The next few weeks carried on like that – with no-one finding anything. However, one Friday, someone turned up.

"Hey! Dave! Where have you been?" Josh gestured towards me "This is Alex Rider, he joined just after you left. Alex, this is Dave Goldner, who disappears for a while with an 'illness' every now and again. Don't believe the rumours about him, they're wrong." I could see the quotations around the illness, and did Josh know something about Dave's 'illnesses'?

"You must have a dodgy immune system, huh?" I asked Dave. He raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah. It's really unfortunate. I don't get to do PE or go on any school trips anymore..." Dave had an American accent, and it was really noticeable in a school full of English children.

"Sucks to be you then?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

I was the first to arrive back at the house, and I immediately told Ben about Dave and his 'illness'.

"Unimaginative intelligence agencies..."

"He sounded American, if that's any help as well. Can I borrow the laptop?"

"Yeah, sure." I opened it up, and went onto the school's website. Ben walked out the room.

"What are you doing?" Corinne asked, walking towards the kettle, and making herself a cup of tea. "Want a cup?" she asked.

"Thanks. I'm hacking the school."
"What? Why?"
"Information."

"On...?"
"Dave Goldner."

"Who?"
"Guy who's been 'ill' for the past few weeks. I think Josh know what he's been up to." Corinne placed my tea next to me.

"Thanks." She walked out the room with her cup. About a minute later I was in. I found Dave's file.

Name: Dave Goldner

Form: 10SWa

Address: 7 Bond Street, Wymondham, Norfolk, NR8 4RT

Attendance: 42% - Has been off sick a large amount over the past 18 months.

WAG: English – E, Maths – D, French – B, Spanish – A, German – B, PE – cannot take part, Physics – D, Chemistry – C, Biology – B, ICT – B, Geography – D.

Dave has been off quite a lot in his first year and a half at this school, which has seriously impeded his learning. It is thankful that before moving over here from America he learnt French, Spanish and German and can speak them almost fluently.

I closed the computer. A year and a half ago... about the time I went to Skeleton Key and... No, they couldn't have. Would they?

"Where's Ben?" I asked Lauren who'd just walked in.

"He's gone up to the school. James' in trouble again." She rolled her eyes. I grabbed my coat, and ran out the door.

"Hey! Where're you going?" she called, but I was too far away to answer.

I found Ben walking down the road, talking with James.

"I know who SCORPIA are targeting." I panted at them.

"Who?" James asked

"Why?" Ben asked.

"Dave Goldner. I think he's CIA."

"What? The CIA have a child spy?" James exclaimed. Ben shushed him.

"Wait till we're inside at least."

Back in the living room, with everyone assembled I explained who Dave was, and why I thought he was CIA. Well, except for the bit about Skeleton Key. But I said something about suspicious goings on over there, which I'd heard on the news.

"I haven't had a chance to try and get into the CIA's database, but I think he's going to be there somewhere." There was silence for a second or two, then

"You're going to hack the CIA?" John asked.

"Well, try to at least." John snorted sceptically. I took the laptop I'd used earlier.

"Is there a room where I won't be disturbed for the next 10 hours or so?"

"There's the conservatory. Or the dining room."
"I'll use the conservatory, thanks."

It took me 5 hours to get to where I wanted. I had noted down Byrne's email address earlier, in case I couldn't get what I needed. I found the list of agents, and scrolled down to the g's. Dave Goldner. I knew it. I printed off all the information they had. I relaxed for a second. Then something caught my eye.

"Shit!" I swore loudly. I looked at the clock. 11pm. I ran into the living room, to see who else but Dave Goldner standing at the printer, reading his file. I stood in the doorway, and stared at him. He looked up, shocked and said

"You're supposed to be asleep."
"You know, you're not the first one to say that." He looked confused for a second, then decided to ignore it.

"Who sent you these?" He asked, shaking his file.

"Who would send me them?" I replied.

"You're saying you hacked into the CIA in six hours?"
"Five, actually." He snorted.

"Impossible."
"That's what SCORPIA would have said a year ago if you told them a teenager would cause them so much to fail three of their operations, and become a laughing stock." Dave growled.

"Don't mention it. They don't like being reminded."
"I guessed." There was silence for a second.

