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**CLASSIFIED**
MISSION BRIEFING FOR JAMES ADAMS, KERRY CHANG, LAUREN ADAMS GREG RATHBONE, UNDER THE PROTECTION OF ZARA ASKER AND MI6 OPERATIVES ALEXANDER RIDER AND BENJAMIN DANIELS.
THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED WITH A RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TAG, ANY ATTEMPT TO REMOVE IT FROM THE MISSION PREPARATION BUILDING WILL SET OFF ALARMS.
DO NOT COPY OR MAKE MOTES.
THIS MISSION PASSED THE ETHICS COMMITTEE ON THE CONDITION THAT MI6 OPERATIVES ACCOMPANY THE AGENTS AND THAT THE CHERUB OPERATIVES UNDERSTAND THE FOLLOWING:
This mission has been classified as HIGH RISK. All CHERUB operatives are reminded of their right to refuse this mission at any point and their ability to withdraw at any time. While every possible step has been taken to ensure the operatives safety on these missions they are urged to consider carefully before accepting their role.
Two years ago a major terrorist organisation whose name has been withheld was crushed. Only a small number of the members escaped capture, it is believed they are trying to rebuild the organisation from scratch. These members are; Hannah June, William Wright and Jane Piccolo. They were low key operatives with families.
Hannah June:
Two years ago Handel moved to the UK with his son and daughter, Harry (15) and Kate (16), after their mother died in an accident. It is unknown how involved they are with their mothers operations, their father is unknown.
William Wright and Jane Piccolo:
Twenty three years ago Wright and Piccolo travelled to Venice and vanished. Four years later they reappear on the map with twin children, William and Lissa (14), two years ago they moved to the UK.
Mission Objective:
To befriend the children;
Kerry Chang: Kate June
James Adams: Harry June
Lauren Adams: Rose Wright
Greg Rathbone: William Wright
The operatives will live in the same city as them and attend the same school, Daniels and Asker will play adoptive parents and all the children are adopted, Lauren and James are still siblings. They will all keep their first names and change their last name to Williams.
The briefing went on to outline the details of the mission,
"You have an ethics committee?" Ben commented when he had finished reading it,
"Yes, don't you?" Kerry was surprised,
"No." Alex shrugged, "You also have the right to withdraw." He added,
"Don't you?" Lauren was shocked,
"Nope, lucky if I get back up." Alex muttered, Zara overheard and blinked shocked,
"Why do we need MI6 if it's just a mission to see if anything is happening?" James asked leaning back,
"I guess it's to do with the group taken down two years ago, do you know what it was?" Zara asked turning to Ben and Alex who were talking quietly, "Are you familiar with the terrorist group?"
"Too familiar." Alex chuckled darkly,
"You can say that again." Ben frowned, "Yes, we are familiar," His face twisted, "With that group, you're looking at the reason you are only dealing with three people." Five shocked faces looked at him,
"You!" Lauren exclaimed,
"What, no! Alex!" Ben exclaimed amused, "I meant him, not me!" He laughed, "I'm not that good."
"Thanks Ben." Alex muttered, "Lets all look at Alex like he's grown a third head."
"When did you grow a second?" Ben cocked an eyebrow,
"Between Borneo and Turkey." Alex replied with a grin,
"I knew there was something different about you!" Ben agreed,
"You'd think you'd notice a second head growing, what do they teach you at '6 training nowadays?" Alex teased,
"Same old, you never got '6 training did you." Ben sighed,
"Nope." Alex popped on the 'p', "All I got before my first was with you."
"It wasn't enough." Ben growled, "Still not impressed with them for that."
"I'm still not impressed with them for a lot of things, that is a long way down the list." Alex replied,
"What's at the top?" Ben asked,
"I would reply but we have an audience." Alex pointed to the shocked teens.
"You know each other well?" Lauren managed to get out.
"Unfortunately." Both males replied smiling.
