12. A Cub's Son is a Tiger
Then Cub walked in looking very calm like he did this all the time and true enough he obviously came fairly frequently. He was dressed in combats like the rest of us with S.A.S. spelled out in red on the back and a small animal of some sort on his badge. He was the same height as me give or take a few centimeters. His blonde hair streamed out from under his military issue cap. It was exactly the same color as mine. Cub's deep brown, intelligent dark eyes sought out my bright blue ones in what I took to be an apologetic glance.
Cub obviously had quite the tan on his face and hands from his time spent doing who knows what in the Middle East. He had a burn on his left hand and flower shaped bruise on his right cheek. I realized now where all his injuries had come from. They had come from being injured in action. His face was all but emotionless. A look I knew all too well. Now everything about Cub made sense because Cub wasn't just some nameless spy. No I knew Cub. I knew Cub very well. This terrifying and dangerous legendary spy was none other than my father!
This must be why Dad had never gone to University. Of course, it was. Uncle Tom had even told me that he had quit school because he already a job. And Cub had been in SAS camp since he was fifteen around the same time Dad had left school. So Dad had skipped school and university to become a spy. Did that mean that Uncle Tom knew? Of course he did that was why he was so reluctant to talk to me about the truth! Who else knew I wondered. It seemed Nelly did. Did that mean I was the only one of our siblings not to know?
What about Uncle Ben and Aunt Tamara who apparently worked with Dad. Well they came back from work with the same bruises and scars and had the same dark look in their eyes. Did that mean that they were spies too? How many spies had I met without realizing it? My whole world was falling to pieces. It felt to me that everything I thought I knew was in fact a lie. My breath was coming fast. I wondered if I was having a panic attack. Trust me I could go through Afghanistan but I couldn't survive finding the truth about my father!
Dad had told us that he worked at the bank with Aunt Tamara and Uncle Ben. That was obviously a complete and utter lie but I had seen the bank including the patch of blood outside. I would have thought that Dad was just lying about working there except that the guards knew him. Maybe it was a cover for MI6 where Dad really worked. No wonder Dad had got so high up without any grades. But don't you need to grades to be recruited for MI6. And surely you can't recruit a fifteen year old! How had Dad ended up being a spy so young?
And why hadn't he told me. Didn't he trust me? I was feeling betrayed. I could lie. I know I have a lot of friends but I wouldn't tell them the truth about my Dad's job. I was no idiot. Okay maybe as a young child he shouldn't have told me but what about when I graduated school and then university? What about when I got into the army. What about when I ended up in the SAS. He would have known I'd find out soon enough. Oh yeah he told me he had something important to tell me before I left for SAS camp.
I'd always wondered why Dad refused to talk to us about his work. I'd heard many of the other children except Jake and we Riders talk about their parents jobs. I'd talked about my mum's job as a vet which was one up from Jake I had thought. Whenever we had career days where our parents came in to talk to us about their jobs I always had to ask Uncle Tom, Uncle Chris, Aunt Jessie, Grandpa, or Granny to talk. No wonder it wasn't like Dad could stand up and tell a bunch of primary school children about official secrets.
Was that why he didn't tell us? That would make sense and make it slightly better if the only reason Dad had lied to us all was because of the fact he couldn't legally tell us. I didn't much about the Official Secrets act and I still didn't like the fact that I had been lied to. I hated being lied to but at least it finally made sense to me. But then why did Nelly know? I knew that Nelly had known some secret about Dad but nothing of this magnitude. Here was I thinking Dad was an assassin. I felt kind of guilty thinking that now.
I also felt sort of stupid about when I had thought about Dad's job as a child. As a child I'd always thought there would be nothing more boring than being a banker! I had wanted to be a superhero and when I had realized I couldn't be a superhero I wanted to be James Bond. Dad had always laughed at me when I had said that. Well that made a lot of sense now. When I had told Dad he had a boring job he had also laughed. And no wonder. Dad's job was bound to be everything but boring! Well he could have told me that.