"Why aren't you asleep?"
"Hacking CIA." Dave looked shocked.

"But you were at school earlier... It takes even the best hacker about a day to even get into the lowest level security..."
"I guess they don't have my training. How long did you spend at Malagasto if you think it takes a day to get in anywhere?"

"Malagasto? Where's that?" This surprised me. How does a member of SCORPIA not know it's own base?
"Spain." I decided to lie, as blatantly as possible. Well, he didn't recognise my name... I think any member of SCORPIA would at least have heard it once. Probably as an insult. "I thought everyone in SCORPIA knew that?"
"Well..."
"Why is no-one ever actually in SCORPIA any more?" I muttered. Dave just looked confused.
"In the past eight months I've met more people pretending to be SCORPIA than actual SCORPIA members."
"How do you know they were pretending?"
"There's a number of reasons, all of which you'd freak out about."
"Try me."
"They wouldn't torture a child, they didn't shoot me as soon as they found out my name, they didn't even recognise my name, they got their information horribly wrong, they underestimated me instead of overestimating..." Dave's face had gone horribly white. "I told you. You know what the best part of this is?" Dave shook his pale head. "I get to use their line."
"What's so great about it?" Dave asked. I leant over and whispered in his ear.
"SCORPIA never forgive. SCORPIA never forget." Dave fainted at this. Ben walked down the stairs at this point, stopping complaining about his headache when he saw the fainted Dave. Ben sighed.
"What did you do?" He sounded so resigned. I put my hands up in a mock surrender.
"I didn't touch him! I only talked to him! Yes he is CIA by the way, but not SCORPIA. Probably ex-CIA soon. It took me five hours to get incorrect information!" Ben looked bemused.
"Five hours? Only five?"
"Yeah... I need to email Byrne, to apologise for the hacking too... And tell him to update his information... And improve his firewalls. Though I suppose it'd make some people suspicious if Centurion International Advertisements had better security than the Pentagon..." I said, opening up Gmail. The email went something like

To: jbyrne .us
From: alexrider .uk
Subject: Sorry
I'm sorry about hacking you, but I needed info on Dave Goldner, who isn't with SCORPIA as you claim. By the way, it took me five hours to get this out of date information. You really need to sort out your firewalls. And update your information.

Alex Rider

P.S. Dave fainted at the mention of SCORPIA. Get some better agents while you're at it will you?

P.P.S. What do you want us to do with him?

P.P.P.S. I know a child spy is a good idea and all, but it's your fault that I figured it out so quickly. If you'd waited even a month or two, this wouldn't have happened. Well, it wouldn't have happened as quickly. You'd still probably be getting a hacking email, just in about a week or two.

It was about midnight when I pressed send. Ben had been sorting out what to do with Dave. MI5 and 6 wouldn't touch him with a barge pole, as he was CIA. I got an email back from Byrne about half an hour later.

To: alexrider .uk
From: jbyrne .us
Subject: RE:Sorry
FIVE HOURS. Jesus Christ, I know you're good, but... Please, email me next time. Anyway, thanks for the update on Dave, and take him home when he wakes up, if you haven't completely terrified him yet. Get someone else to if you have. And if he contacts me saying you're a member of SCORPIA, I'm leaving you to sort it out. And I know he's not as good as you, just please, don't break him. He's very useful.

I turned to Ben.

"Byrne says we just have to take him home when he wakes up. And we can't break him" Ben sighed.

"I'll get him a blanket then."

The next morning, everyone was woken up by a yell from downstairs. Rat jumping out of bed, then tripping over his duvet which was still wrapped around his legs was one of the funniest things I'd seen in a while. Rat glared at me when I chuckled.

"Who's downstairs?" he asked quietly.

"Dave Goldner, and probably Ben or K Unit." I replied.

"The possible CIA agent?"
"He is CIA. Though for some reason, he wants to be SCORPIA." We started walking downstairs.
"Is he?"
"No."

"How do you know?" I wiggled my fingers.

"What was I doing yesterday? It's surprisingly easy once you know what you're doing." We'd arrived downstairs, ad everyone was just acting as if it were a normal morning, even going as far to include Dave in the routine. He looked sufficiently bemused. Then he saw me. His face darkened and he looked like he was going to throw himself at me. I smiled at him. Ben came over to me and said "It'd be nice if you gave us some warning about having a friend over."

