A/N: Sorry about the long wait in updates, I'm only just getting a handle on my uni work. As strange as it may seem, I am now actually becoming organised. You kind of have to when it's become organised or fail.
Oh, by the way! I don't think I've mentioned this in here, although you'll know about it if you read Reincarnation. There are Alex Rider Fanfiction Awards this year. The forum is called the Royal & General Bank. Search for it on ffnet and you'll find it easy enough. Anyways, back to the point. You all get to nominate stories to be considered to win a prize. There are several categories, all of which have their own nomination threads on the forum. One nomination per category per person, and if something has already been nominated, feel free to nominate it again as number of nominations will come into play on the readers choice award.
Nominations close (I think) on the 1st of November, so get over there soon? Pretty please?
Anyway, now onto the chapter!
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing that you recognise.
-o-O-o-
"Was all that grandstanding really necessary?" murmured Emily as she slipped into the passenger seat of the truck.
"Probably not," admitted Alex with an easy shrug. "But come on. They would have guessed it was the resistance anyway."
"Yeah, but now they know what you look like."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "What's he going to say? Young, blond, brown eyed and taller than me when I'm crouched on the ground? It's not a lot to go on. And seeing as they don't even know I'm in the country, I doubt I'm on their radar."
Emily glared at him and looked out of the window.
"How long until we get to the meeting point?" she asked.
"About ten minutes. Hopefully no more than fifteen to get the supplies out of the truck. I'll take the truck somewhere and dump it afterwards. I very much doubt they'll notice it's missing until it doesn't show up."
"And what about the soldier? What if he wakes up?"
"At least an hour until then," said Alex. "Probably more. And from then, he has to find his way to a command base to report it. We did disable his radio, remember? And, nice job at playing dead."
Emily huffed and settled down to ignore him. She had not been pleased when she realised she's have to be covered in dirt.
Her theory was: his plan, his fault. And she was not about to let him forget it.
-o-O-o-
They met the others in an alley close to the house. As Alex had predicted, it took fifteen minutes to unload the truck, and he sent Emily to dump it well away from their base of operations as the rest of them concentrated on lugging the supplies back to the house.
That part took a little longer than normal, given that they couldn't be seen by anyone, but eventually, they were all back at the house, with the cupboards re-stocked.
The first thing Alex did was make coffee and he sank happily into an armchair to savour the strong, bitter drink.
Tom gave the black liquid a disgusted glance and proceeded to load his up with so much milk and sugar that Alex was fairly certain is could no longer be classed as coffee.
He wrinkled his nose at Tom, then turned back to his drink with a blissful sigh.
"Well, I drove the truck into the river," said Emily, "like you said. I fail to see why I couldn't just dump it in an alley or something."
"Same reason you had to be covered in dirt," said Alex. "Anonymity. The water will wash any prints off and so we stay unknown. Well, apart from Matt. But we'll just have to manage. By the way, how are you two doing on locating the spy?"
Emily scowled and Matt frowned at her.
"We've narrowed it down," said the man. "We can rule out most of the soldiers, because they wouldn't have had access to the data; they may have been able to eavesdrop on some of it, admittedly, but we move them around so much that there would have to be at least five spies."
"Occam's Razor," said Snake with a nod. "It's far more likely that there's only one. So, what are the options?"
"Well, there is one man," said Matt, frowning slightly.
"We've been over this!" exclaimed Emily, angrily. "He wouldn't."
"Who wouldn't?" asked Alex sitting forward to stare at her intently.
"Chad Davies," said Matt. "And I know you want to think that, Em, but he only joined up because of you; he has no loyalty to the cause."
"And if he joined up because of me, why would he do something that would get me sentenced to death?" exclaimed Emily. "Chad loves me. He wouldn't work against me, against us! I swear he wouldn't."
"He's the only one who would have had access to all that information and you know it!" exclaimed Matt, impatiently.
"Keep your voices down," snapped Alex. "Sabina and Aaron are right next door."
"Oh, and now Sabina is a spy?" snapped Matt.
"See? You don't like it when your lover is accused," spat Emily.
Alex blinked and vowed to pay more attention. He'd had a vague idea that Matt liked Sabina, but he had had no idea that things had progressed so far, or that Emily had been dating Chad.
"That isn't the point!" snapped Matt. "Sabina hasn't had access to the information, has she? She's only been here a few weeks."
"That doesn't mean we have to parade secrets in front of her," began Alex, calmly.
"Oh shut the fuck up, Rider!" snarled Matt. "You don't trust anyone, do you? I thought she was your friend?"
"I am NOT saying she's a spy," snapped Alex. "I'm simply reminding you that the less she knows, the safer she is."
Matt deflated. "Oh, right. Sorry."
"Call Chad back here; tell him you miss him or something," said Alex, to Emily. "I'm not saying he's the spy," he added as Emily seemed about to protest, "But we have to be prepared for the possibility. We'll set him a test. I hope he passes."
"He will," said Emily, confidently.
-o-O-o-
"You need to get rid of Aaron."
Alex took a shaky breath and exhaled, his hands dropping to rest at his side.
"The boy's a mess," continued the voice from the doorway behind him. "Sure, he's holding it together most of the time, but he's woken up from nightmares every night recently. He's only eight years old and doesn't understand why he can't see his parents. He calls out for them when he wakes. Did you know that?"
Alex sighed. "I know, Sab," he murmured, quietly, still not turning around.
"Then do something about it!" snapped the opinionated young woman.
"I will," he promised. "I just need a few more days, that's all."
-o-O-o-
Harry was perfectly happy, having the chance to finally relax for a night. Chad had had them on roof tops three nights out of the last four, keeping an eye on the government's patrols and he was tired. Sure, they still slept during the day, but it was difficult to sleep in the semi-light rooms provided here and the nightly activities had slowly been sapping his energy.
Needless to say, he wasn't too happy when Chad came in, scowling, and kicked Harry off the sofa.
If you asked Harry, Chad not being around Emily was bad for everyone involved.
"Oi!" protested the soldier from his newly-occupied position on the floor. "Just 'cause Emily doesn't want you anymore is no reason to take it out on us!"
Chad snarled and went to kick the soldier, when an amused chuckle cut across him.
"Seriously, Davies, you need anger management," said Alex, stepping out of the shadows.
"Rider!" snapped Chad, angrily. He didn't like the blond. Everything had been fine before he came along. "How did you get in here?"
"You need better security, as well," answered Alex with a noncommittal shrug. "Anyway, why I am here holds far more relevance don't you think?"
Chad scowled. "Why are you here?" he asked the contrary spy, irritably.
"I'm playing messenger," said the blond, pulling a face. "Here."
He chucked over a sealed envelope and Chad snatched it out of the air.
"Don't worry, I didn't read it," said Alex wryly, as Chad cast a suspicious look at him.
"Good," grunted the soldier, tearing the envelope and reading the letter inside.
"She wants me to go back with you," he said after a moment's silence, a grin slowly spreading across his face.
"Bloody finally!" muttered Harry as he stalked out of the room, apparently deciding that it was none of his business.
"And now I'm a bloody delivery boy," muttered Alex, irritably.
"Fine, then," he said, after staring at Chad for a moment. "But you'll have to be careful. Patrols are out in force at the moment."
-o-O-o-
A/N: So what did you think? Review and tell me, please? Pretty please? I don't know why, but I seem to be developing a habit of showing little scenes from a randomer's point of view in this story. George last chapter, now Harry. I doubt either of them will ever be seen again, but anyway.
Oh, and don't forget to go over to the forum!