Then I had caught sight of the Smith and Wesson in Dad's built. Guns brought me back to the painful subject of my mother's death. When she had been some banker's wife her death was sad and tragic but not planned. Now I wondered if Dad hadn't told us everything. He always looked incredibly guilty about Mum's death. Was she killed to get to him? Was that the reason that Dad never told us the truth about what he did? To protect us! But then why tell the youngest of us? But Dad had started to teach us to fight soon after Mum's death.
I had thought at the time that it was a way to distract us from the terrible events that had occurred. But now I was beginning to understand my father more and more. The reason he had been so difficult for any of us to understand was because we thought of him as an eccentric banker rather than what he was. What hopes did anyone have of understanding someone who kept such a huge part of their lives from their own children? I wished he had felt able to tell us the truth and that I had realized the truth for what it was.
I thought back to when Nelly was eleven and acted all shaken up. Had she stumbled upon Dad's work in a less than pleasant way? It would certainly explain her clinginess towards Dad at the same time. Now that I had uncovered – well be shown in such an undeniable way – the truth there was so many questions that I wanted – no needed – the answers to. Why couldn't I have a normal father with a normal job like everyone else had? But then I wouldn't be who I was. I wouldn't have my father's patriotism and I wouldn't be here.
I should have realized Dad didn't have a safe job by the fact that whenever he was away Mum and Nelly were very quiet. It made sense to me now. Two of the Rider woman who had actually known the truth were always terrified whenever Dad was away. They were scared that he wasn't coming back. Did my family feel the same way about me when I was off fighting? I hoped not; I didn't want them to worry about me. I did what I believed in for the good of the free citizen. But they cared for me so probably worried about me anyway.
The sergeant had thought he'd met me before which he hadn't. But he had trained with Dad meaning that he recognized me. I wondered why hadn't met any of Dad's army buddies. And why hadn't Dad told them I was coming. They knew my name didn't they? Well maybe they didn't know Dad's name I supposed. Dad had never been the kind of person to give away any of his details. A fact that now made a lot of sense to me. Dad's secretive nature came from the fact he was in Secret Service.
It had always annoyed me how Dad would never communicate with us when he was away on business trips but now it made a lot of sense. It would completely blow is cover if he was to communicate with us. Never mind put us in a lot of danger. Well at least I know why he didn't argue against my decision to join the army like a lot of parents would. It would make him a bloody hypocrite if he did. Dad was probably one of those who actually understood why I fought. Blimey no wonder Nelly had said we were alike.
Uncle Ben had even told me that Dad had a very hard life. This was what he must mean. But Dad chose to be a spy. But I supposed there must be days like when Mum was killed that Dad must hate to be a spy. He was human and everyone had those days and working for any form of military was significantly harder than most people's lives. Then there was the fact that Dad was still feeling a lot of guilt over Mum's death. But Mum had known what her husband did so surely she knew the risks unlike us Rider children.
No wonder Dad could shoot as well as he could. It had probably saved his life on countless of occasions. And taken a lot of other people's lives. He was only teaching us to shoot to protect us. He had practically told me that he shot people who weren't thieves. I just didn't want to here it. I supposed I had been almost painfully naive to what Dad really did. I had been scared of the ease that Dad could shoot and given the legend surrounding Cub I felt I had good reason to be scared of my father.
Mum had told us several times that my Dad had to solve every mystery uncover every truth and I knew first hand how impossible it was to hide things from Dad. Why did none of this make sense to me? It was so painfully obvious. Well you know what they say about hindsight. I had never even known that Dad was as obsessed with mysteries as I was. The only mysteries I had seen him solve were TV detective show which he always managed to work out before everyone else. Well no bloody wonder considering he solved real life issues.
Dad had taught us everything that he could about surviving his world. Most parents said that people didn't like it when people were arrogant. Dad had told us that it could kill us. I should have realized something was up with that but I didn't want to so I didn't. I wondered how much I had missed about Dad. Apparently quite a lot all things considered. It was even Dad who decided to teach us Karate (only paying for lessons when he wasn't around). I sighed saddened by the fact that I was so blind to my Dad.
