted over the noise of gunshots and pained yells.

It seemed like Snake and Ben were the only two people to have heard the shout. The two jerked around to see Rose and Alex leap out from behind the table, guns raised and firing. They quickly took out five or so of the Scorpia gunmen before the others began concentrating their fire in the direction of the deadly two, ignoring the MI6 agents and K-unit who, to be perfectly honest, were not doing a very good job at shooting.

Immediately the MI6 agents shot towards the door, Agent Crawley pausing briefly to seize Agent Alving's legs while Agent Garnett grabbed the now unconscious agent under his arms. They literally dragged him out of the room. K-unit was close behind them, following the escape. They'd all heard the command over their earpieces that Agent Rose Allende was planning to do an 'Eye Catcher'. Snake helped Ben towards the door; the man was extremely pale and dizzy, though it appeared that the bleeding in his now bandaged hand had slowed.

Alex's heart beat frantically against his chest as he took out another two Scorpia gunmen. This is suicide! He thought, but still he persisted. Rose had explained to him that the Eye Catcher was just that – catch the eye of the opponent, giving your team mates a chance to escape. It was pretty much a massive, suicidal distraction. Why suicidal? Because there was no chance for you to escape. Odd are, unless the opponents showed mercy or were forced to keep you alive, you wouldn't walk out of the shoot-off in one piece.

Snake carried almost all of Ben's weight. The man couldn't support himself any longer. Wolf turned back to see the two lagging behind. He ran back to them, and lifted Ben's arm around his own shoulders before helping Snake drag their ex-team mate to safety. A burst of gunfire in their direction cut them off, before the hail of bullets abruptly stopped – Eagle and Shark had eliminated the threat. Well, that's team work for you.

Soon they'd all escaped through the door. K-unit paused to look worriedly back at Rose and Alex, their unit's unofficial member, before the fact that Fox needed urgent medical treatment forced them to leave the two behind. The MI6 agents however, didn't spare another glance for the two youngest MI6 agents who'd literally saved all their lives.

When Alex and Rose were the only ones left in the room, the gunfire suddenly stopped. The two spies tensed, their fingers remaining on the triggers of their guns, waiting. The silence in the room thickened dramatically as the two, who stood back to back, glared at the Scorpia agents on their respective sides. Now would be the perfect opportunity to take down the remaining gunmen, except neither Rose nor Alex killed men in cold blood, not even if they completely deserved it.

After a few tense minutes had passed, the silence was shattered by – of all things – applause. Extremely out-of-place, awkward applause. Rose and Alex, both panting slightly from their earlier exertion, looked in the direction where the applause came from to see William making his way slowly towards the two from one of the doors.

"Well, done," he said, still clapping, "Oh, marvellous! That was quite some entertainment!"

If it weren't for the fact that William was now flanked by two guards who had their guns trained on Rose and Alex, the two young agents would either have turned and ran, or opened their mouths to question the man's sanity.

"But really, it took MI6 way too long to hack into our heat signals, if I do say so myself. I mean, the AIS only took what, two, three minutes tops? They completely caught us off our guards! But you…well, half of my men were asleep by the time your people hacked their way in!" William chuckled humourlessly, and stopped clapping, "Take them away," he ordered, his cold voice matching his emotionless eyes.

Alex and Rose found themselves forcefully disarmed, though Rose pulled the trigger again and took down another Scorpia agent before her gun could be snatched away. The two had their arms wrenched into rather painful positions that left them little room to manoeuvre without having their arms dislocated from their shoulders. They were dragged out of the room, through one of the side doors.

Alex grimaced as he and Rose were forced through the room. Dead Scorpia gunmen lay scattered on the ground, pools of blood everywhere. The stench of death hit him, almost causing the teenage spy to vomit. He was glad he didn't; that would surely have caused his arms to dislocate. Rose was no better off than he – she was extremely pale, and was trying extremely hard not to look at the dead or the blood.

They went through another door which led into a rather long hallway. The group walked in complete silence. Finally they stopped in front of a heavy looking, and very securely shut door. Two of the five Scorpia agents opened the door, and Alex and Rose were literally thrown inside, the door slamming shut behind them again. The two could hear sounds of the door being bolted, before receding footsteps told them that the guards were walking away.

"Well…at least we're alive," Alex muttered. Rose spared him a small smile before standing from where she'd been thrown and walking around their cell, checking all the walls over for weak spots. At last she sighed and sat down next to Alex, who hadn't moved a muscle; the adrenaline shot he'd been given had started to wear off.

"This place is so secure, you'd need an explosive to blast through anything," Rose said in disgust, "And that window is like thirty centimetres thick! No way you'd be able to smash it open. Even if you did, they've put up freakin' bars outside!" The woman huffed in annoyance, before turning to look at Alex for the first time. The sun had already risen, signalling the beginning of a new day. Light poured into their cell from the thirty centimetre thick window.

"Are you alright?" She asked, suddenly worried. Most of the colour had drained out of the boy's face, something which hadn't been noticed previously due to the absence of light. Now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off however, the teenage spy looked all the more worse for wear.

"I'm fine," Alex said meekly, leaning his head back against the wall.

"You don't look fine," Rose said, reaching up to feel Alex's forehead. Well, at least the boy didn't have a temperature.

"I'm just tired," Alex sighed. It appeared that Rose had a motherly nature better suited to being a nurse rather than a spy.

Rose had a sceptical look on her face. Alex looked tired, yes, but also bruised, battered, and slightly defeated. Before she could open her mouth to interrogate him, however, the bolts on the cell door were drawn and the door opened with an ominous creak.

William walked in, followed by a guard who was dragging a limp body behind him.

"My dear guests," William sneered, "I believe it is time for you to be introduced to one of my dearest friends." At his signal, the guard dropped the body on the floor. "I would stay and chat, but I have important matters to take care of. Well, I'll leave you to become acquainted!" And with that, he and the guard left again, the door shut and securely bolted.

Alex and Rose looked at the body lying face down on the floor with some apprehension. It appeared to be a girl – well, they presumed since she had messy blood red hair that looked to be about shoulder length. The back of her clothes were ripped and torn; the two agents could see a series of welts and cuts on her back that were barely hidden by her clothes. Alex stood cautiously and crept over to the girl, Rose eyeing the boy's every move.

As Alex approached, he could hear her breathing in a rather laboured manner. Well, at least she was alive. The boy knelt down on the floor beside her, brushing away her deep red hair. His hand came away damp. Frowning, Alex looked at his hand and to his horror, saw that it was covered with blood. It took all his self control to not give into the temptation to vomit. There was a sick feeling in his stomach however, as the boy turned the limp body over. Rose gasped in shock, and Alex recoiled away from the body that was covered with bruises and bloody marks.

Desiree Swan lay unconscious on the ground, her laboured, uneven breathing filling the small cell.

Hey all! Sorry again for the rather long wait between this chapter and the previous.

Anyways, how did you all like this chapter? Was it good? Did it suck? Were you so horrified by my plot/writing skills that you were soiled for life? Let me know about it in a review!!!

And remember, the more reviews I get, the faster I'll upload the next chapter!!!

Love Chariots99