I do not own Alex Rider…or his friends…except maybe for a few character twists…and the plot…but on to the story!
"Why didn't you tell me that Smithers was your friend in MI6?"
Zayn turned around, caught by surprise. Not by the person and the sudden entrance, but by the question. Alex was standing in the doorway, half-supported by Snake, and Bear – Liam – stood a little behind the two, an inquisitive look on his face, arms crossed. Alex held a small piece of paper in his hands, which he willingly surrendered to Zayn when he saw the question in the man's eyes.
It was a message from Smithers, of course, but Zayn simply skimmed over it, not bothering to read it just yet. Alex had asked a question and it needed to be answered.
"I didn't tell you because it was a secret, and besides that, we haven't really had a normal conversation, so when would I have told you?"
"It would have made things a lot easier if I had known. Smithers is a long-time friend of mine; if I knew that you knew him personally as well, I would have trusted you a lot sooner."
"And what good would that have done?" Zayn rolled his eyes, a little frustrated with the boy in front of him. The note was burning a hole in the pocket where he'd shoved it. "We've only known each other for a total of about three days. We haven't had much time to "bond" as it is."
Alex simply pursed his lips. "What did he mean by, 'The shipment will arrive by three P.M. tomorrow?'"
Zayn swallowed down a mocking reply and simply took the note back out, reading it carefully. "I need to talk to Wolf about this." He folded the note and tried to pass by the others, but Alex reached out and grabbed his arm tightly. For a boy that could barely stand on his own, he sure could hold a man in place.
"No. Answer my question first. What did Smithers mean?" Alex's voice was sharp, and his eyes blazed.
"MI6 wants their little spy back. They'll be sending a car tomorrow afternoon to pick up you and bring you back to London for a debriefing. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go discuss the details with Wolf if there's even going to be a chance that we'll get you out of here before then." Zayn yanked his arm back and stalked down the hallway, ignoring the way that the blood had drained from Alex's face at his words and how there had been little to no resistance when he pulled back his arm.
"WOLF?" Zayn called out, running down the stairs.
"Over here!" Wolf answered from the doorway in the kitchen, having just come in from the outside.
"MI6 wants Alex back by tomorrow afternoon, 15:00." Zayn said hurriedly.
Wolf's forehead wrinkled, and he set down his gun, approaching the little group by the stairs.
"My insider at MI6 says that they've put together half a plan, enough to get us to France, but we'll have to leave Europe entirely if we really want to make it out."
Wolf pursed his lips and folded his arms. "What else does it say? Any details?"
Zayn looked back down at the paper. "There's a getaway car that's going to come to the house at 23:00 sharp. The driver has sworn to silence, and they'll take us to London. There are nine tickets for the Eurostar that will take us to Paris, some cash, and..." Zayn trailed off.
"What? And what, Panther?" Wolf sounded agitated, but Zayn couldn't believe he'd read the code right.
"I-they...apparently they've also provided all the intel they collected about our two missing members. But MI6 shut them down before they could find out more. From what it sounds like, there's more to this than just Alex and missing soldiers. MI6 might be compromised." Zayn looked back at Wolf, shock flickering over his normally stoic face.
"It would make sense. I wonder...I wonder if Mrs. Jones knew about this, and specifically chose you and the other team for this. Maybe she figured that Alex would have a fighting chance if all of us stood behind him."
"I don't know... We just need to get ready to leave and figure out what we're going to do."
Wolf nodded, appearing deep in thought. "Call the others. We need to discuss this."
(LINEBREAK)
Lion stood a little hesitantly, watching the faces of the others as they took in the news.
"So, we're...defecting." Cheetah frowned.
"Not exactly. From what it sounds like, MI6 can no longer be trusted. We're defecting, but with the permission of those who matter. We're not just protecting Alex-which that was what they told us to do originally, and we'll do that, even if it means going against them-but we're also completing a mission they were ordered to abandon, and we're finding out what exactly MI6 has to hide." Wolf said, leaning forward and looking each man square in the eyes.
"Where are we going to go?" Lion asked, his voice small. He was just the slightest bit nervous; it was his first deployment and he'd never really seen any action.
Bear smiled at him gently from across the room. Lion had only met them seven months ago, when they'd lost a team-mate to promotion and he'd been sent as a replacement. "I have a friend who might be able to help. He's rich and owes me a few favors. I'll call him up, and see if he can send a private jet to somewhere outside Paris, and then fly us somewhere far away, a safe-house maybe."
"How will you call him, if all the phones are being tracked by MI6?" Panther asked, raising an eyebrow. Lion didn't really know what to make of him. He seemed so intimidating, and although his features were beautiful enough to cut stone, there was a certain danger and coldness in them that warned Lion to never get on the agent's bad side.
Bear flushed. "Not all the phones are."
Fennec looked up at Bear from where he was sitting at his feet. "You kept it?!"
Bear nodded, before meeting Wolf's eyes. "I kept my personal phone from before SAS; couldn't get rid of it. It's got some personal information on it that I couldn't just throw away. Neither MI6 nor SAS have any knowledge of its existence."
"How do we know that MI6 doesn't already know your friend and be able to track exactly where we're going?" Snake brought up.