Then there was the fact when we were being talked to about Cub by the others who had just met Cub they had told us that he didn't bother with legal moves. Well that was the same as Dad. There were so many things that had happened since I had come here even being told that I was almost as good as Dad. Everyone could see that I was Cub's son but me. Did the sergeant and Eagle know that my father was the legendary Cub? They didn't appear to but I didn't know anymore everything was so confusing.
Dad's constant emotionless expressions made a lot of sense. Okay I knew that he could show his emotions when he wanted to but he didn't often. I had learned at an early age how to read my dad even if I often failed at that. This all came from spending a lifetime on the front line of spying. I wondered how high up Dad was. Polar Bear had said that Cub was the best. But how good was the best? There was only one thing that could ever make Dad show his emotions clearly and that were times when the subject of Mum was brought up.
Then there was the fact that Dad hated new people even children within his house without any warning. This was the reason we didn't have cleaners or babysitters. The way Dad's eyes flickered around the room judging everything. I knew what Dad expected now. I knew he'd been shot before but he had told me that it was in a bank robbery gone wrong. That was just another lie in what seemed to be nothing but lies. Were all spies like this? Mistrustful; seeing conspiracy and murder everywhere or was that just my Dad.
I thought of what had happened to Nelly's older boyfriend who it seemed no where would offer him a place at University or College or even so much as a part time job. With what the sergeant had said about how high up Dad was in MI6 I had a feeling that Dad had got creative with his punishment. I had a feeling that p*****g off Dad was unwise whether you were a terrorist, a soldier or a civilian. I was so glad that I was Dad's son rather than his enemy. But at least it had only happened once although Nelly was the only one to get her heart broken.
The rest of us were the heart breakers. I had a string of female associates who I never had more than one night with. Then there was Helen who found all the boys too immature for her liking. I wondered when that would change. Jackie just didn't seem to be interested in relationships. Jackie was a career girl I had always thought. Ian was the one who like Dad had a long term girlfriend since high school. Kelly her name was and she was beautiful; dark, long legged with large brown eyes. If she wasn't Ian's girl I'd not say no.
When I had asked how a banker had got hold of a gun. Dad had said that they didn't give bankers gun. If that wasn't an admission that Dad wasn't a banker I didn't know what was. It was all so obvious I felt dumb for not realizing it. The hard bitten look that I had witnessed on more than one occasion lurking in Dad's eyes was not of being an assassin but the opposite. Dad was a spy and a good one. Eagle had commented that spies knew instinctive firing as well but I had passed it by not believing that my boring Dad could possible be a spy.
I had even compared Dad with some of the older recruits because that's what he was. He had been in the military for thirty years of course he was hard bitten. Dad was a veteran of sorts. I suddenly felt immensely proud to be able to say I was Alex Rider's son which was more than what I had been feeling recently. I was suddenly glad of the security systems that protected my father against those who would mean him harm. No wonder Nelly had thought it so hilarious when I had suggested that Dad might be an assassin.
It was pretty ironic now that I knew the truth. It had fought that a man who had been a spy since he was fifteen was an assassin. How wrong could I be? Dad was a patriot not a traitor. It exclaimed Dad's similar routine to that of army life. I never even knew Dad could fight but by what I had heard Dad could fight and fight well. But he had been in MI6 for thirty years he'd have to fight. And I knew he was a good teacher but it sounded like he was kinder at teaching us than SAS men. But the SAS men apart from me weren't Cub's children.
I looked around at the other recruits who seemed in awe at such a legendary spy as my father. I was the only one who didn't look like they had just met the Queen. I was the one who was glaring at my father. Polar Bear wasn't wearing his usual glower and Pigeon wasn't sneering at everything. There was a silence out of awe or fear I didn't know. Dad was giving off a distinctively dangerous vibe. But I wasn't scare of him to me he was just Dad even if I had found out the truth about him. Dad seemed calm and was smirking in the sergeant's direction with Eagle hanging behind him.
"Have you been scaring the newbies again, Wolfie?" Dad asked and I suspected I was the only one who could hear the laugh in his voice.