Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider. Obviously. So nerr.

There wasn't as many reviews as I would have liked, but thank you all to those who reviewed - I tried to respond to you all, and if I didn't, then i'm sorry. I will try to reply to any reviews I get on this... hint hint.

Thanks to Sarcasm- the lowest form of wit for Betaing this chapter :D

Happy Valentines day to you all. Or, if you're like me, happy "yet another day". Yes, I am alone on this day, and yes, I am bitter about it. But oh well.

Alright, so here's chapter 3. I'm sorry that this chapter is up later than I said it would be - I was stuck on ideas for chapter 4, and wanted to get that written before I posted this, so yeah. Sorry for the late update. On the other hand, this is posted on valentines day, so you know, this is my gift to you.

Enjoy!

Escape C3

When Alex had come out of the toilets, he had looked over his shoulder and saw the passengers being asked to step out of their vehicles so that the army men could search them.

Protests where heard, questions asked, and Alex was grateful for this. It meant that the soldiers were being slowed down by the public, giving Alex more time to prepare for stage two of his plan to escape.

He knew that sneaking onto the last coach that had not been searched by the army would not possible, but hoped that when they were asked to evacuate their vehicles he would be able to mingle with the passengers.

Hiding in front of the 42 seated Compass Royston coach, Alex waited silently on the balls of his feet, his hands against the pavement as he slightly leaned forward, ready to fight or flight. He listened to the sharp footsteps of the soldiers getting louder as they came closer towards him and squeals from over-excited children and teenagers sensing the seriousness of the situation and having fun from it.

The rapping of a fist beating against the coaches doors made Alex jump, but luckily the sounds surrounding him covered the noise his clothes made as the rubbed against his skin.

"We need you to open the doors, sir, and have yourself and your companions step out of your vehicle," a gruff and fed up voice called, obviously annoyed with having to deal with the passengers, searching for a teenage boy.

The coach shifted as the doors opened, wobbling slightly on its' tires as the over-weight driver moved onto the steps and jumped down to the ground outside of the coach

"What's going on, officer?" his high voice made the officer sneer at him as he checked him over, noticing the mans podgy stomach and flabby chin.

Boys and girls of around 16 years of age stepped down of the coach, whispering to each other, girls gossiping away, confused at why they needed to come off the coach

Alex slid around the coach easily whilst the children stepped of the coach, falling into step with them. A smaller boy with flame-red hair, freckles and pale skin noticed Alex and was about to ask him who he was when Alex sent him a sharp glance, moving towards the boy quietly.

Taking a £20 note from his pocket, he whispered into the boys ear "I'll give you twenty quid if you keep quiet and don't say a word about me"

Slipping the note into the boys front jacket pocket, the red haired boy nodded but was still sceptical about Alex and decided to keep an eye one him.

Alex leaned against the coach, hands in his pockets, slouched down, looking exactly like a bored and slightly irritated teenage boy.

He looked towards the soldier, not quite meeting his eye as the burly man talked.

"Nothing too serious. Just routine checks making sure that everything's safe and sound."

The driver didn't look mollified - he had done this same journey many times before, and never had he been stopped nor heard of other coach drivers who had, especially as these 'routine checks' deemed it necessary for army units to come out and do the check. He put his hands into his belt loops, and rocked forwards slightly on his feet.

"Are you sure it's just routine checks? Surely the army wouldn't be called out for it?" he questioned, ignoring the flaring nostrils of the soldier, obviously hating that his answer was being questioned.

The soldier put his face close to the drivers, "Are you questioning me?" he said in a low menacing voice, his breath fanning over the drivers face.

"No, no. Not at all, sir"

"Good. Now we have that settled, I'll start with the…" he paused for a second, a smirk hanging off his face "security check questions." He stepped back from the driver and towards his two fellow soldiers who had stayed back and watched the scene. Looking around at the students and teachers who had accompanied them, he bellowed "how many of you were on the coach at the start of your journey?" he asked.

The students had quieted at this point, all looking confusedly at the officer.

The teacher, a smart woman dressed in casual jeans and dark grey jacket answered his question, "34, er, sir."

"Including yourself and the other two teachers and driver, or was that just the kiddies?"

"Just the children. It would be 38 including the adults, sir" she replied, her voice much more steady than the drivers had been.

Alex watched it all, knowing that these 'routine checks' weren't actually routine checks, but were checks to make sure he wasn't on board the shuttle, wasn't able to leave the country.

Leaning back towards the red haired boys ear, Alex whispered "39 now," a smirk evident in his voice.

He didn't know what had pushed him to say that, he hadn't planned on actually going onto the coach and pretending to be one of their students - it would only cause more trouble when the teachers found out he had snuck on, but the idea of being amongst others his age tempted him.

Unfortunately for Alex, when he had whispered his snide comment, the officer was looking in his general direction. Believing that Alex had disrespected him in talking when he should have been listening, he roughly pushed other students aside and looked down, towering over Alex.

"You have something to say, son?" he shouted, bits of spittle flying from his mouth and onto Alex, the soldiers face scrunched up in anger.

The teachers and students were looking at Alex now, confusion written on their faces as they didn't recognise him. He prayed that no one said anything, believing that he was a part of the car behind the coach whose passengers had also been asked to leave heir vehicle, and had come to stand close to the coach. Likewise, those passengers believed that he was part of the school trip, when in reality he was part of neither.

"No, sir" Alex, being a stubborn child, wanted to not add on 'sir' like he knew he should, but under the circumstances knew that it wouldn't help things if he hadn't.

Stepping back, the soldier took one look at Alex, the way he slouched against the coach, his dirty black hair - an obvious bad attempt at hair-dye, and the way his feet were pushed together - Alex's way of hiding the hydraulic air pushing out of the back of his trainers, and pulled the sneer look back onto his face.

"Shark! I want you to check over the kiddie-winks. Make sure nothings outta place," he gave a certain look to Shark, conveying a message only the soldiers understood. And Alex, of course. It was a look that meant 'make sure the boy isn't amongst them'.

The use of code-names confirmed to Alex that the men were from the SAS, and never having heard those code-names used whilst he was at Brecon Beacons gave Alex a slight sense of relief. If it had been members of K-Unit or other units that had been in Wales when he had, there was a slightly higher chance that Alex would have been recognised, even with the change of hair colour and height difference.

"Lizard. I want you to check the coach. Make sure nothing illegal is onboard," again the look was given.

"Yes, Sir!" feet pushed together, right hands moved in an arc to their temples, held for three seconds before coming straight down to the sides of their thighs, the two SAS soldiers moved to do their jobs.

Finally got some conversation going! Yippee. I was quite worried for a little while that with no dialogue in the previous two chapters, people would lose a bit of interest/ give me some flames.

BTW (By the way), Compass Royston is a coach company. I don't think they travel to France, but it's just about the only coach company I know.

I got asked not to include K-Unit in this, or not very much of them at any rate, so I decided to create my own SAS soldiers.

K-Unit will most likely be in later chapters… going to find Alex or something. Maybe. Haven't quite got it worked out yet.

I'm also trying to not make this a stereotypical type story that you read about all the time, so if K-Unit are included in the story, Eagle won't be some dumb soldier that doesn't know anything, Wolf won't be all angry at Alex… or at least not much, at any rate etc etc.

Review, my cherubs, and I will, hopefully, respond to ye all.

Chapter 4 coming soon! (I have, finally, written it. Oh yeah, I'm the man! Even if I am a woman, I'm still the man!)