"They don't. My friend is very good at keeping under the radar. He's had lots of practice over the years, and besides, any record of him I wiped from the system years ago."
Wolf raised an eyebrow, before nodding and Bear went off by himself, presumably to call his friend. "Now. Packing. The car isn't going to be big enough to fit all nine of us, so we need to be limited in what we bring. A back-pack each is all I can allow and they'll have to be carried on your lap. Clothes aren't necessary. Those can be bought new, wherever we end up. Weapons, personal items, non-perishable food, travel documents, and special gadgets that aren't traceable, those are necessities. Anything else, all MI6 or SAS issued phones, must be destroyed. Only wear civilian clothes; whatever you wear will be what you have for the trip. Our insider in MI6 will hack the security cameras so that we won't be seen, but take no chances and avoid surveillance as much as possible. Fake IDs and passports will be provided with the getaway car; Panther and I will handle those. We will be traveling in separate cars on the Eurostar to avoid suspicion. Fennec? I'll expect you to relate all of this to your teammate."
Fennec nodded, and Lion watched the shorter man's sharp eyes follow Wolf's every move, almost as if internally documenting everything.
"I've made a separate back-up story for each group. Group One, that's going to be Alex, Panther and Fennec. You two have some crap to work out, but make sure you keep an eye on Alex. He's our main priority. Your cover story is you're traveling to visit relatives in France for a week. You're brothers, Alex isn't doing well, and you're hoping the countryside will be better for his health. Group two, that's my unit, Bear, Cheetah and Lion. Our cover story is that Bear is getting married, and this is one last lads-getaway before he's tied down. Any questions?"
"What are we doing about code names?" Lion asked, tentatively.
"Good question. We won't be able to use our assigned names once we're outside of this building, but we also have to be careful to not use our real names too much. I don't know what MI6 is going to do when they find out we're missing, but they could always release information and tell people to keep a look out. Anyway, I was figuring we could just use our first names, if that's okay with everyone?" Wolf raised his eyebrows and looked around expectantly.
"I think it might be better to keep using our code names in private, and make up other names in public. Speaking for myself, I'd prefer to not divulge my real identity to those not in my unit." Cheetah shifted uncomfortably, and continued. "I don't know about the rest of you, but that's just what I'm thinking. I know some of us already know each other outside of this, and that's fine I guess, but in my opinion, it would just be safer to use different code names."
"I agree with him." Fennec said abruptly.
"So do I." Came Panther's quiet voice.
The two glanced at each other, and Lion could feel the tension radiating off of them.
Wolf sighed, before standing up.
"Right. Let's do this thing."
(LINEBREAK)
Alex sat down on his bed slowly, head spinning. In the rush of packing and plan-making, he'd been temporarily forgotten. For the first time in what felt like forever, he was alone. Not completely; he could still hear everyone else moving around downstairs, and the hushed voices of Snake and Eagle from the room next door.
Everything was moving so quickly, and the feeling of helplessness was something Alex was trying to get used to.
He wondered where everything went wrong.
"...sending you away...it's for the best, Alex...you need time to recover and recuperate...I don't know how long I'll be able to keep you safe..."
If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was back in that office on Liverpool Street, with those words being gently told to him, as though to protect the shattered remains of his mind. And yet, they still flung the shards of his existence across the room, removing his foundation yet again.
Back then, the nightmares hadn't been so bad, and he didn't feel a constant need to run, a thrumming under his skin of notsafenotsafe. To be entirely truthful, he hadn't really felt much of anything in those days. It was just a numb reality of everyday life.
Now, the knowledge that Jack really was dead, that she wouldn't be coming back, was sinking in, and it hurt.
Alex dug the heels of his palms into his eyes, and gritted his teeth, pushing back the tears.
The door creaked open, and Alex jerked upright, immediately turning towards the door. Lion stood there, backpack over his shoulder, plate in hand.
"Hey." Lion grinned sheepishly. "Bear told me to bring you lunch and help you pack."
Alex gingerly took the plate handed to him, his stomach rolling at the sight of half a sandwich. "Thanks..." He muttered.
Lion smiled, and brushed his floppy brown hair aside. "Now. Where's the stuff we need to pack?"
Alex shrugged and placed the plate on the bed table. "Don't have anything."
"Nothing?" The young soldier raised his eyebrows.
Alex looked at his hands, slight tremors running through them, and shook his head, drawing his feet up onto the bed.
The mattress dipped as Lion sat down next to him.
"Growing up, my family used to foster kids. And I remember this one kid came in one day for just a few weeks, eyes bright, bruised face smiling. I had to share my old clothes with him, because he didn't have anything. I remember I asked him once if he was bothered by the fact that he never had anything to call his own. He just smiled at me and said the memories were enough, and that at least this way, he never lost anything between houses. From that day on, I've always treasured the time I have with my loved ones, because while you can always buy new things, time is short and priceless. You can never get that back."
The silence hung between them.
"I don't really have anyone left to treasure time with." Alex answered softly.
Lion turned to look at him, and Alex could feel the brown eyes searching the side of his face.
