Here's chapter 6! I'm so excited about this series! It's my most popular story so far, and I have to admit I'm neglecting my other stories because this one is so much fun to write!
Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider, unfortunately.
Chapter 6- Old Alliances
It's been several days since Alex and I arrived at the storage unit. There is no news about Scorpia; they are still searching for us. I decide its safe enough to go out as long as we stay away from London. We're running low on food; we should get more soon. We decide to go shopping.
It's early in the morning, about 9 o'clock. We head out to eat breakfast since there isn't very much left in the fridge. We're sitting inside, in the back corner of a restaurant near the back exit, not close to any windows. Just like John trained me. Alex is looking around the restaurant as he eats. I glance around too, just to make sure nothing suspicious is happening. The last thing I want is for Scorpia to find us here.
After we eat breakfast, we decide to go to a grocery store across the street and get some groceries.
On the way, I notice a man following us. I realize that I saw him in the restaurant. I glance at Alex, and our eyes meet.
"There's a man behind us. Gray shirt, tall, dark brown eyes. Muscular and well built. I think he's following us. When we round the corner, check and see," I tell him in a low voice. As we round the corner, Alex casually glances to the side and sees the man. I stop, and so does Alex. The man rounds the corner and sees us both, waiting for him. He curses angrily.
"What are you doing here, Wolf?" Alex asks suspiciously.
"What does it look like, Cub?" the man named Wolf says back.
"It looks like your following me!" Alex exclaims. "I haven't even had as much training as you!" He actually seems quite proud of himself to have spotted a tail.
"I was the one who pointed him out to you," I remind Alex.
Wolf looks at me, and suddenly his eyes widen in surprise.
"Alex…you do know who that is, don't you?" he asks.
"I Thought Mrs. Jones sent you…are you working for someone else now?" Alex asks, surprised.
"No…well…I'm…I saw you in the restaurant and I followed you…I wanted to see what you were doing and who you were with," he says, a little sheepish.
"So you're not on a mission right now?" Alex asks. "Are you still working for MI6?"
"I'm not on a mission at the moment, and yes, I do still work for MI6," he says. "Why are you with Yassen? I thought he was dead?" Wolf glances at me suspiciously.
"Yassen survived because of MI6. They took him to the hospital. Then he escaped and has been in hiding ever since. Then Scorpia came after me, or what was left of the organization at least, and Yassen saved me from them. Now I'm under his protection. And yes, Mrs. Jones does know all about this," Alex tells him.
"Scorpia…they're still around, huh? Even after you destroyed them?"
"Most of the people who were working for Scorpia are dead or in jail, but a few are still out there. They want me dead, which honestly isn't anything new," Alex tells him.
Wolf checks his watch, and then says, "I am about to head over to the Royal & General Bank. It's good to see you Alex. I hope this thing with Scorpia is resolved. Maybe Mrs. Jones will let me be on the team trying to stop them. If so, I'll be sure to kill some of them for ya," Wolf says. He extends a hand out to Alex, and Alex takes it and they shake hands.
"It's good to see you, Wolf. Stay out of trouble," Alex says, smiling.
"You too, Cub." Wolf says in reply. He lets go of Alex's hand and walks away, giving me a slight nod as he passes. As he walks past me, he stops and speaks in my ear.
"It's obvious the kid trusts you. Take good care of him, he's a good kid. Keep a close eye on him, though. He has a knack for getting into trouble," Wolf says. I nod in reply. Then Wolf walks away, disappearing into the crowd.
"What did he say?" Alex asks, looking at me curiously.
"Just told me to keep an eye on you. He says you have a talent for getting into trouble," I say. Alex smiles.
"We should get to the grocery store and buy some food before Scorpia finds us," Alex says. I agree; I don't want to be out here, I have a bad feeling about being so close to London when Scorpia is hunting for us.
We walk across the street and enter the grocery store. As we're looking around for food, the loudspeaker comes on; announcing some kind of advertisement. I notice that Alex jumps when he hears the noise. He glances over at me and gives a sheepish smile; he's embarrassed. I know what he's feeling, though. He's just as nervous as I am.
We leave the store, and I'm just about to climb in the car when Alex stiffens. He's standing beside me, about to go to the other side and get in. I feel an icy claw go down my back; something's wrong. I look at him. He silently gets in the car, and I reach for the ignition. Suddenly, he yells, "Stop!" I freeze, unsure why.
"I…I think there's a bomb wired to the ignition," Alex says.
We both get out of the car quickly, and I check underneath. Yes, he's right. There is a bomb wired to the ignition. I realize that it's wired in such a way that I can't disarm it without a risk of blowing us up.
"All right, you're smart. There's no way to unwire it, so I guess we're gonna have to borrow a car," I tell him.
"Not something I want to do…but I don't think we have another choice, do we?" he says. I shake my head no.
We find an old beat up white Cadillac that I don't think anyone will miss that much. The ride home is uneventful; nothing else happens. Finally, Alex speaks.
"How did they find us?" he asks.
