Hmm... this is not the best chapter I've ever written, that's for sure. It's really just exposition, through a long conversation - I promise, the actual action is going to happen next time. I promise. :D
Dedicated to everyone who took their GCSEs recently. I hope everything went well for you all!
DISCLAIMER: Nope. Sorry. Not mine. :P
Moreau looked sharply at her, and nodded, quietly. "So. Have you read your mission briefings?"
"When did we have time to?" Alex asked, quietly. "We got them just before you came in, and then we left before we had any hope of reading them. Why?" he leant forwards, and looked at Armitage. "What did you want to know?"
She shrugged, cupping her hands around her mug of tea. "We leave for France in four days time – you two can read the briefing, so you know the facts, and then we've got four days to get acting like a proper family." She looked between Matt and Alex. "I've been given profiles of both of you, but… look, I've never done anything like this, but I know damn well that a profile of a teenager is nowhere near enough information to be able to treat him like a son."
"How likely is it that our new house is going to be bugged?" Alex asked, quietly.
Moreau frowned, looking at Alex. "Not too likely." He said, slowly. "It's just a normal house, and Girard has no reason to suspect us. Why do you ask?"
"Because, for the moment, I think we need to focus more on learning the history of our family – grandparents and where we've been, what we've done, things like that. You've already said, familiarity comes with time. Until then, we can at least pretend it, right? So long as we know what we're all supposed to have done together."
Armitage nodded, slowly. "It's a fair point." She acceded, quietly. "Now, as for you two…" She paused. "Apart from cover, I don't know what use you're going to be."
Alex smiled, lazily, as Matt bristled.
"We'll be able to help." Matt told her, indignantly. "We can – we're spies! Not just cover! We can – protect you…"
Armitage just grinned at that, but then Alex leant forwards, and said, casually,
"Put it this way – Mum – you're working at United Steelworks, right? It's a small town – surely it'd be perfectly natural for us to come and visit you, wait for you to take us home, bring you a message from Dad, over there," Moreau smiled lazily at him, "Or from our school, or something. Especially if one of us ends up being a bit of a misfit at school, then we'd have a lot of messages to keep bringing you…" he shrugged. "I'll volunteer for that; not working, getting detention, cutting school, whatever." He didn't want to say what he was thinking – that Matt wouldn't be convincing if he tried to take on such a role – but he could tell that Moreau, at least, was thinking along the same lines as him.
The man gave him another slightly wry, amused smile. "You just want to get out of school."
Alex shrugged, and grinned a bit. "Well, yeah. That to."
"Then, what am I supposed to do, stuck in school all day?" Matt whined.
Armitage looked at him, her eyes assessing him. "Girard has a son, who's about a year older than you." She told him. "You may be in the same year as him, I don't know – but either way, you can try and get in with his group of friends, try and integrate yourself into the family that way."
Matt nodded, looking rather sulky, and Moreau turned to Alex. "There is one flaw with your plan; why would you go and visit Joanna to give her a message from your school which you could easily wait, and give her at home?"
Alex paused. "If I don't go home much?" he shrugged. "It'd be easy for me to run a bit wild, pretend that I'm unhappy at having been moved from my old school, and everything – if I'm not home much, and just drop by to give you," he looked at Armitage, "Whatever message I have from the school, or even just to say that I'm not going to be home until whenever that night, so people in the factory get used to seeing me around…?"
Moreau considered it. "It's not a bad idea…" he gave Alex a considering glance, then grinned suddenly. "I never thought I'd say this to a 'son' of mine, but – try and get involved with the wrong sort of children, eh?"
"Another flaw, though…" Armitage broke in. "If you're involved with the bad kids around the town – well, in a town that size, everyone will know. No one will trust you. The idea of you having difficulty adjusting is a good one, but maybe leave it at that, OK? Otherwise, the moment you do something suspicious, it gets noticed and remarked on. And once we've been there a couple of weeks, maybe start adjusting properly, calm down your behaviour, alright?"
Alex nodded, seeing the wisdom of her suggestion. "Right. What job do you have with the Steelworks, exactly?"
"I'm a plain old paper pusher." She grimaced, light-heartedly. "It'll be fun!" She told Moreau, tartly, catching his grin.
"But are you going to be a conscientious paper pusher or not? Like, are you going to work Saturdays?" Alex pressed.
Matt frowned. "Why does it matter?"
