OMG, JUST 12 REVIEWS TO GO UNTIL I REACH 100!!! *hint*hint*

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.

Chapter 15

"I send twenty of you in. Twenty. And you come back, without either of the teenagers, and also managed to lose one of your fellow agents?" Mr Blunt's voice never rose in volume, but it had become ice cold. The gathered agents and SAS soldiers, minus Agents Alving, Crawley and Daniels whom were admitted into hospital to treat their respective bullet wounds, and also without Tom Harris who'd also been sent to the hospital so that Jack could look after him, all recoiled slightly away from the head of the SO.

Admittedly, Mr Blunt was right. They'd been sent in to rescue the two kidnapped teenagers, and they'd come out with one less MI6 agent, no teens, and three injured agents. They would've at least had Alex if the boy hadn't refused rescue and demanded to go with them. But no-one brought that up in front of Mr Blunt and Mrs Jones. The two heads had made it very clear that they did not want any excuses for their failed mission.

After more berating from Mr Blunt, the group were dismissed. Quite literally, they'd been told to "Get out and don't come back until I feel up to forgiving you". In other words, until another mission came up in which the MI6 agents were usable in.

Mr Blunt sighed, turning to his second in command. Mrs Jones looked rather worried. And really to be honest, who could blame her? Alex was one of their top agents, and Rose had been an excellent find. Unlike Alex, she didn't have spy parents, uncles or godparents. Her parents were actually art teachers, her uncle a vet, and well...her parents hadn't seen the need to find her godparents. But the fact that Agent Allende was still alive after all the missions she'd been on said more about her skill than her file ever could.

"What do we do now?" Mrs Jones asked in a carefully masked voice.

Mr Blunt grimaced. "We're waiting for back up," he said. It was clear from his tone that he did not approve of 'back up'; a moment later, Mrs Jones found out why.

The door to Mr Blunt's office burst open and in strolled Jacob Wood, his hands casually resting in his pockets. The AIS agent had been cleared from hospital – he'd actually not been suffering from any serious injuries, and now merely had a couple of nasty looking bruises as proof that he'd actually taken on Scorpia agents. The fact that he was back on his feet so soon could be attributed to several factors; his injuries weren't actually all that bad (they just hurt a lot), he was fit to begin with so it was easier to recover, and the doctors and nurses at St. Dominic's were the best.

"Mr Blunt," Jake said with a respectful nod, "Mrs Jones. May I introduce the rest of my unit?" At those words, Terry Phillips and Dean Finley walked in, both of them nodding towards the heads of the Special Operations. Mr Blunt didn't make any attempt to acknowledge the AIS agents; indeed it appeared that he was trying his best to ignore their very existence. Mrs Jones however, gave the three a small smile.

Terry and Dean had been flown in that morning. They'd left Australia the previous afternoon, and had requested to stay in England until they could see their kidnapped agent safe and sound. Or, at least, as safe and sound as you can be after being held captive by Scorpia.

"So," Mrs Jones broke the silence that had previously hung in the head of the SO's office, "You three believe that you can get all three agents out? Just by yourselves?"

"Well, we're going to give it a shot. Try something completely new, you know? If sending twenty people didn't work," here Jake paused with a small humourless smile on his face, "Then perhaps three people may get the job done. That said, I believe that we will have more success than those you sent in last night."

"Oh?" Mr Blunt said in a cold voice; he didn't appreciate the AIS putting down his agents, even if they did royally screw up the rescue, "And why's that?"

"We're a team. A very close-knit one if I do say so myself," Jake answered.

"Yeah, unlike your agents," Terry added, "Who didn't even spare Agents Allende and Rider a second glance when the two saved their butts." Mr Blunt and Mrs Jones stared at Terry incredulously. The twenty-one year old raised an eyebrow, then answered their unspoken question, "We were watching the feed of the heat signals on Mr Smithers' computer."

"We've always got each other's backs," Dean summarised up his younger unit members, gazing at Mr Blunt with calm, cool eyes, "We'll get the job done."

