You can thank my sister for this chapter being uploaded today. I've been banned to my room because she's having friends round, and I had nothing else to do.

Hopefully you'll like it, maybe you won't. I'm still trying to keep it original, but the great idea I think I mentioned in the last chapter's notes has been moved to the next chapter. Had to, I'm afraid. I think the escape bit was original, though.

Disclaimer: In the words of the brilliant Phoebe Buffay; Not not mine, not not mine, not not mine.

Unbeta'd, so there may be a few mistakes.

Chapter 15

Alex Rider

But it didn't matter in the scheme of things. He knew he'd be awake within a few hours, and where he knew they would take him – and James – took a lot longer than that by travelling in a van.

Alex would just wait them out, wait for the perfect opportunity to escape.

His last memory was of being moved. He didn't hear, or see, anything else after that.

Looking at the time on his watch, Alex guessed that they'd been in the van for over seven hours.

At twenty-one minutes past one in the morning, Alex knew that it wouldn't be long before the van reached it's destination, and the boys would be deployed into the DGSE's clutches. But Alex had no intentions of that happening whatsoever.

His hands and legs, miraculously, were free of restraints, but with the limited amount of light his watch provided as he repeatedly pressed the 'light' button, he knew there was a clear reason for this; the walls, floor, and ceiling of the van were covered with wired railing, meaning that even if he found a way out of that, he'd have to go through a further steel wall that the van itself was made out of. That would take quite a while to do, of course, and in that time doubtlessly the agents would have heard a commotion and would knock James and Alex back out.

So Alex would have to make sure that they didn't knock either boy out. To do so would mean capture, and that simply wouldn't do. He wasn't going to be a prisoner to anyone any more, not if he could help it.

Alex repeatedly pressed the 'light' button on his watch, keeping the van illuminated. James was across from him, slowly coming too as Alex made his other observations; their bag was gone, but the drinks, sandwiches, crisps and the mints were rolling on the floor with the movements on the van. None of their extra clothing was left, and nor was the money they'd kept in the bag – but Alex was happy to note as he frisked himself that the money he'd kept on the inside pockets of his jacket was still there, as well as that hidden in the bottom of his trainers under his foot, but the spare change of Euros in his trousers was gone.

He was thankful that they'd left the food and drinks; they were stage one of his plan to escape. It was a huge risk for Alex to take, not knowing whether or not the plan would go accordingly. If they hadn't left the items, he wasn't sure how he and James would get away. He was sure he would have come up with something – his mind seemed to constantly be able to come up with on-the-spot plans – but not sure if he could have put that plan into place with as few injuries to himself and James as possible,

This plan, although risky, would mean that they'd be able to get away easily. Getting away outweighed the risk, and as the SAS motto states, He Who Dares. But Alex preferred to think of that motto in terms of Del Boy Trotter, with his He Who Dares, Wins, than the SAS's motto.

James was moaning and groaning, slowly becoming aware of his surroundings. Alex crawled over to him on his hands and knees, careful to be as quiet as possible. He rolled James onto his back, and put his hand over the other boys mouth, hinting for him to stop his moaning. He didn't know if the agents could hear their movements or not, but right now, Alex wanted them to think they were still unconscious until it was the right time according to his plan.

As James' mind finally cleared of the Nitrous Oxide induced haze, he looked to Alex's body hovering over his in the flickering light. If he was a girl, he was sure he'd have thought the moment as romantic. Maybe in a different context, too. Being trapped in a van by people who had the power to do many-a bad things to you didn't really bring out the red hearts and the other connotations of love, if he were honest with himself.

Alex bent towards James' ear, "Don't speak – nod your head for yes, shake it for no. Do you understand?" he questioned.

At James' nod of his head, yes, Alex spoke again in as quiet a tone as possible. "When we get out, if one of the agents stay in the van, I'll take him out. You grab our bag. It should be in the front of the cab. Understand?"

Again, James nodded, and with that, Alex gave his final command, "I'm going to make a ruckus. Someone will open the door, and I'll attack him first, then you get out, and go to the passengers side of the van, and grab the bag. You must get the bag, at all costs. Got it?"

Again, James nodded his head, and Alex moved away from him to the front of the van. He knocked on the wall, and when he got no response, he started to bang on it. For over five minutes, he knocked and screamed for them to let the boys go. But again, it was useless. The van continued it's journey, and Alex and James were still in the back.

Alex had figured this into his plan – the boys were locked up tight in the back, so there'd be very little reason for the soldiers to get out and check on them until the they were in some underground cavern of which Alex didn't know the layout, and so would be easy to find if he did escape. And so he waited for the perfect opportunity, and when the van swerved to the right around a corner, he allowed the van to move him with the rotation, and fell head-first into the wall. He screamed, as loud as a new born baby, trying to fill it with as much anguish and pain as he possibly could. When the van straightened up after it's turn, he carried on screaming, begging for help.

The vehicle turned into another right, and Alex guessed they were in a town or city at this point, as opposed to the highways they'd more than likely mostly used to transport the boys. This meant there was more turns and more than likely more people out and about, even if it was after one in the morning.

