Here it is! So this isn't the funniest chapter on the planet but I needed some serious conversation to explain some things. The next one will be pretty wild though. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.
The next morning saw Jack sitting in the hut that doubled as the Sergeant's office and sleeping quarters. The man had been less than pleased to see his new 'guest'. Jack could tell that the hard core SAS man was torn between his instinct to follow orders and his desire to return Brecon Beacons to its previous woman and child free state. She remembered his harsh scowl the night before when he'd first seen her.
He hadn't had time to fully discuss anything with her as he had a training something-that-sounded-important he had to attend to. Jack secretly thought he just needed time to gather his thoughts. He'd had a full twelve hours and the two were now facing each other across his desk. He was glaring and she held a blank stare showing no emotion.
"MI6 is losing their touch," he said. "First a boy, now a woman."
"I'm not here to train," she replied choosing to ignore the insult in favor for more pressing matters.
"Then why are you here?" he growled in question. Jack paused not entirely sure if anything she said would make its way back to Alex or anyone else. Then again, the Sergeant hardly seemed like the type to gossip.
"I'm here for several reasons," she replied purposefully vague. This stressed out soldier was easy to wind up and Jack was enjoying what little revenge she could get on Alex's behalf.
"Like what?" he asked leaning back and crossing his arms. It normally would have been thought of as a casual stance but his glare, still going strong, changed that.
"Well, for one you're beating the shit out of my ward," she started.
"We were told to train him," the Sergeant said harshly. "I'm not going to go easy on him."
"I'm aware of that," Jack said. "I don't expect you to nor do I want you to."
"Oh," the Sergeant said a little surprised.
"Yes, MI6 are gonna do what they're gonna do. I don't have the power to stop them no matter how much I want to. Besides, I'm currently out of state secrets to bargain with."
"Then why bring him up?" he asked not entirely sure if Jack was all there or not. The red head shrugged.
"I just want to make sure he's okay," she said as dryly as possible. The soldier could still tell how much she cared though. He gave an awkward cough, not sure how to respond.
"What's your other reason?" he asked.
"Protection," she said shortly.
"From what?" he asked interested. Violence was, after all, his chosen occupation.
"I'm not sure," Jack replied. "MI6 won't tell me anything."
"I know how that goes," the soldier replied sarcastically. Jack rolled her eyes and gave a small huff of agreement.
"Yeah, anyway, after about a week of broken windows and weird phone calls I woke up to a burning house. Obviously I'm fine but I'm now homeless."
"They sent you here because the house is gone?" The Sergeant asked temper flaring. "Ever hear of a hotel?"
"Yes, I have but I needed somewhere to go that's safe," she snapped. "So I chose here."
"Why would you choose to come here?" he asked not sure why even sane civilian would choose to come to Brecon Beacons.
"Cub is here," she said simply. "Like I said before, I wanted to make sure he was still in a semi-one piece state. Plus, MI6 said that by the time his training is over, I can show my face in London again without having to worry about ending up at the bottom of the river."
"How serious is this threat?" he asked. Jack paused a lot longer and more noticeably this time. She eyed the man in front of her not sure what to say but apparently, the man could read minds. "Anything you say I won't repeat," he assured her and Jack, for some reason she couldn't explain, found herself telling the soldier the truth. Not just a half truth mixed with sarcasm either, the full truth as she knew it.
"The people who killed Cub's uncle are trying to get MI6 to back off. From what I've been told they don't know about Cub or that he's been hired, just that his uncle had family in that house." Jack looked at the SAS trainer and found his face impassive, he was simply listening. "Anyway, MI6 is spooked, which only freaked me out even more, and said I had to go somewhere safe. I just know they wanted me to go back to the states but I'm not gonna allow them to put an ocean between me and that kid. So I traded some files I saved from the fire for a ride out here."
"So you're only here until Cub goes to wherever they're planning on sending him?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," Jack replied.
"I won't tolerate you interfering with any of the training exercises," he warned.
"Wouldn't dream of it," Jack said with a small smile.