Alex swallowed his sigh. "Because if she works Saturdays, you and I have a really good excuse to bring her messages from dear old 'Dad' here, telling her to come home for dinner, or asking her where she put his skis, or whatever. We all need excuses to visit from time to time, otherwise it's just Armitage doing all of the work information-gathering."
Moreau nodded his agreement. "So, darling," he asked, eyes laughing. "Are you going to work hard? It's for a good cause, after all…"
Armitage mock-glared at him. "Well, if you insist." She shrugged. "I guess I could always try and earn a little extra cash for our family."
He grinned at her, but Matt was still frowning.
"I don't get what I'm supposed to be doing, still." He said, the hint of a whine in his voice. "I can't just sit around doing nothing…"
Alex bit back a groan, and hoped he hadn't been this irritating with he was doing his own first assignment. If he'd been this whiny, he wouldn't blame Wolf for acting the way he did during basic training.
"You're going to be trying to infiltrate Girard's home, by making friends with his son." Armitage said, succinctly. "If he trusts you, he might accidentally let something slip to his wife in front of you, or you could pretend to leave something in his house, or really leave something there, and just pop back to get it, and have a quick look around…"
Alex frowned a little himself at that. "Actually – what are we trying to find, while we're there, anyway?"
"Mainly, anything we can that's suspicious about him, anything that can tie him into all the deaths; and we want to know what he's doing with the company at the moment. Once we've determined that, we move out, and let someone else take over clear up." Armitage told him, firmly.
Alex nodded, then said, quietly. "I really don't understand; what's so damn important about a steel company?"
Moreau leant forwards. "United Steelworks' main plant is the one we're heading for, up in the Pyrenees, but it spreads all over the world, and it ships out to several major countries." Alex made a questioning face, and Moreau smiled. "Thing is, as soon as Girard became President of the company, he stopped some of the biggest orders he had with various people – the British, American and French armies most importantly. The thing is, he didn't stop making the products, the weaponry, that United Steelworks had been commissioned to make for those armies, and it didn't experience a drop in profits, either. So, he's been sending those products somewhere, and it's vital that we find out where."
"But why are Britain and France so interested?" Matt asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"It's partly because our armies are being jeopardised, somewhat – and partly to do with the conflict in Iraq." Armitage took over. "We think that he's sending a lot of these things to Iraq, possibly elsewhere, as well… we're not sure. In any case, that's partly what we need to find out – but, even on the off chance, it's enough to get both our countries involved. Britain doesn't want a major company like United Steelworks sending things to our enemies, and it threatens French neutrality, if a predominantly French company appears to be supporting them."
"And the French government can't be seen to have any involvement whatsoever with what could turn out to be gun-running." Moreau added, flatly. "Naturally, we want to find out what is going on."
For a couple of moments, there was silence. Finally, Alex nodded, and said, quietly, "Right. Well, thanks for explaining that – it makes things clearer." He stood, and took his mug over to the sink, then, turning back to the little group, added, "I'm going to go to bed. M'tired." He picked up his rucksack, and was half-way out the door, before Moreau and Armitage offered slightly awkward 'goodnights'. Matt, for his part, just ignored him.
Alex was lying on the bed in 'his' half-packed up room – he'd been amused, but not at all surprised, to find a box of his own clothes and books and other personal items in one corner of his room – reading the brief he'd been given, and attempting to take it in properly, when someone knocked on the door.
He sat up, and called 'come in', just as Moreau opened the door. For a couple of seconds, the man just stood in the doorway, then he said, quietly, "May I speak to you for a second?"
Alex nodded, rather confused, and the man came in properly, shutting the door, and sitting down on the desk chair.
"I thought you ought to know," The French man began, slowly, "That when Joanna and I were briefed on this mission, we were told to give you seniority over Matthew. I was going to mention that earlier, but – it wouldn't have exactly been tactful, you know? Not in front of him."
Alex nodded, slightly confused as to why the man was telling him this. "Er… oh." He said, finally and eloquently. "Well, um – thanks."
Moreau gave him a slow, lazy smile. "You're wondering why I told you that."
Warily, Alex nodded again.
"Well, mainly I told you because I started to earlier, and I dislike it when people don't finish sentences, or constantly promise to tell you something 'later'." He shrugged. "But then, I also thought it would be a good idea for you to know. If I thought you were going to gloat about it, I wouldn't – but I hope you won't."
"I shan't." Alex said, firmly.
"I thought not." Moreau repeated, and stood looking down at him for a couple of seconds. "You're not what I was expecting, you know." He told him, and was gone.
Well, there you go then. Hope you liked it!
lol, ami xxx