The van made more turns, and each time Alex hit the walls, screaming in pain. He wasn't seriously injured – there'd be some light bruising on the front of his arms where they'd slammed into the railings, and perhaps some on his upper torso. But with the loud noises he was making, as well as those of James, who he'd told to do as he was, they would draw the attention of any passers-by. If a single person were to report the van and the screams to the French police, the van could be stopped and searched. Although the DGSE would easily be able to deal with it, the police would still wonder as to why they were taking in boys from other countries. They might inform their families, who'd inform their friends. More people would hear about it. They would report it to the news. MI6 would hear about it. The British populace would hear about it. They would demand for Alex to be released, say he was just an innocent boy, on holiday when he was captured from his hotel room in the middle of the night by guys in balaclavas and shoved into a van.

The soldiers wouldn't want that to happen, and so, Alex guessed, would stop the van and attempt to knock them unconscious again.

Alex guessed right. Fifteen minutes after the first scream from Alex, the van slowed to a stop, and both boys heard the sound of two doors opening and slamming shut.

He grabbed hold of one of the Pepsi drinks in his left hand, opened it, and shoved what was in his other hand straight into the open neck of the bottle, before replacing the lid in as loose a hold as possible. He shook the bottle, although it didn't need to be shaken too much - all of the rolling of the van had done that for him – before the chain reaction took place.

It's a well known fact to pretty much all school boys that if you mix a peppermint sweet in with that of a fizzy drink, the carbon dioxide wants to escape at a rapid speed, and will explode. The pressure of carbon dioxide in the fizzy drink mixed with the uneven surface of the mint allow for the gas bubbles to mass together, increasing the rate at which the carbon dioxide escapes.

Alex threw the bottle away from him, down onto the road, and watched as it hit the concrete only to bounce straight back up at more than 60mph, directly at the two men opening the doors. One was slightly further back, ready to take on any attacks the boys might give, and avoided the bottle, but not the drink itself. The other wasn't as lucky. He took the full brunt of the bottle straight in his stomach, and doubled over in pain, falling to the floor. He was out before he hit the ground from the pain.

Alex didn't even waste a second at the shock of it. As soon as the bottle had hit the man, he flung himself from the van, and dived straight into the second soldier, driving him down onto the ground. He kneed the man in the groin, before striking an uppercut to the jaw, knocking him unconscious.

James had been in shock at what Alex had done to the first man, but when Alex moved to tackle the other, he, too moved out from the van, avoiding the crumpled man at the base of the vehicle. He ran to the passenger side door, and yanked it open, finding the boys' bag on the floor where the passenger's feet would normally lay.

He met up with Alex at the back of the vehicle just as the other boy knocked out the second agent. He gave Alex a hand up, before Alex took charge of the situation.

"We need to move them into the back of the van. This'll wake up soon, and if he does, he'll notify their base that we've gotten away," he kicked at the one he'd knocked out with his fist. "The doors should automatically lock, I reckon, as soon as we close 'em. Should give us a couple of hours to get away before their bosses know something's up, and find the van."

After searching and ridding the two men of their phones, James helped Alex moved them, Alex grabbing them under the arms, James lifting the legs.

Once done, Alex slammed the door shut, grabbed the bag from James, and led them away from the road and into the first back alleyway he could find.

Alleyways, Alex thought, are my new best friends.

Shorter chapter, I know. I had an idea for where this one was going to go, but after writing their escape from the van, I realised that if I wrote that idea, the chapter would've gone to at least 6k words. Instead, I'm stopping it here, and will post the rest either next Saturday, or the following. It's getting busy as Christmas is approaching, and there's a lot besides that that I've got to do. Driving lessons, flying with my friends, shopping, revising for tests, etc etc.

Del Boy Trotter, with the motto He Who Dares, Wins, is a character taken from one of the best British comedy sketches ever created, Only Fools And Horses. If anyone has never seen that show before, I'd seriously suggest looking it up. The best episodes would have to be the Batman and Robin sketch, as well as the blow up dolls sketch, and, of course, the moment where he falls through the bar. I think these three can be watched on YouTube, if any of you want to see them. I would sincerely advise you to, if you want something very amusing to watch.

As for the DGSE's headquarters, I don't have a clue where they're based. Maybe Paris, maybe not. I ain't going looking for it on Google... the amount of dangerous things I've searched on there... well, lets just say that I'm pretty sure someone's watching what I search after all that.

Nitrous Oxide is actually laughing gas. Chloroform, what is used in films, doesn't actually knock you out. It'll give you breathing problems for life, but you'd still be conscious. Nitrous Oxide if given in high doses, can actually knock you out. Ether gas would have been better to use, only it would have been hard to administrate on the boys in the previous chapter. Some of you may not even know what Ether is, whereas the word "Nitrous" I'm pretty sure will automatically give you the image of things like Carbon Dioxide and stuff, which you know is dangerous. Hence why I used that over Ether.

Oh, and please don't go looking into buying any of that stuff. It's dangerous, and can have huge effects on the body.