"Maybe you don't see it, but there's plenty of people who would die for you, and not because of what you can bring them, but simply because they care about you."
Alex scoffed, but Lion continued.
"Seriously. Do you think we'd be doing all this if we didn't care? You've touched a lot more people than you think, Alex Rider. If you won't live for yourself, at least live for those who care, and for those who already gave you everything they had."
"What if it's just too hard?" Alex asked, voice just a whisper.
"Then come to us. That's what we're here for. It's okay to put roots down; nobody's going anywhere." Lion pressed, even going so far as to crouch in front of Alex.
"Everyone else did."
"That was when Blunt was in charge, but things are different now. You have friends at MI6 who are risking everything to make sure you have a chance to get out of here, and you have us, who would follow you anywhere because we trust you." Lion smiled small, and when Alex finally met his eyes, he gave a reassuring nod. "It's going to be okay, even if it doesn't feel like it right now."
Alex swallowed down the surge of emotion and looked away. Would it really be so bad to let a little part of himself go, to trust these men with his life? If he made it away from MI6, and that was a big if, what would he do with his life?
He'd like to finish school. Maybe somewhere far away, where no-one would know him or care.
But he'd probably be alone.
Or not.
Maybe these soldiers would be discharged because of what they did.
But wasn't that cruel? Wishing that they'd give everything up just to keep him safe from the monsters under his bed?
Alex closed his eyes, mind whirling.
"Promise?" He asked weakly. He could count on one hand the number of times things turned out to be okay.
There was a hand on his ankle.
"Promise."
Alex could cross that bridge when he came to it.
As for right now, there were bigger things to focus on. Like an outrageously wild escape plan that was sure to fail.
Like getting healthier, eating somewhat normally again, figuring out who he really is, after everything he was is stripped away and all that's left is a scared little boy.
Learning how to forgive those who've hurt him.
Finding Fox.
Finding Falcon.
(LINEBREAK)
Falcon opened his eyes.
The sun struggled weakly through the tiny window, barely lighting up the room, but providing enough to highlight the desperate situation this was quickly evolving into.
He blinked sluggishly, impossibly tired. His bones ached from sleeping on the hard, cold floor, but he pushed that away in favor of checking on his roommate.
Fox was fast asleep behind him, and for a moment Falcon wished he was still asleep as well, safe in a dreamworld where nothing hurt or ever went wrong.
Quick footsteps suddenly echoing down the hall made him shake Fox awake with an urgency that made every hair on his body stand straight.
Something was about to happen, and it wasn't good.
The door swung open just as Fox awoke, and Falcon stood up, shielding the other man from view.
He ignored how the hurried movement made his head spin, anxiety flooding every pore in his body.
Two guards stepped aside to reveal the "business man" Falcon had been assigned to protect. He lunged forward and slapped Falcon across the face hard, Fox's shout of protest going unheard.
Falcon stumbled back, only to be grabbed again and kneed in the gut, at which he crumpled to the ground.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Fox, fury written all over his face, being held back by two more guards all dressed in black.
"WHERE IS ALEX!?" The leader shouted, emphasizing his anger with another well-aimed kick to Falcon's stomach.
"HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW?!" Fox exclaimed, still struggling against his captors.
Falcon tried to breath through the pain in his stomach, as the leader turned away from the Irishman to look at Fox instead.
"That little spy is missing, along with all your teammates." He spat the last word out, fire in his tone.
"Yeah? Well if any of us knows anything about that, it won't be him," He gestured with his head to Falcon, who was still lying on the floor, body aching more than before, "he's been here for weeks. He'll know nothing."
The leader paused, and Falcon cursed under his breath. This could go one of two ways, but either direction would involve unnecessary pain.
"Very well. Take him away. I'll deal with this one myself."
"Wait – NO!" Fox's voice carried through the hallway as the guards led him away. "HE DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING!"
"He knows enough." The leader answered, the words spoken quietly enough so the only two occupants of the room could hear.
Falcon closed his eyes and prayed for Alex to come soon.
Then the man's steel-toed boot slammed into his knee and white-hot, familiar pain stabbed through his body. He screamed out and clutched his knee to his chest, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.
"You spent enough time with Alex to be able to predict his next move, correct?" His tormentor cracked his knuckles.
"I'll tell you nothing." Falcon gasped through the fire that seemed to radiate up from his now-dislocated knee into his midsection, rendering him even more helpless.
"We'll see about that." The leader aimed one last kick to Falcon's ribs, then left the room, locking the door behind him.
Alone at last, Falcon let out a whimper, and tried to breath, his ribs crying out at the movement. He looked down at his knee, and cursed, digging his fingers in around the joint.
"Oh Alex." He whispered, before the pain became too much and he passed out.
I'm so sorry for how long it took to get this up. My life has been impossibly busy these past six months, and I'd honestly be surprised if any of my old readers have stuck around this long.
I am planning on finishing this book, and maybe doing a few short sequels that will just be glimpses into the future. On estimate, there should be only twenty or so more chapters to go, which seems like a lot, but really isn't.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
All the love,
AgentAlexxRider101
"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation and continue steadfastly in prayer." - Romans 12:12