"Sorry. Hey, Dave. Are you feeling better?"

"What?" He looked very confused.

"Don't you remember? You knocked on my door last night, muttering about scorpions or Scorpio or something, then collapsed." Everyone else looked surprised. Kerry walked over and put a hand to his forehead.

"He's not got a temperature. Alex, why didn't you take him to a hospital or something?"
"I'm 15. It's not exactly legal for me to drive yet. Plus, Ben's hidden the keys after last time."

"LAST time?" Dave exclaimed.

"Don't worry, no-one was seriously injured..."
"Just a couple of broken bones, right Alex?" Rat said, with a laugh.

"You had a cast on for three weeks. It wasn't even your right arm!"

"That's the problem!"

"I could break it for you now if you wanted..."

"No-one is going to be breaking anyone's bones." Snake said, walking through from the living room. "Who's this?"
"Dave Goldner."

"You know the rules about bringing friends over."
"Yeah, but he came over last night, muttered about scorpions and collapsed." Snake rushed over, and felt his forehead, like Kerry had.

"Hmm... He feels fine. Do you remember what you did yesterday after school?"

"I came home from school, talked to Tamara, did some homework, and..." Dave frowned, and seemed to be mulling something over. "Can I talk to Alex for a minute? Alone?" Ben nodded.

"You can use the conservatory."

Dave sat in a chair, and I sat opposite him.

"I have something I need to tell you." I waited for him to continue. "I... workfortheCIA."
"What?" He was freely admitting that?

"I work for the CIA. As a spy."
"Is that why you've been absent?" He nodded.

"Only Josh knows about this. And that's because he saw me in action."

"Any reason for you telling me this? You turned up at my door talking about scorpions. That's not you in action is it?" Dave laughed.

"God, no. It's because I was probably muttering about SCORPIA."
"What's that?"

"A terrorist organisation."
"Never heard of them."
"You're lucky. They're the most dangerous organisation anyone could have the fortune to meet, even after the recent events."
"Recent events?"

"Their plans got foiled by the same MI6 agent. He even survived one of their snipers."

"SCORPIA have snipers?" I was trying really hard here.
"They train assassins." I looked shocked for his benefit.

"Shit." I said quietly.

"Exactly. And now they've targeted our school."
"They have?" I jumped out my seat, and started pacing, acting nervous. "Why?"

"Probably because they want me..."
"Because you're a spy? Why are you a spy anyway? Have you done any 007-esque stuff?"

"I'm a spy because I hacked the Pentagon, then evaded authority for about a month."

"You hacked the Pentagon? Why?"
"For fun."

"Why? And how long did you take?"

"To see how good I was. And a few days."

"How did you not get caught for a month?"

"I was 14. How could a fourteen-year-old hack the Pentagon?"

"Have you done any missions?"
"Only two." Ha. I win. 10, including this one.

"What have you done?"

"Uh... stopped the assassination of the American Secretary of State in Cairo" No, you didn't. That was me. I shot Julius after... I focused back on Dave. "... I managed to infiltrate SCORPIA for a while. Then they found out I was a spy..." You didn't do your job very well. You don't even know where Malagasto is!

"Oh. Where did Josh see you in action?"

"When I stopped the assassination. He came and found me, because I'd spent half an hour 'on the loo'."

"What did he see?"

"He saw me fight a blonde guy in a blue shirt. The guy I fought was found dead later. A bullet straight through his head." He fought Julius? Bull. Complete and utter B.S. Julius didn't have a mark on him. His shirt wasn't even ruffled. I suppose if Julius kicked his ass without being hit too bad himself... That sounded plausible.

"You any good at fighting?"

"Yeah. I can do karate." So can lots of other people.

"Come on. Snake's probably worried about you." We got up, and turned towards the door to the kitchen.
"Snake?"
"The guy who was taking your temperature earlier. He's a medic with the army or something. A friend of Ben's."

"Why Snake? Is he a SEAL or SAS or something." I shrugged.

"Could just be a nickname."

"How does Ben know him?"
"No idea."

"What does Ben do?"
"Works for a bank." We were back in a kitchen. Snake was waiting for us.

"Everything OK?" he asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. I'd probably better get back to Tamara though. She's probably worried."
"Where do you live?" I asked.