Mr Blunt briefly shut his eyes, drawing a deep breath, before looking at the AIS agents again. "Very well. If you think you can do a better job than my agents, you're welcome to try. Though if you do return without Agents Allende and Rider, do not consider your mission a success."

The three remaining members of AIS's elite Unit One merely gazed at the head of the SO impassively, before Jake turned and left, followed by Dean then Terry. Just before Terry was completely out the door, he heard Mrs Jones speak to them in a soft voice that was completely devoid of all emotion that her boss may have seen as a weakness:

"Good luck."

The cell was heating up with the rising sun, raising the temperature so that no-one froze to death. Not that its inhabitants noticed; they were more concerned with the masses of bruises, welts, cuts and blood that the unconscious girl resting on Alex's lap sported.

Alex gently trailed his fingers along Desiree's neck, tracing the hand shaped bruises that were present. The girl's left arm lay at a funny angle; it had been broken twice along the forearm. Rose was currently bent over it, wrapping masses of strips torn from hers and Alex's clothes, trying her best to immobilize the doubly broken arm before the girl woke up. The blood that had coloured the girl's naturally blonde hair a deep red had come from several cuts that traced her hairline on her forehead before burying itself deeper into her hair.

Desiree was pale from blood loss, that much was certain. Her skin was colder than was normal, her lips tinged slightly blue. Alex would've thought her dead if he couldn't hear her raspy breathing filling up the cell. It was, however, unclear whether or not the girl suffered from any internal bleeding, or a concussion. Rose said they should really try to wake the girl up, though neither of the two were rushing towards that prospect.

"There," Rose said finally, leaning back after securing the last strip of cloth.

"You think that'll hold?" Alex asked, his voice tired.

"I hope," Rose muttered darkly, "Otherwise that girl's going to go through a whole new world of pain." The woman then proceeded to foully curse Scorpia, calling the ruthless criminal organisation every name under the sun. She even used different languages, switching from English to Russian to Italian to what sounded like Cantonese before fluently swearing in French. Alex raised his eyebrows, impressed. Even his vocabulary didn't stretch to that many different languages, and of the ones that he did know, he wasn't as up to date in swearing as Rose appeared to be.

"You know some colourful language," the teenage spy commented when Rose stopped for breath. The MI6 agent snorted.

"If we ever make it out of this alive, I'll teach some to you," she offered.

Alex cracked a grin. "Thanks."

They were interrupted, though the conversation was just stopping anyway, by a soft whimper. Alex and Rose snapped back to look at Dessi, who's laboured breathing intensified as she began to leave the unconscious world behind. The girl whimpered again, before her eyes slowly fluttered open.

Desiree blinked a few times before the blurry image of Alex leaning over her rather protectively sharpened into a clear picture. Dessi moaned in pain, raising the arm that wasn't broken and putting a hand to hold her throbbing head. When the pain dulled slightly, she began to sit up, only to have Alex firmly push her back down again before she actually got anywhere.

"Oh, no you don't," the boy said, "We don't want you knocking yourself out again."

Dessi blinked at him, her mind still a bit fuzzy, so she pretty much just saw Alex's mouth moving without any noise. Instinct, sharpened from her countless missions, caused her brain to immediately lip read the boy, and interpret his movements with real words.

"Dessi? Are you okay?" Alex asked, seeing that she had yet to reply. This time the girl heard him, though his voice seemed a tad muffled to her ears.

Desiree opened her mouth to answer, but her voice didn't seem to want to work. Clearing her throat she tried again, and this time managed to emit a small noise that could be taken as an affirmative to Alex's question.

"Dessi?" Worry clouded Alex's eyes.

"I'm okay," Dessi whispered since her voice didn't seem up to speaking at a normal volume. Upon hearing her speak, Alex sighed in relief.

Rose chose that time to slid across so that Desiree could see her. It took the girl several long seconds to be able to focus on the MI6 agent. When she did, her eyes filled with recognition.