"I was careless. I should have known they would know which care I was driving; I should have ditched that car long ago," I explain. I'm losing my touch I guess; I haven't done anything like this in such a long time…
"Does that mean that every time we want to go out, we're going to have to steal a car?" Alex says.
"I don't know. It depends on whether they know what car we're driving right now or not,"
We finally arrive at the storage facility, and I make sure nothing has changed before we both go back inside. We sit down and eat a small lunch; neither of us is very hungry after what just happened. It's only about 2 o'clock; we have a lot of time to do whatever we want. I don't want to leave the storage facility again, especially after what just happened. There isn't even any cable here. I have a computer, but I don't know what we're going to do with that. As Alex eats, I again notice the paper thin line drawn across the back of his hand.
"What is that?" I ask, motioning to it.
He glances at it, and gives a small shudder. "It was from one of my missions. After you disappeared…" he says. "It's from a poisonous spider web," I look at him, not really able to believe that. He tells me about Desmond McCain, KilmoreCastle, and the Poison Dome. After hearing the story, I realize how much trauma Alex has really been through since I disappeared.
"Your car…the way the bomb was wired…it was the same as the car that Jack was in when she…" Alex hesitantly tells me, trailing off a few times.
"You knew there was something wrong. We both did, but you were the one to figure out what it was," I say gently. I'm not sure if there is really a way to comfort him in this situation.
"Yeah. I guess. Hey, maybe I'm smarter than you," he jokes, glancing at me with a twinkle in his eyes. He's trying to lighten the situation.
"Don't push it," I tell him. He laughs, and we smile at each other.
"We should tell Mrs. Jones what happened. We should call her right now," Alex says suddenly.
"That's a good idea. That might help us. Should we tell her we saw Wolf?" I ask. I know it's up to him because he's the one who knows Wolf best.
"Yeah, we might as well. I don't think it will hurt anything if we do," he replies.
I pull out my cell phone, and we dial the number. It's on speakerphone again. We wait while the phone rings, and a few seconds later someone picks up.
"Hello?" Mrs. Jones says.
"Hello Mrs. Jones," Alex says, just like last time.
"Alex! Is Yassen with you? What's happened? Are you all right?" she sounds really worried. She doesn't just sound worried about Alex, though, she also sounds worried about me.
"Yassen is with me. We're both all right, but…" Alex trails off, looking at me. I realize he wants me to tell her what happened.
"Well, we went out to get some food, and when we came back to the car, we both sensed something was wrong. Alex was the one who figured out what is was, though. I was about to turn on the ignition when he realized, somehow, that there was a bomb wired to activate when the car was turned on. I checked, and he was right. There was a bomb wired to the ignition. I didn't disarm it because it would have been too dangerous," I explain. She listens carefully, not making a sound until I'm done.
"Scorpia found you…but how?" she asks, shocked.
"We don't know. They were probably watching for my car," I say.
"Well, at least you're both all right. That's all that matters now," she says, relieved to knew we aren't hurt.
"We have made progress, though," she continues. "We believe they are living in a small house just outside London. We think they have weapons in the house, so trying to go in and grab them would be suicide. We need someone to lure them out into the open. I have a plan, but neither of you are going to like it,"
"No. I'm not doing another mission. This time, there's nothing you can say to convince me," Alex says instantly.
"How about this: if you don't act as a decoy, then we'll never be able to get them. They'll find you eventually, and you will have to be on the run for the rest of your life," she points out. I admit I agree with her.
"Won't we be on a suicide mission by going out there?" Alex asks.
"Well, Smithers has made you special jackets that are bulletproof. You won't get hurt," she explains.
"It won't work. They'll figure out the jackets are bulletproof the moment we stand up. They'll aim at our heads. Like Yassen did in Malta," Alex says.
"We should fake our deaths," I say, realizing Alex is right. I wonder how he knew about Malta. Probably from Ash.
"Good thinking, Alex. All right. The problem is that we don't know where you'll get shot. We'll have to make the blood bags all over your body. Smithers will make that," Mrs. Jones says.
"When are we going to do this?" Alex asks.
"We'll do it as soon as possible. In the next few days," she tells us.
"Call us when you're ready for us," I say.
"We will," she says, hanging up.
I have to admit, I'm a little excited. I haven't been on a mission in a long time.
"This is just like Albeit Bride," Alex comments. This takes all the excitement out of me. I remember when they told me John had been killed by MI6. Now I know it was a lie, but still. Alex is right, this is like Albeit Bridge.
"It's different," I tell him.
"Not really. Scorpia is involved. It might not be an exchange, but we will fake our deaths. And there's certainly a chance we're wrong,"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, this whole time, we've been assuming Scorpia wants me dead. What if they want to kidnap me?"
"They tried to blow up our car. I don't think they care about answers anymore. I think they just want you, maybe both of us, dead,"
"Yeah…I guess that's true. I just hope you're right," he says, accepting it. I hope I'm right, too.
That's the conclusion of chapter 6! Hope you enjoyed it! The next chapter should have plenty of action in it, so don't get bored.