"Down the road."
"Snake'll want someone to walk you back. I'll do it."

We walked down the road. 5 houses later, Dave turned onto a path up to a house.

"How did you find out where I live?"
"I hacked the Pentagon. The school's not that hard." Dave rang the doorbell. The door opened. I saw a blur of brown hair, and heard a very loud "DAVE. WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT GOING OFF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!" Then Dave was being pulled very quickly inside. "I thought you'd been caught by-" Dave interrupted her before she could finish the sentence.

"Tamara, this is Alex Rider. He's a friend." He said quickly. Fortunately, Dave missed the surprise that flashed across Tamara's face, and the finger that I'd had to my lips, silently asking her not to give anything away.

"Alex! Nice to meet you. I hope you had nothing to do with him disappearing in the middle of the night."
"Well... I sort of borrowed something of his, and he had to come get it, then he stayed and met everyone else at my house. It was late, and he looked tired, so we offered him the sofa for the night." Tamara turned to Dave.

"You could have told me, at least."
"I didn't plan to stay long."

"You have a phone."
"Well..."
"He borrowed your phone."
"Kinda..." It seemed they'd forgotten about me, so I slipped quietly out the door.

Back at the house, there seemed to be some sort of argument going on. John and James were shouting at each other, from opposite side of the room.

"She's my sister for Christ's sakes. At least wait till I'm not there!" James yelled. They started edging together, yelling insults as they went. I stepped in the middle, my hands raised.

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked.

"I'm about to beat this punk up." James snarled.

"He's just jealous, 'cause he's not getting anything from Kerry." James growled, and tightened his fists.

"Hey. No fighting or I will kick both your asses simultaneously into a different calendar, probably one with horses, if you don't stop this."

"He started it!" they both yelled simultaneously.

"I don't care. I'm stopping it." They both sighed and turned around, as if they were walking away. I wasn't' fooled. I stepped back, place my hands on the back of the sofa, pushed myself up, flicked both my legs out, and winced at the thumps of two unconscious bodies falling on the ground. Ben walked in.

"You got them to stop fight-oh. Why am I not surprised? I should be worried. I should be shocked. I'm not. Why am I not shocked? That's a bad sign. You're sorting this out, by the way." He turned around and walked back into the kitchen. I heard someone ask whether I had sorted it out, and Ben replied that they were unconscious. I sighed, and dragged John up to his room. I left James on the sofa, because I didn't want them in the same room. And because James was a lot heavier. I walked into the kitchen. Lauren was standing there, so I asked her what happened.

"John and I were sitting in the living room... John tried to kiss me as James walked through, and it went downhill from there. They're both out cold?"

"Yeah. Your brother's on the sofa, and John's in his room."
"Don't they share?"
"...Crap." Fortunately, John was still out, so Lauren managed to move all his things into her room. I collapsed on a chair in the living room. A cup of tea was held in front of me. I looked up to see Ben was the one holding it.

"Thanks." I said.

"Everything OK? Dave get home all right?"

"Yeah. He's staying with a woman called Tamara Knight." Ben just raised an eyebrow.
"Well this is all getting very interesting now isn't it?"

Dave disappeared a few weeks later, to turn up a month after that with a cast on his leg. The rumours kept flying about. The most common one was that he was in a gang. He was lucky he wasn't a druggie. Josh and I got told the story at different times, Josh at lunch, me on the way home. I think Josh got a more detailed version. The official story was that he had flu, then after he got better he fell down some stairs and broke his leg. What actually happened was that MI6 had found out about him (Blame Ben, not me. I hadn't texted Smithers in a while actually...), and wanted him to gather some information. They told him it was easy. I winced internally when I heard this, as whenever they told me that, I ended up getting shot at, or burnt, or threatened with torture. One time I got an evil twin/clone/look-alike out of it! The people Dave was investigating found out about him, but he was confused at the amount of people who said 'You're the spy?', as if they were expecting someone else... I hoped it wasn't me. Dave also noticed the amount of gadgets that would be suitable for a child Smithers had, and how Blunt was surprised at how quickly he agreed. Now that I did almost laugh at. I wonder what Blunt would have blackmailed him with. He didn't say who he was infiltrating, though I think he did tell Josh. I decided to text Smithers to see how he was doing when I got to my room. I pulled out my phone and texted him

have fun with dave? I got a reply almost immediately.