"Hi Desiree," She whispered, "I'm – "

"Agent Rose Allende?" Dessi asked, her voice still soft.

Rose stiffened in surprise. "How do you know my name?"

The corners of Desiree's mouth twitch slightly. "File," was the only word she could say with the limited energy left in her body. Alex took over to explain what the girl meant, though he told Rose about the AIS in a very round about, glossed over way that really left more questions than it answered. However, it seemed that Rose had some knowledge about the AIS, for when they were mentioned she turned to Dessi with a look of utter surprise and awe.

"You work for the AIS?"

"Yeah," Dessi replied.

"Wow," Rose breathed. When Alex looked at her questioningly, she elaborated. "Mr Blunt is always going on about the AIS. About how they're virtually untraceable. How they know everything about everything. How no agency in the world seems to know a thing about any of their agents, not even the Mossaad. He even went as far as wishing how the rest of us were as good as their agents – that was about when he got the brilliantly lame idea to send all his agents to train with the SAS at Breacon Beacons," Rose finished with a disgusted look, rolling her eyes.

"Wait, hold up," Alex said as Rose's last sentence clicked somewhere deep in his mind, "Blunt sends all his agents to train at Breacon Beacons because he wants to copy the AIS?"

"Yeah, pretty much. You should have heard the row he and the Sergeant had in the lobby – it was epic," Rose said in awe, "Though I really wish that the Sergeant had won. I hate going to train with the SAS. Not only because it seems to always be raining, but the trainees seem to enjoy taunting me purely because I am a girl."

Alex snorted. "I know that treatment," he said, then seeing the look on Rose's face, he elaborated. "When I first got roped into this whole spying business, they made me go to Breacon Beacons. The unit I was put with…well, let's just say they weren't very nice," Alex shook his head slightly, "They called me 'double-o-nothing'. Seemed under the impression that I was sent there by my parents. They wish," he added in a dark mutter.

Rose sighed. "MI6 has got to let this whole contest against the AIS go," she said, "Before it kills someone."

Alex gave a small smile, tilting his head down to ask for Dessi's opinion before realising that the girl had either dozed off or fainted again. The teenage spy glanced questioningly at Rose, who gave him a reassuring smile that answered his unspoken question.

"At least she's stopped bleeding," Rose said, keeping her voice soft so that she didn't wake the exhausted girl.

"Yeah," Alex whispered, "At least."

His fingers went back to gently tracing the bruise on her neck.

It was well past noon when Jake, Terry and Dean arrived at the compound where the three agents were being held. All seemed quiet, so it was safe to assume that none of them were being tortured at that current moment in time.

The three AIS agents put their heads together in the back of their can, going over their plan one final time.

"...and then you come in..."

"...and you make sure the doors are open..."

"...where are the explosives – oh, wait. I've found them..."

"...make sure you keep out of sight..."

"...I hope Dessi's doing okay..."

"...then you creep in and knock them out..."

"...and I'll take care of the rest," Jake finished. The other two agents nodded in agreement, before all three of them began to arm themselves with an assortment of guns, knives, and small but powerful explosives courtesy of MI6's gadget expert, Mr Smithers.

That done, they all stopped and looked at each other for a moment. It was clear from their faces that all three of them were thinking the same thought: Normally, there'd be four of us...

Jake shook himself from his reverie. His team needed him to be a strong leader. And Desiree needed her team to get her out alive. "Okay, we all know why we're here. Good luck, and if I don't see you in one hour, I'm sending in help."

"Jakie-boy," Terry said, rolling his eyes, "We have distress signals." It was an argument they went through before almost every mission.

"And if your unconscious, you wouldn't be able to press the signal." Yep, the responses were extremely deeply engrained into their minds that this was almost becoming a ritual. They waited for the next line, before realising that Desiree wasn't currently with them. Dean sighed, and climbed out of the van before coming to an abrupt halt.

Someone collided into him.