"How so? Did you do any missions together?" James was digging,
"Yes, but that's not why we know each other so well." Ben replied,
"How..." Lauren trailed off,
"May I introduce my ever present, ever annoying and pestering guardian." Alex stated,
"And my ever self preservation lacking Ward." Ben confirmed,
"I am not that bad!" Alex defended himself,
"Al, you are awful." Ben disagreed,
"Where are your parents?" Lauren asked,
"Same as yours." Alex shrugged, understanding shone in the cherubs eyes.
"How long?" James blurted,
"JAMES!" Three voices snapped,
"Sorry." He mumbled sufficiently scolded. Zara cleared her throat and they all turned to her,
"OK, we were under the impression that Alex and Ben were the same age, so we put you in a dorm near the adults, but Alex, you can share with one of the boys if you like."
"He can share with me." James offered after being elbowed by Kerry.
"OK, you two are here for at least two weeks so you can get to know each other and act like a family, Alex you can attend Lauren and Rat's lessons, we can give you a timetable later so that you can change if you don't know something they know, or if you know a language fluently already, I gather you are a decent Russian speaker." Zara paused and Alex nodded his head confirming her suspicions. "You will be tested on your knowledge and abilities, we need to be sure our agents are safe, as I am sure you understand. We have a group going out on their final basic training in three days so we want the five teens, if not you Ben as well, to go out and bond over that."
"Gee thanks Zara." James muttered,
"Basic is designed for ten to twelve year olds, if you can't do that at 16 I'd be worried." Alex commented,
"Good point." Lauren agreed as her brother glared,
"Now for the tour, you four can take Alex and I'll take Ben, we can meet up for dinner, go out to bond again, red shirt campus first." Zara announced, they stood,
"Have you seen them yet?" Ben murmured to Alex,
"I'm sure they'll find me soon." Alex commented with a grin,
"Have you had many dealings with MI6 before?" Ben asked Zara as they left,
"Only one really, John Jones used to be MI6 but changed after a mission with us, but aside from that our influx of three to seven year olds grew with a Russian intake three years ago, a few had siblings still alive so the overall population grew but, that dealing with a nameless MI6 agent left us the closest to our limit of children." Zara replied, they left the mission control building and headed over to shouts,
"This is the red shirt play area, it's play time, red shirts are aged three to thirteen, when you turn ten you have the chance to take basic training, our 100 day training programme, its-" Zara was cut off,
"ALEX!" A small red being launched its self at the grinning spy,
"Hey Sergei, how you doing?" He asked shifting the grinning five year old up on his hip,
"Zara! I'm so sorry, I tried to stop-" The navy clad girl ran across gasping, then froze, "Alex?"
"Hey Lissa." Alex smiled at her, holding a hand over Sergei's mouth to stop him speaking,
"What are you doing here?" Lissa asked shocked,
"Long story, involving- Eww! You licked me!" Alex exclaimed looking at the small boy,
"You shouldn't have tried to shut me up! I can now speak English fluently, but I still prefer Russian and I have a red shirt, Liss got through Basic, the horrible training thing we told you about, and everyone is here, I have a family and a bed and clothes, and people love me Alex, they love me, it's not like the orphanage in Russia at all, and I can now speak French as well, though I sometimes get my words muddled up and-"
"Seriosha, you're babbling." Lissa sighed,
"Congrats on the shirt." Alex commented,
"Thanks, your Russian, how long did you spend in Novosibirsk?" Lissa asked, Alex paused,
"My Russian?" He groaned, "I did it again didn't I." He commented to Ben,
"Yep," The older man was grinning like a cat, "And you were right, they did find you."
"Four months, and I was still there this morning." Alex replied to Lissa,
"Oh," She winced, "Jet lag?"
"Like you wouldn't believe." Alex confirmed,
"Alex!" Sergei didn't like being ignored. Alex turned back to him and the babbling commenced once again.
"So, he speaks Russian then." Zara stated to Ben,
"Yeah, fluent for two years now, the last four months he has been in Russia so his English is.. a little rusty to say the least, he'll be back speaking cockney in not time, posh cockney though." Ben added,
"You can get posh cockney?" Rat snorted,
"Yes." Ben smirked watching the small boy talk and Alex only putting in chuckles and nodding when the small boy began to wonder if he was concentrating.