He's not as good as you. Definitely didn't do his first mission very well, I think. I laughed at that.

so who was he investigating?

Help Earth. MI5 always get those ones as they're not as bad as SCORPIA. You should ask your CHERUB buddies about them. Dave didn't do that well. Lasted about 3 weeks, before being found out. Broke his leg in an escape. Blunt wants you back.

i almost want to be back...I deleted that, then typed well ive got ben with us at the moment, so im not expecting to go back to mi5 after this. though i would like to. i actually might pass my gcses now!

A few days later, SCORPIA finally attacked. A pair of assassins that I recognised from my time at Malagasto walked in with guns.
"Everyone, hands in the air, and against the wall." Everyone, but Dave , rushed to the wall.

"You! Hurry up!"
"Sorry, my crutch is caught. Josh, can I have some help?" Josh walked over, and they started whispering to each other. I heard snippets, like "...right or left?...cast...real? I thought..." They weren't very good at it, but the SCORPIA agents obviously didn't hear a thing. Rat had edged over.

"What're we going to do?" Rat could whisper. That was a relief.

"Nothing. Not yet anyway. Text Ben will you?" I said out the corner of my mouth. I stood between Rat and the two agents who looked rather bored at the moment. Rat finished texting as Josh and Dave arrived at the wall.

"What took you so long?" I whispered to them both. Dave glanced at Josh, and Josh nodded his head slightly. Josh leant nearer to my ear.

"I'm ASIS. You know about Dave, right?" I nodded. Hell, were all the people I worked with employing children now?

"When did you start?" I asked.

"A few weeks after Ark Angel fell out the sky." Was I a catalyst for these things? Was it going to be standard for every intelligence agency to have a child working for them? My thoughts were interrupted by one of the assassins telling us to get to the hall as quickly as we could. The whole school was in there, milling around waiting for something to happen. Assassins were at every door, and I think I saw a sniper on the roof. It wouldn't surprise me if there was. I managed to steal a gun from one of the assassins holsters. (What type is it?) I walked towards Josh and Dave.

"If I were to magically get a gun, would you be able to use it?"

"Not with crutches." Josh just shook his head.

"You're both spies, and neither of you can shoot?" Well, at least MI6 weren't the only ones who thought that a teenager shouldn't be able to shoot.

"Well, I can. I just won't hit anything." Josh said. Dave nodded in agreement. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm so glad I can then." I muttered quietly, as someone had just walked past us.

"How?" Dave asked.

"I was in a gang." Josh rolled his eyes. "What? At least I can shoot."

"Where are you going to get a gun from?" Josh asked. I searched for the assassin I stole the gun from.

"Him."

"He doesn't have a gun."
"Exactly." Dave's reply was cut off by someone walking onto the stage. Everyone quietened down.

"My name is Akoyn. I am a member of SCORPIA, and I am here to tell you about how some of your classmates have ...gotten in our way recently." Well, I haven't recently, but I know that SCORPIA can hold a grudge...

"Who's SCORPIA?" someone yelled.

"That's a very good question. SCORPIA is a terrorist organisation." Mutterings broke out everywhere.

"Why are school kids messing with a terrorist organisation?" I think it was James that yelled this time. I found him with the other CHERUBS, at the very back of the hall. I nudged Dave and Josh towards them. We all stood in a group, waiting for Akoyn to carry on. Kerry looked at my pocket and whispered

"Where'd you get the gun."

"Where'd you think? Haven't you got one?"

"You stole it?"

"Borrowed. Without asking. Or intention of retuning. You want one?"

"No. Can't hit a target to save my life." The rest looked as equally nervous around the gun.

"Am I really the only one who can shoot here?"

"Well, these guys probably can." James said, nodding towards the assassins.

"Oh, look. You cracked a funny." John said sarcastically.

"You remember what happened last time you argued? Well it won't be Alex knocking you out, it'll be me. And I'll make it hurt" Lauren hissed. John and Dave looked scared at that threat.

"Is she normally that violent?" Dave asked.

"No, she's worse." James deadpanned. I glanced up at Akoyn and pulled the trigger of the gun twice.