"I assume you can handle whatever these men may throw at you. Of course, we won't condone actual violence towards you but they may get nasty verbally."
"Oh, I don't doubt that," Jack told him her smile getting even bigger. "Trust me, I can handle these boys. I grew up with two foul mouthed, trigger happy brothers. I'm well trained."
"I'm sure you are," the Sergeant replied with his own smile. This American sure was something. The soldier glanced at the clock on the wall and stood up. "Follow me," he ordered.
"To where?" Jack asked already on her feet.
"The Killing House," came the short reply.
"Well that sounds cheery," she said.
"K-Unit is scheduled to go through it today. It's a good exercise," the Sergeant said as the two started walking.
"What about Cub?" Jack asked curiously.
"What about him?" the soldier asked a little confused.
"What's he gonna do?"
"The Killing House," he said again.
"Oh, why didn't you say that?"
"I did."
"No, you said K-Unit," Jack reminded him.
"Cub is apart of K-Unit," the Sergeant informed her.
"Oh, well you could've fooled me," she said and the Sergeant gave her a strange look.
"How so?"
"Those four are real pricks to him. I understand the hostility but there's really not much of a team there," she replied.
"They're soldiers, he's a boy. What did you expect?"
"How about something a little more professional? Cub may just be a boy but these soldiers obviously can't take things in stride. At least not yet."
"Are you saying our training isn't working?" the Sergeant asked and Jack spared him a smile.
"No, I'm saying that in a world where the weird and unorthodox are flying every which way, these men need to learn that when it smacks you in the face you don't smack back. You take it in stride and you move on and you do what you gotta do." The soldier looked a bit dumbfounded at her words but he shook it off easily.
"That's an interesting perspective," he replied.
"I've been living with Cub for seven years now," she told him. "There aren't many surprises left."
"Like I said, not much of a team," Jack reiterated while the Sergeant huffed in annoyance. The two were sitting in a rather rickety trailer watching K-Unit's progress through the Killing House. Jack was impressed at how easily they maneuvered through the various traps but any respect they might have gleamed from their display disappeared when Wolf purposefully pushed Alex into a trap. There was dislike and then there was plain mean; Wolf had shown his mean streak. Wolf had also shown what he wanted of Alex, and that was to be binned. "Are you going to bin him?" she asked the glaring Sergeant. The dark man was looking at the monitor waiting for the boy to pick himself up and stumble out.
"Who?" he asked emotionlessly.
"Cub," she replied and looked at her surprised obviously expecting her to demand Wolf's bin.
"No, it wasn't his fault," he replied and Jack tried to wrap her mind around how fair he was being about the whole situation. But she really shouldn't have been expecting anything less; he'd been pretty fair to her.
"Don't bin Wolf either," she said. It wasn't an order but a suggestion and the Sergeant knew it.
"And why not?" he asked. Jack thought he'd already made up his mind and was only appeasing her at this point.
"Well, sir, he's a bastard and his pride is approaching the definition of mutilated but he will be able to do this job well," she said first mock-seriously then for real. The Sergeant didn't reply as Alex had just been able to stumble from the House and he left. Jack smiled coyly then followed.
She reached the Killing House much later than the Sergeant not having the energy or the will to match his long, purposeful stride. Besides, she already knew what would happen. By the time she did reach it, K-Unit (minus Alex) were walking away. Alex spotted her and came over quickly.
"Hey," he said.
"I saw it," she said answering the question she knew he'd eventually ask. He didn't answer her, probably not knowing where to start. "He bin anyone?" she asked referring to the Sergeant and he shook his head.
"No, and no punishment duty either. We got off lucky."
"Ohhh, no," Jack said her usual smile coming back onto her face. "You got lucky; Wolf is a different story entirely."
"What are you planning?" he asked stiffly, already worried for the SAS-in-training soldier. Alex didn't like him but very few people deserved a pissed off Jack.
"A little of this, a little of that," she replied.
"Jack," he said a hard edge to his voice he hadn't had before coming to Brecon Beacons. At least she knew he'd learned something. "Please, don't hurt anyone and get me binned. MI6 will be pissed."
