This story is a lot of fun to write! Like seriously! Oh, and this takes place before Stormbreaker during ALex's intial bout of training.
St. Danger: This is most definatly 'sick'. ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.
Alex felt his stomach clench with nerves as he got his food. When the man put the slop on his tray he looked at it critically, trying to figure out what Jack had done to it. It looked the same as always, gross but normal. He took his tray back to the table where he and K-Unit always sat.
Jack was already there and it was her presence, if nothing else, which kept him from blurting out to K-Unit that they should stop eating the slop. It wasn't that he liked them, he didn't want to get binned, or killed. K-Unit was a lot bigger than him. Not to mention, that if Jack had done something to the food, every other trainee was eating it too. At that thought, Alex's stomach clenched again and he resisted his urge to rat Jack out to the Sergeant.
"You're not eating much, Cub," Jack said much louder than necessary. No one appeared to be listening though.
"Not hungry," he replied quietly, eyeing K-Unit. He was looking for a sign of anything. Surely Jack wouldn't poison them? That was extreme even for her, but, then again, Jack had always loved to do things the opposite way of what people expected. That was just part of who she was; she hated stereotypes and did everything she could to mess them up. She often made herself look insane in the process.
Jack was also almost as well trained as Alex in the arts of manipulation and mind games. Seven years in Ian's house tended to do that to a person. If Jack had been any different she probably never would have been able to blackmail her way here.
Jack was scary when she was mad but Alex had never thought of her as dangerous before. However, the woman could hold her own in this Hell Camp of soldiers; maybe she was a force to be reckoned with.
Alex wondered if Brecon Beacons stored rat poison and God forbid if Jack should get her hands on it.
Late that night when everyone was supposed to be asleep, Alex was awoken with a loud exclamation of, "Fuck!" The boy's eyes snapped opened instantly, fully awake and alert.
Sitting up, Alex saw something he'd never thought possible. Snake and Fox were both curled up on their cots, clutching their stomachs, and attempting deep breaths through their obvious pain. Wolf was sitting up on his cot but he was hunched over looking as if he was about to throw up at any moment. Eagle was on the floor, having tried to make it to the door and failing miserably. All four had a sheen of sweat on their faces despite the cold. Alex wondered how high their fevers were.
"My god," he breathed shocked at the condition of the seemingly indestructible team.
"Oh honey, you can call me Jack," a voice to his right said and Alex gave a small jump. He hadn't expected her to be awake. She was sitting on her cot Indian style with the hood of her black hoodie pulled up.
"What did you do?" he asked her and she looked at him.
"Gave them a taste of their own sour medicine," she replied. Eagle let out a loud moan from the floor and Alex threw off his blanket to put his boots on. K-Unit probably needed medical attention. He was half-way through the second boot when the door to their hut was practically taken off its hinges the trainer opened it so hard. Alex sprang to his feet, standing at attention instantly. They gave him no notice.
Two trainers entered and immediately went to Snake and Fox as they were closer. They felt their pulses, and then helped them stand up from their cots.
"You two sick?" one of them asked Alex and Jack on his way to the door.
"No, sir," Alex replied.
"Bring the other two," he said. Jack got off her cot, put her sneakers on, and crossed over to Wolf. Ignoring his glare, she threw his arm over her shoulders and helped the man to stand. Alex pulled Eagle up from the floor and they all followed the two trainers back to the mess hall.
When they entered Alex was sure he would be binned at any moment. Every trainee was in the exact same condition as K-Unit. Some were sitting in chairs, heads hanging over buckets, others were lying on the floor or on tables while one of the camp's doctors looked over them trying to figure out what was wrong.
"Cub! Jack!" the Sergeant's voice was loud and very angry as he called them over. Alex and Jack put Wolf and Eagle in some chairs and crossed the room to where the Sergeant, another trainer, and the day-time doctor were standing.
"Yes, sir," they both said when they reached the group.
"Care to tell us why you two aren't sick?" he asked with faux-casualness.
"We didn't eat, sir," Alex replied instantly, not wanting to provoke the man with their usual frustrating conversations.
"Eat?" the doctor said confused.
"Yes, sir, we didn't eat the slop, sir," Alex said and the doctor let a sigh of relief.
"That means it's just food poisoning," he said. "Thank god, we thought it might be something else."
