Josh stood in front of Ethan Brooke's desk, waiting for his partner for this mission. He'd been told he'd be working with MI6's best agent – one rumoured to have a 100% success rate that he'd kept for 5 whole years. He didn't believe it at all. No-one could stay perfect for so long, especially with the stories that were told of his missions. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Brooke said. The door opened. "This is Agent Rider. Rider, This is Agent Butcher." he announced.

"I believe we've met." Alex said, humour evident in his voice. Brooke tilted his head.

"What do you mean?"
"I forget you're blind. It's a shame you can't see Josh's face."

"You've got a gravestone! You've been dead for 4 years!" Josh blurted out. Brooke raised an eyebrow.

"There's only one gravestone you go and visit with any regularity. Is the fabled Alex Cub standing in front of me?"

"Yes. Though I think you really shouldn't be so quick to jump on the teenage spy wagon. I mean, recruiting one a couple of weeks after finding me in the ocean?" Brooke chortled. Josh looked surprised.

"Yeah.. Well, I'll let you two catch up then. After I've told you about the mission."

Half an hour later, the two spies were swapping stories outside a café overlooking Sydney Opera House.

"So, what was your first mission?" Alex asked, picking up his cup of tea.

"I was sent to stop SCORPIA from assassinating the American Secretary of State, with a little help from Dave." Alex almost spat out his drink. Josh didn't miss it.

"What's with that reaction?" Alex just shook his head.

"There are three different reports for that one incident."

"You were there too?" Josh asked. Alex nodded, and inquired about Josh's version of events.

"I was sent to the same school as Dave, as ASIS thought he was a member of SCORPIA. Obviously, he wasn't. We had run out of leads, so we went to the talk to see if we could stop it there. Dave got in a fight with a blonde guy in a blue shirt. He was carrying a long sports bag, which was quite suspicious, which lead to the fight. Actually, it wasn't much of a fight. The blonde guy just knocked Dave unconscious. We lost him at that point, however I got a glimpse him running out the gates later with a pistol in his hand. We didn't see him alive after that. He was found dead, shot straight through the head. I never actually got to see his face..." Alex felt grateful for that. It could have caused some unnecessary problems with CHERUB if he had... "So what's your version of those events?" Alex thought about it for a second.

"I was sent by MI6 to stop it happening. I got there, and, by luck, noticed the guy you mentioned earlier enter a building. I followed him up a secret entrance, and distracted him just as he about to shoot. I chased him out, but when I reached him he was dead." Well, most of it was true. Josh believed it, which was all that mattered.

"Well, I think we should get on with our mission then, shouldn't we?"