"Ow! Dean, what gives?" Terry whined as Jake carefully climbed out to avoid walking into Dean.

"Finley? You alri..." the words died in Jake's mouth as he stared in horror in the direction which Dean was looking at.

The compound had been set on fire.

It was well past noon when William decided to pay his hostages a visit. He'd already ordered all his remaining operatives (the ones who were alive) out of the compound, and back to Scorpia headquarters. They'd achieved what they'd set out to do. Only three guards remained with him, and before long the four of them would be leaving too.

But he had just one last thing to do.

"Well, good afternoon," William announced as he walked into the holding cell. Alex looked up, his eyes alert. Desiree remained unconscious, her head propped up on Alex's lap. Rose tensed, ready to defend the two teenagers if the Scorpia men decided to attack them.

"What do you want?" Alex spat.

"Now now, play nice little Rider," William smirked, "I've merely come to pay you all a visit before my departure." The man noticed the sudden increase in attention when he'd mentioned the word 'departure', and he laughed. "Oh, you're not going anywhere! But I'm afraid that you'll no longer be graced with me presence."

"Oh no," Alex said, his voice laced with sarcasm, "Whatever will we do now?"

One of the guards growled at the boy, snarling something about his 'insolent tone', but William raised a hand to stop him actually doing anything in retaliation.

"If I were you, I would treat my elders with respect."

"Lucky thing that you're not me then," Alex bit back in an insulting tone. This time nothing stopped the guard from lunging for the boy, his hands drawn back ready to punch the living daylights out of him. Before Alex could react and get out of the way, which was admittedly rather difficult with Desiree passed out on his lap, Rose leapt to his defence.

The young MI6 agent dived in front of the two teenagers to use her body as a shield. The Scorpia guard hit her right across the cheek, the force of the punch sending her flying sideways and slamming her into the hard wall of the cell. Alex pushed Desiree off his lap, pushing the girl so that she was out of harm's way, before lunging for the guard who hadn't yet recovered from his punch.

The teenage spy drew back his fist, before unleashing a deadly punch aimed straight for the man's throat. There was a small part of his mind that became slightly nauseated when the boy felt the guard's throat collapse under the force of the punch. The guard stumbled back, doubled over and spluttering for air that would never reach his lungs. One of the other guards surrounding William stepped forwards to pull the injured man out of the cell. William just stood there and smirked. The fact that Alex had just taken out one of his men seemed to have no effect on the Scorpia agent.

"Well well well," he drawled, "That was some punch. Pity that you'll never get to use it again." Alex tensed, assuming that the other guard or William himself would pull out a gun from nowhere and shoot him.

William turned, motioning for the guard to follow him out. The boy was so shocked that neither had made a move to kill him that he didn't react until it was too late. The heavy door was shut again, the bolt redrawn to keep the hostages inside. Alex threw himself at the door, but it stayed firmly shut.

Rose groaned softly, sitting up from the floor and clutching her cheek which had swollen and was beginning to bruise.

"Alex...?" She said, "Wha – "

"Scorpia's leaving," Alex said grimly. "And they're leaving us here alone."

He didn't need to finish off his sentence for Rose to understand what he was implying.

They're leaving us here alone to die...

It was well past noon when Mrs Jones came hurrying into Mr Blunt's office, a file clutched tightly in her hand. Without any preamble, she threw the file in front of the head of the Special Operation.

"Have you seen this?!" She exclaimed, worry in her eyes.

Mr Blunt opened the file slowly, read the first few lines slowly, then closed the file and looked up at Mrs Jones. "Yes I have."

"Well? What are we going to do?"

"I've already sent out agents to deal with them. They were more than happy to make up for their mistake earlier today."

"ALAN! Is that all you think about?" Mrs Jones all but shrieked, "All the Scorpia agents who were still alive after that failed attempt have been sent packing, away from the compound! Doesn't that ring alarm bells? Especially since none of our satellite footage suggests that Rider and Allende and that AIS girl were taken with them!"

