Here is Chapter 10: I am not a kid!
The Elevator dinged and opened to have Ziva and Alex walk out in mid-conversation, "So you actually kicked him out of the plane?" Ziva asked while laughing.
"Yes I did, it was hilarious looking back on it, but he was so embarrassed he didn't even tell the others, Ben had to after I told him. And that wasn't the funniest moment." Alex replied. Tony overhearing the tale, became curious.
"Who are we talking about?" Tony asked as Alex sat behind Gibbs' desk.
"Wolf, the leader of K-Unit, I was asking him about them on the way over." Ziva answered.
"And in what situation would would kick a full-grown soldier out of a plane?" Tony asked Alex.
"During a parachuting exercise, with the soldier in question being scared of heights, so if I didn't kick him out that time, he would've failed."
"He must love you then," McGee added as he wrote as his desk.
"Probably not after the time I temporarily paralyzed him, and many occasions after that, including paintballing." (A/N: yes that is a promise to have a paintballing chapter for Just his Luck)
"I pity your unit." Ziva joked.
"You should pity Eagle the most, I had a habit of tasing him when he got too annoying, especially when he started singing, that man cannot stay on key unless he is hurt in the soft spot."
"So he's as bad as Tony." Ziva said.
"I can so sing! Ms. Zee-vah." Tony tried to defend himself. "But what is this 'Eagle' like?"
"Almost like a child, the jester, and you do not want to give him any kind of sugary substance unless you have a death wish. But he can be serious if the situation requires it terribly, and he's not the worst shot compared to me."
"I think I like him." Tony said.
"Like who, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked as he showed up in the bullpen.
"A guy from K-Unit that Alex was telling us about." Tony answered, with a single glance from Gibbs to Alex, Alex got up so Gibbs could sit at his desk.
"What's the status on the men that broke into my apartment?" Ziva asked.
"Still haven't come around yet, but are in holding cells until then, What did you do to them?" The last part was directed to Alex, who pulled a chair from a vacant desk.
"Just hit their pressure points, and they were out like a light." Alex answered. "Then I used some of their nerve points to keep them out."
"Where did you learn that?" McGee asked.
"I told you yesterday that I did train with SCORPIA, no matter how brief the training was, and even though they want me dead for foiling more than one of their plans."
"And I believe we were not finished with our conversation from yesterday, so once we finish the paperwork and interrogating the men who broke in, we can continue in Conference room 4, and as you volunteered earlier, you can help with the paperwork." Gibbs said as he left his desk to check on the men being held.
"Just so you know, you won't get anything out of them." Alex said as he sat back at Gibbs' desk.
"Why would you say that?" Gibbs asked.
"They're SCORPIA, low-ranking operatives on a suicide mission, meaning if they brought me in, good for them. If they failed, they were to crunch a cyanide pill and die, which were those white pills you took as evidence this morning. And as that plan failed, they would not give information up that easily, besides all SCORPIA operatives are put through extensive RTI training, in one form or another, no matter what job they do." He replied and Alex looked down at his hand as he thought back to the ghost of the tattoo he once had from them.
"So what do you suggest I do, just let them go?" Gibbs asked as he noticed the quick shadow cross the kid's face.
"If you want you can talk to them, be my guest, but the most you can arrest them for is home invasion and possible abduction."
"Alright, McGee, give him some paperwork to keep him busy." With that Gibbs left to interrogate the home invaders.
"If you were trained by them, did you have to go through RTI training as well?" McGee asked as he gave a few file for Alex to complete, like witness statements among other things.
"I was only there a month, but like I said there was more that one way you got through interrogation." A darkness fell over the childs face for less than a second, only Ziva saw it.
There was a silence as the agents thought that through. "They tortured you, didn't they?" Ziva asked already knowing the answer.
"I did say that yesterday, they never take things lightly." With that Alex began the paperwork leaving the rest of the team to their thoughts.
"You were right, kid. They didn't talk, but agreed to the charges." Gibbs said as he entered Conference room 4 to find his field agents and Alex.
"Jail is their best option right now because SCORPIA doesn't touch anyone in jail since it would bring too much attention." Alex replied.
"Since there has been two SCORPIA attacks against you in the past twenty-four hours, which you dealt with, it would be helpful if we knew what happened to make them want you, and how you got mixed up with them in the first place." Ziva said.
Alex stared at his hand as he flexed it, "Just because you have temporary clearance to hear my story, doesn't mean I want to tell you, the more people I tell, the more people I endanger."
"Well you are in danger as well, it would help if we know why." Ziva retorted, Alex's gaze never left his hand.
"Are you alright, kid?" Gibbs asked.
"I am not a kid." Alex muttered, none of the adults clearly heard it.
"What?" Gibbs asked.
"I am not a kid, as much as you want to be, I am not, Tony said so at the hotel yesterday." Alex glared at Gibbs, who actually flinched when he saw Alex's eyes, they were so cold, an unnatural cold for someone so young, and his face was vacant of any emotions. He noticed that Alex made a fist with the hand he was previously staring at, and his knuckles were white.
"Well physically you are only 16, so you are a kid." Gibbs said not standing down from the stare, but said it to comfort himself more than to oppose Alex.
"Wait, how did you know what I said at the hotel?" Tony asked.
"I'm a spy. Very little gets past me. And I don't care what age I physically am or what my birth certificate says, I am not a kid, I have seen things beyond my years, beyond even Gibbs' years, so I am not a kid." Alex's glare never wavered as he spoke, if possible Gibbs saw that his eyes got even more cold, Gibbs had to resist the urge as a shiver went down his spine.
"Like what?" Tony asked with genuine concern.