"Don't worry, Cubby," she said cheerfully and he winced at the latest nickname. "He'll be fine a few days." He looked as if he was going to say more but Jack held up a hand in front of his face to keep him quiet. "Just make sure you don't eat the pig food. Stick to your fruits and veggies. Then you'll grow big and strong." Ignoring his shocked and confused look she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and walked away.
When Jack made it back to the hut she found K-Unit on a rare but somewhat deserved break. They ignored her and she them until she reached Wolf's cot. She stared at him blankly until he looked at her.
"What?" he growled and the other men looked over as well.
"Nice team work today," she said still with a blank, yet unnaturally, intense stare. Had Wolf been any lesser of a man he'd have squirming at this point.
"What are you talking about?" he asked his brows lifted in mock surprise.
"You forgot the cameras," she said coldly and watched with some satisfaction as the soldier's face returned to it's usual stone-like state. "Did you really think no one would know?"
"What is she talking about?" Eagle asked. Fox and Snake shared a confused glance but remained silent.
"Nothing came of it," Wolf said ignoring his Unit.
"Exactly," she agreed. "So what was the point? Other than to piss people off?" Wolf remained silent and Jack shook her head before going to her own cot.
"What'd ya do?" Eagle asked thoroughly interested.
"Nothing," Wolf said and Jack let out a sarcastic snort.
"Please, Wolf's pride got a sledgehammer taken to it so he had to do something to fix it," she said. Wolf sent his best glare, the one that made even Snake nervous, but something Jack wasn't afraid of at all. Call it bravery or insanity but Jack wasn't scared of these SAS men in the slightest. If Blunt had given her that glare she would have backed off immediately not wanting to provoke him. These men were different; she most certainly couldn't take them in a fight, even if they weren't in their current near exhausted state, but it was all too easy for her to mess with their heads. They were soldiers but not the brightest people on the planet.
"What are you talking about?" Eagle asked her giving up on Wolf as a source of information.
"Figure it out," she said never taking her gaze off Wolf. "It's not that hard."
"Why don't you just tell us?" Fox asked finally jumping in the conversation.
"No," Jack said simply.
"Why not?" Snake asked and Jack gave them her best twisted grin. Eagle looked nervous but Snake and Fox were able to hide their feelings better. Wolf, however, had to glance away for a second and Jack almost busted out laughing at all of them. She had to give Wolf some credit though. She'd learned this blank stare routine from Ian and while it lacked his MI6 brilliance, it was still pretty solid.
"It's more fun to watch you squirm," she said and this time K-Unit all shared an unsure glance. Jack was enjoying herself; she wasn't crazy, just bored and maybe a little mad. She couldn't interfere with Alex's training and there was very little they'd actually let her watch for security reasons. The Sergeant was an interesting source of conversation but he had a job to do. All her books and her Ipod had been destroyed in the fire and there hadn't been any time to go buy anything of any kind of entertainment value. The only thing Brecon Beacons offered her, besides the protection, was a chance to play the classic Rider game. It was a simple game; find a target, figure them out, and proceed to make them as uncomfortable as possible. Alex had done it to her when she'd first shown up and it had taken her weeks, and an explanation from Ian, to figure out why this seven-year-old was acting so psychotic. Everyone who knew them no longer fell for it as they had either figured out had been told about it long ago. Looking back Jack figured it was another one of Ian's training exercises for Alex and Jack had just picked it up.
"You're insane," Eagle deadpanned.
"Oh honey, you ain't seen nothing yet," she said with a smile, her gaze finally losing its intense blankness. "And I'm not really the one to worry about."
"Then who?" Fox asked.
"All I know I learned from Cub," she said. "Get on the wrong side of him and you'll be lucky to leave this place with your health much less your career."
"What could Cub possibly do to us?" Wolf asked a little arrogantly.
"Well, let's just say there's a reason MI6 want him so bad," Jack replied with a smirk at K-Unit. She could see the tendrils of uneasiness start to form. This was going to be fun.
Next Chapter: Jack's revenge for Wolf's stunt