"Calm down!" Mr Blunt barked. He knew that his second in command had a soft spot when it came to Agent Rider, but even he himself had to admit that the boy was more useful to MI6 alive than dead. "Our agents will make sure that all the Scorpia operatives are caught, and those AIS agents will get Rider and Allende out."

"Do you have faith in them then?" Mrs Jones asked, her voice softer as she calmed down.

Mr Blunt gazed at Mrs Jones, then sighed. "Unfortunately, even I must admit that those three have more chance of rescue than our agents ever did."

"They're that good, huh?"

Mr Blunt's expression seemed to darken, his eyes glazed over. It seemed he was relieving a particularly painful memory.

"You have no idea, Tulip."

Alex sat down with a huff next to the tightly shut and locked door. Well, didn't his day just keep getting better and better.

"Don't worry," Rose said, "They'll come rescue us."

"Yeah, but will they come soon enough?" Alex asked, his gaze unwillingly fixed once again upon Desiree Swan. Rose seemed to follow his gaze, for she sighed before moving closer to the girl so that she could check up on her injuries.

"She'll pull through," Rose said in a comforting tone, moving Desiree's broken arm so that it was in a less painful looking position, "From what I've heard, AIS agents are strong."

There was a silence as the two sat, contemplating their current situation. That silence was broken with a soft moan of pain. Both spies spun around to see Desiree re-entering the realm of the conscious, rubbing her head with her unbroken arm.

"What...what happened?" She asked, her voice so hoarse that it made Alex and Rose both cringe in pain.

"Well, er, you sort of fainted," Alex said.

Desiree gave him her best glare she could manage under the circumstances. "Yes, I figured that out for myself, funnily enough." The girl tried to push herself up, only to have Rose firmly hold her to the ground, tutting gently under her breath.

"You really shouldn't overexert yourself," Agent Allende said in a motherly sort of way. Dessi just rolled her eyes, though Alex noticed that the girl actually did remain on the floor.

Alex sighed and banged his head repeatedly against the wall, until Rose told him to stop. "You're going to need all the brain cells you have for the GCSEs," she warned. The boy merely rolled his eyes.

The cell was heating up, more than was natural. Surely the sun had never been that hot in winter...had it? Alex sighed again, wiping a trail of sweat from his forehead. Rose looked up, frowning slightly.

"Are you sweating?" She asked. Alex nodded. "Me too..." Rose's voice trailed off, and she turned to glare at the sun that was shining through the impossibly small window.

Desiree tensed noticeably. She tilted her head up off the floor and sniffed the air. Alex watched her curiously.

"Err...What are you doing?"

Dessi didn't answer him. She breathed in deeply, or at least as deeply as she could without causing herself an over-excess of pain, before asking: "Do you smell something?"

"Err..."

Alex took in a deep breath, and suddenly noticed the small change in the air. It was slightly thicker, more...cloudy. There was definitely a different texture to it. "Something's different..."

Rose tilted her head up and breathed in the air, before wiping another trail of sweat off her face. Desiree, ignoring both of the MI6 agents, pushed herself up off the ground. Gritting her teeth so she didn't scream in pain when she hit her broken arm, the girl managed to get unsteadily to her feet. She tottered over to the door, Rose and Alex glaring at her every step of the way, before leaning carefully against it, carefully avoiding Alex who was now sandwiched between her and the wall, and put her nose to the non-existent crack between the wall and the door. There she sniffed again. Her eyes widened in alarm.

"It's smoke!" She exclaimed. Alex shifted with unease, accidentally hitting the girl and causing her to lose her balance. With a small "Eep" of surprise, Desiree fell, landing unceremoniously in Alex's lap. She felt the boy stiffen with surprise, and turned her head up towards him, a sheepish grin on her face.

"You alright?" Alex asked, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling inside his stomach at the sight of her smile. There was a strange tingling sensation along his body where the girl's weight had settled.