"Are you familiar with the Portuguese man of war jellyfish? Well after I was caught on my first mission, I was put in a tank that contained a giant one, if it got a hold of me, I would've died. I had to snowboard down the Alps using a ironing board on my second mission, and for more than a few missions, I was the only thing that could protect thousands of civilians from the maniacs wanting to kill them. No mere kid can do the job of an adult and do it better, so I cannot be considered a kid." Alex kept his eyes cold as he looked at each agent as he spoke. They could feel the temperature dropping around Alex.
"Whether or not we consider you a kid does not change the fact that we need to know why they are after you." Ziva said.
"All you need to know is that I have taken out a few of their plans, was taught by them, and was the reason most of their board members were killed. Well, Yu did that to himself, when he jumped off the Dragon Nine onto his boat and the after-shock did the rest."
"Dragon Nine?" McGee asked.
"An oil rig in the Pacific I came across when I infiltrated Snakehead."
"You took on Snakehead too?" Ziva asked in slight shock. "Only the best of Mossad are even considered to go up against them, and its usually a suicide mission."
"That's what most of my missions are, suicide, and I still have a 100% success rate. Another reason I don't like telling people about my missions, because after they hear it they either treat me like a freak show, or sympathize me and want to interfere."
"Don't you have any sense of self-preservation?" Ziva asked.
"The preservation of the world overrules my own, I don't want to see anyone else face what I've had to; being with Mossad, you must have seen your fair share of missions. But I bet you weren't threatened to be dissected alive, to have your organs almost harvested, to be shot at and be on the brink of death as it was centimeters from puncturing your heart. I would be correct since I have seen your mission reports. And your eyes tell that you haven't seen the horrors that I have."
"How did you end up like this?" Tony asked.
"I was too curious for my own good since I didn't believe the excuse they gave to cover my uncle's death, 'didn't wear his seatbelt' my ass."
"How did he die?" Gibbs asked.
"He was killed by Yassen Gregorovich. My uncle was investigating Stormbreaker, a super computer that was planned to be given to British schools across the country, MI6 had him investigate, when he died, I had to finish the mission."
"How would you be even be prepared for espionage at such a young age?" Ziva asked.
"Ian, my uncle, was training me for the spy world ever since I could walk, he was very thorough, then I had a crash course at Beacons before they sent me out. Before I came on this mission, I was residing at Beacons with K-Unit for the past few months after another attempt on my life."
"Okay, back up, you know Yassen Gregorovich?" Ziva asked. "He's the best assassin in the world."
"Yes, he was involved with Stormbreaker, along with a few other incidents we saw eachother, but was the best, so he would be the late Yassen Gregorovich, since I watched him die on Air Force One. And I could probably be close to that title if I wanted it. I do not kill for money like he did, I kill the bastards that deserve to die, I kill to survive."
None of them really knew how to respond to that. They didn't like the idea of a kid having to kill to survive. Gibbs thought back to everything he saw, he was literally a war vet, but just of what Alex told them and looking at his eyes, Alex has seen worse than war.
"Now, I am going to get something to eat while you think all of that over." Alex left the room. They remained quiet for a few minutes.
"He's right." Ziva said, the others turn to look at her. "I never was in any twisted situation like the ones he listed. The most was me being tied up and interrogated."
"Its sad that he has to kill to survive. His enemies must have been really screwed up." McGee said.
"They have to be if they want to dissect someone alive." Tony added.
"But how did he know Yassen Gregorovich and survive? I mean why would Yassen not kill him?" Ziva asked.
"Because he is not big on the idea of killing children, and owed me." Alex said, they all jumped seeing him back in his seat with a cup of tea and a sandwich. "Besides, he never had an order to kill me, until Air Force One, he died because he refused to kill me."
"Why would he be ordered to kill you?" Gibbs asked
"Because I screwed Damian Cray's plan, and then Cray shot him as well as me."
"I'm guessing you had a kevlar vest on." said Gibbs.
"Yeah, but enough of that, I realized how they found me here."
"How?" McGee asked, feeling lost in the conversation.
"You ran my prints, so my name probably popped up on their servers, so this is your fault."
"Your the one who assaulted to federal agents." Gibbs countered.
"Hello, I am a federal agent as well! And I am the top agent for MI6 Special Operations so I have a higher ranking than all of you! And I'm not even officially employed!"
"So why are you here?" Tony asked.
"Because I was loaned out to your CIA to take out SCORPIA agents that were hiding at the base and I don't have many other options, if I didn't do this they would've sent me on some other mission, where I get hurt, kill more people and go back to Beacons for refresher courses. Its become a cycle and I don't have much to lose anymore, would a kid say that? Would a kid say that they are willing to kill people because they have nothing left to lose? Because I have probably never heard someone younger than me saw that, and I am saying it. They ruined my life, ruined any chance I had of a normal life, and I honestly don't care anymore. I do what I have to, I come back and I go back out there. Now that we are done here, I believe I only had two hours of unhelpful sleep last night and Abby offered me a spot in her lab if I got tired. So I am taking her up on that offer."
As Alex got up to leave Ziva stood up, "When you said its in your blood, what did you mean?" she asked.
He didn't even turn to look at her when he said, "It's hereditary, I would think it was obvious," Then he shut the door behind him.
"What did he mean 'hereditary'?" Gibbs asked.
"Earlier I asked him how he was so good at all of this and he responded with 'It's in my blood. Just like you.' I don't know what he meant."
"Maybe he meant like how your family works for Mossad, his family may have worked for MI6?" McGee suggested.
"So he's from a family of spies?" Tony said. They all looked at each other and knew that was what Alex meant.
I know I said I was putting this story on hiatus but I couldn't help myself. I did post the third chapter of Just his Luck so look into it.