"Why didn't you eat?" the Sergeant asked suspiciously, clearly thinking they had something to do with the current state of his trainees. He was half right.
"I wasn't hungry, sir," Alex said knowing the lie would never fool the man.
"I don't eat pig food," Jack said observing her nails. The Sergeant narrowed his eyes at them but didn't say anything. He stalked off, probably to yell at the cook. Jack looked up at the doctor.
"Is there anything we can do to help out?" she asked him.
"Yes," the man replied instantly. "We need to get their fevers down. Whatever this is it's bad. They're in a lot of pain and some of them are even getting delirious. Someone's at the infirmary now, he'll bring all the medicine we'll use. When he gets back you can help distribute it out."
"Yes, sir," they replied, and then went back over to where K-Unit was. K-Unit wasn't as sick as the others as they had been late to dinner; a training exercise had run into overtime. The four men were in their own isolated corner since they'd been the last ones to be brought in. Jack immediately crossed over to Wolf and squatted down so that she was eye level with the soldier now on the floor. Alex came up right behind her really not wanting to miss her latest game despite his nervousness over being binned. The other men looked at her as well, clearly expecting something.
"How does it feel Wolf?" she asked quietly. "To know you're the reason all these men are sick."
"You did this?" he asked shocked, although he really shouldn't have been.
"No," she said and Wolf instantly looked at Alex. "He didn't either."
"Than who did?" Fox groaned.
"Your team leader," Jack told him.
"What are you talking about?" Wolf asked frustrated with her games. "I didn't poison the other trainees and I certainly didn't poison myself."
"Maybe not literally," Jack said. "But you're the one to blame. You're the one that decided to play nasty. You're the one that decided to stab a teammate in the back. This is what people call karma."
"This is because of what happened at the Killing House?" Wolf asked realizing why Jack had done this to them. She nodded but it was Snake who spoke first.
"You tried to get Cub binned, didn't you?" Snake asked his teammate and then winced in pain. Wolf didn't answer.
"He did," Jack said. "Betrayal is a nasty thing. You may not want him on your team but he's here and it's past time you deal with it. The world is full of nasty surprises, Wolf."
"He doesn't belong here," Wolf replied clutching his stomach with a gasp. "He's just a boy."
"He's a boy with a job to do," Jack told him. "I don't like it anymore than you do but there's nothing either one of us can do about it. This happened because you couldn't deal with whatever it is you have against Cub. You tried to get him binned and that can't happen. You're dealing with a whole different crowd now, honey. I suggest that you start acting like the soldier and the leader you're being trained to be or shit like this is going to keep happening. The next time it does, it probably won't be me; it'll be a terrorist with a bomb. This job is a big responsibility Wolf, and you need to learn that it takes a little more than brute strength to shoulder that responsibility."
"Jack," Alex said sharply cutting her off. The trainer had come back from the infirmary and was headed their way. Jack stood up quickly and faced the soldier.
"Make sure they swallow these," he said handing her a bottle of pills. "Two each. And use these," he handed Alex a bucket with ice packs in it, "to get the fevers down." The man walked away and the two of them started distributing the pills and ice packs to K-Unit and two other units sitting near by. The other trainees were being taken care of by the trainers and the doctors. The Sergeant still had yet to come back.
Jack and Alex moved between the soldiers for over two hours, taking temperatures and shoving buckets under those who were about to puke. A great many of them would periodically take off to the bathrooms just outside the mess hall clutching their stomachs and swearing profusely. Alex had no desire to find out what that bathroom smelled like and even thinking about it made his stomach roll. They passed out bottles of water and forced the soldiers to drink so they wouldn't dehydrate.
Most had fallen into a feverish sleep but Eagle had gone delirious and actually lunged at Jack, yelling something about getting the person who'd set the purple whale after him. Alex had pulled Jack away just as one of the trainers knocked the soldier out with a hard punch to the temple. They tied Eagle to a table after that.
The sun was already rising before Alex had a moment to talk to Jack. The two were sitting tiredly in a corner leaning against the wall, watching the sick trainees as they slept.
"What did you put in the food?" Alex asked hoping the American would actually give an answer.
"The first day I got here, I hadn't eaten anything in about fourteen hours," she started. "The Sergeant sent me to the kitchens to get something to eat. I was digging around in one of the big, walk in fridges they have back there and I found a really, really old jug of milk that was hidden behind some canisters."