"Yeah," Desiree replied, her voice slightly breathless. She turned her head away, though not before Alex caught a flash of pain flicker through her crystal blue eyes. She girl winced, and brought her uninjured hand up to her ribs, which felt like they were on fire.

Speaking of which...

"I think they've decided to burn us alive," Desiree said, and for such a situation, her voice was exceptionally calm. She may as well have been commenting upon the weather.

Alex and Rose exchanged looks of unease, before they dragged Desiree (who didn't appear to have the energy to get up again) to the furthest corner of the room from the door. They all noticed the faint trail of black smoke seeping into their cell...

Jake and Terry rushed towards the flaming compound, their hearts racing in fear. The flames seemed to have been started in the wing furthest away from where the tracking device injected inside Desiree's body showed her to be. However, the fire was spreading quickly, sending thick black smoke up into the sky and through the corridors of the compound. Dean stayed behind to call MI6 and report the situation and request back-up in the form of fire engines and ambulances. There would definitely be some smoke inhalation from this.

Reaching the compound, Jake pulled up his scarf to wrap around his nose and mouth, motioning for Terry to do the same. With one last breath of relatively fresh air, the two boys plunged into the burning building, making their way desperately through the labyrinth of corridors. They'd already pre-memorised the route to Desiree's cell, and hoped against hope that Scorpia had been stupid enough to put all their prisoners into one cell. If not...there simply wouldn't be enough time left to find and save the other two from the flames.

Right, left, straight, left, left...and on and on the pattern went. All the while, the temperature around them rose dramatically, and the air thickened. Soon it was so black that the two were left with a visibility of just one metre, meaning that more than once one of them would crash into a wall that loomed up out of nowhere.

A thin piece of a wire-like string trailed behind the two, courtesy of the Covert Weapons Section from the AIS. The string contained within it thin electrical wires that measured, to the accuracy of 0.0001 micro metres, the distances which had been travelled. This information was then relayed to the main computer, which Dean held, in order to inform control of the position of their agents. In this particular instance, however, the string was merely being used as a guide, a way for the two AIS agents to get out of the burning compound, once they'd rescued the hostages, without the risk of getting lost in the maze of corridors.

A soft, muffled beeping brought the two to an abrupt halt. Jake glared down at his watch, before turning to Terry and nodding. His watch had an alarm inbuilt inside it that would go off once it came within a two metre radius of any tracking device that it was programmed to find. In this case, it's beeping signalled that Jake and Terry had reached the correct corridor where Desiree was being held.

Terry reached out blindly, his eyes narrowed in the smoke, feeling for the wall. Abruptly, his hand came into contact with a piece of metal that burnt from the heat it'd absorbed from the fire. The man felt around the shape of the metal, before realising that it was actually a heavy bolt designed to keep doors closed.

It took Jake and Terry to pull the bolt open; they'd had to take their scarves off to wrap around the burning metal, which meant that they were using one hand each to cover their mouths. Once the bolt was drawn, they re-wrapped their scarves around their faces. Jake reached across to grab the handle, which was just pleasantly warm, and with an effort heaved the door open.

The cell had filled with smoke, though not enough to kill. Once the door opened, however, billows of black smoke blew into the cell. The split second before that happened however, Jake and Terry got a very good look inside the cell, through the relatively thin smoke. What they saw made their stomachs plummet with worry.

All three agents were in the cell. And all three were collapsed on the floor.

I know, another cliffie! So hate me :( But it's getting really really late, and I need sleep.

Now, I'm not going to make excuses as to why I haven't updated for so long. I'm merely going to state that I am now a med student, and as such my lecturers have decided that I do not need my free time. In fact, I'm not sure that they even know what free time means...

To make up for the really late update, I've made this chappie extra long!

I'll update as soon as I possibly can...but in the mean time to get my spirit up, why don't you all review?!!

Love Chariots99

Ps, OMG, JUST 12 REVIEWS TO GO UNTIL I REACH 100!!! *hint*hint*