"How old?" Alex asked already amused.
"About six months out of date," she replied and let out a small laugh at Alex's look of disgust. "Yeah, the milk was grey and almost solid."
"Why didn't you throw it away?" he asked and she shrugged.
"I thought it could come in handy," she said. "If anybody got too rough I figured it would bring them down a peg or two."
"It did its job," Alex noted glancing at the still feverish Wolf.
"It certainly did," Jack said. "Anyways, after the Killing House thing went down, I snuck back in here and dumped the entire thing in the slop they'd just cooked for the next meal. The pot was big enough so that the milk wouldn't change the color or anything but the bacteria still had a nasty impact."
"You think Wolf learned his lesson?" Alex asked after a slight pause.
"I think he still has a ways to go," Jack said. "He's a little too bitter at the moment to actually think about what it means."
"So, you're training them now too?" he replied jokingly. Jack smiled at him but became serious when she answered.
"There's so much potential with these men," she said. "They could really help people; could really do their job well. Our arrival has messed with their heads and their expectations. They need to learn to take things in stride; most don't learn that lesson until they're actually in the field."
"Maybe," Alex said. "K-Unit is strong and they work really well together. All of this random shit that keeps popping up is throwing them off balance."
"Which is exactly what they can't allow to happen," Jack said. "The real world isn't on military schedule and it certainly doesn't care if the situation you find yourself in is unorthodox or not. Besides, I think you may cross paths with these men again if MI6 still wants to use you and you haven't died."
"Terrific," Alex said sarcastically. "A Hell Camp reunion, every fourteen-year-old's dream come true." Jack stifled a laugh and gave him a playful push.
"Smart ass," she said.
"I try," he said. The Sergeant entered the mess hall at that point and they immediately sobered up and stood. The dark man spotted them and walked over. Ignoring Alex completely, the man glared at Jack, who didn't even blink.
"Did you poison my trainees?" It was an accusation in question form.
"What makes you think that?" Jack asked innocently. The Sergeant held up a milk jug that Alex hadn't noticed before. "What of it?" Jack shrugged.
"Wolf wasn't the only one to forget about the cameras," the man said taking a threatening step towards them. "We caught you on camera."
"It took you this long to figure it out?" Jack asked amused and Alex about let out a groan. Of all the times to provoke someone.
"No," he hissed at her. "We were more preoccupied with figuring out where they were poisoned. The cook only just suggested we look at the cameras in the kitchen."
"What makes you think I just forgot that they were there?" Jack asked still in that amused tone. "Didn't you catch my wink?" Alex's heart just about stopped at that. She'd purposefully made sure that the Sergeant would know it was her who'd made the soldiers sick and not Alex. "I told Cub not to eat the food. He had no clue what I'd done to it."
"Is there a reason you didn't come foreword?" the Sergeant asked rounding on Alex. Alex thought the question a little unnecessary. "Even if you didn't know this would be the extent of what would happen?" The soldier made a gesture to the room at large. Alex glanced past him and saw Fox, Snake, and Wolf looking at them and listening. Eagle was still unconscious and the other trainees were too far away to hear anything.
"She has the power to ground me, sir," Alex replied. The Sergeant narrowed his eyes but Alex saw Fox and Snake send amused glances to each other.
"You're lucky I don't bin you," he said to Alex then turned to Jack. "I should have you thrown out of this camp."
"With all due respect, sir," Jack said. "You don't have the authority to do so. Just think of it as another training exercise. Now they know what dysentery feels like." The Sergeant sent them one last glare before he turned and walked out throwing the empty milk jug into the metal trash can by the door with a clang. Jack smirked at the retreating soldier and then looked down at K-Unit on the floor.
"Let's see," she said a finger to her lips in a thoughtful manner. "What else can I do to you?" Fox groaned, Snake glared, and Wolf looked away. Alex was a little surprised to see that he looked humbled. Jack was good at this. He looked at her slightly twisted and expression and realized something.
"You're playing the Rider game, aren't you?" he asked amused.
"We can't play it at home anymore," she said with a smile. "Everyone there figured it out ages ago. Besides, it's more of a challenge with these guys."
"I guess so," Alex said. "You should see if you can do it to Blunt." Jack's face lit up at the challenge.
"That would be so much fun."
Hope you enjoyed that!
Next Chapter: Jack shows off some of her skills.