"Why isn't my accent like that? Why can't I speak that fast?" James bemoaned. "I can barely understand it."
"I can, just." Lauren commented trying to make her brother feel better.
"How do they know each other?" Lauren asked, Zara was looking at the trio in shock,
"They were in the influx, Alex isn't... is he?" Zara asked,
"The mystery MI6 agent, yes, how do you think he knows so much about this? He heard the horrors of basic from Lissa and all about life here from both of them," Ben shrugged as a whistle blew,
"Come on you. Let's get you back to school." Alex told Sergei heading towards the building,
"Shit, I need to get to Maths." Lissa gasped, "See you around." She ran off, the four teens and two adults followed the teen and child to the classrooms still in shock.
Six hours later Zara's car pulled up in the cherub car park and turned the engine off, she glanced across to see Ben dozing next to her, a glance back showed her an exhausted Alex and four teens talking quietly, Lauren and Alex were in a heated debate about the pros and cons of St Petersburg, Kerry, Rat and James were simply discussing the football match they had seen last weekend.
"Hey." Zara shook Ben whose eyes slowly opened,
"Sorry." He yawned, "I'm out of it." He apologised,
"No problem, Alex looks like he's about to drop." Zara commented, Ben glanced back with a wry smile on his face,
"He won't look much better in the morning if he sleeps with James." He murmured, thankfully Alex was too deep in the debate to hear.
"Why?" Zara asked, Ben gestured they should get out the car,
"Alex won't appreciate me telling you but you should know if you are to work with him, Alex doesn't trust easily." Ben murmured,
"He trusts you, I can see that." Zara commented,
"Yeah, I've known him two years and he only fully trusted me recently. He has good reason, but if he flinches or looks like he doesn't want to trust you, don't take it personally." Ben told her,
"I won't, why would he flinch?"
"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to." Ben replied running a hand through his hair, "I need to sleep, been on my feet since five this morning, Al has been since one and his body is telling him its five in the morning."
"I forgot, sorry, I wouldn't have stayed out till ten if I had remembered." Zara gasped, suddenly very guilty,
"It's fine. Don't sweat it." Ben reassured her, he knocked on the window of the car, "Come on, you need to grab your stuff from my room Al." The teens slid out the car conversations not stopping they headed back to the dorms then split, Ben gently guiding Alex to the room,
"James." Zara called, the teen turned," Don't worry if Alex doesn't make it to your room tonight, I think when he sees a bed he'll crash. He's been awake since one and with jet lag he thinks its five in the morning." Zara relayed what Ben had told her,
"Ouch, cool." James winced then jogged after his friends and sister.
"Alex." Ben leant against the door and crossed his arms glaring at his ward,
"Yes." Alex went to grab his bag,
"When was the last time you slept?"
"This morning." Alex mumbled,
"Slept for longer than three hours." Ben rephrased his question, Alex glared at Ben. He glared right back, a few minutes later Alex's will crumbled,
"I don't know." Alex rubbed his neck, "Two, three weeks." He muttered,
"What happened?" Ben asked, Alex perched on the edge of the bed and shut his eyes,
"Please Ben, not now." The adult hesitated then nodded,
"Bed, now."
"I would, but you're in front of the door."
"You know as well as I what happens on your first night after a mission, you aren't going anywhere." Ben corrected.
"Alexander Jonathan Rider, the spy. You know what happens with people who are captured, don't you. You know when the CIA sent you in to infiltrate us I doubt they expected this to happen. You are going to be subjected to the thing you tried your best to prevent. Alex, welcome to the world of child prostitution." His hands were tied above his head and he was stripped, he writhed and screamed his sense of dignity and decorum and pride long gone, two men held him down as a third walked in,
"Hello." The man slowly started stripping ignoring all screams and tears, he learned at the blonde teen who had unveiled fear in his eyes, the hands holding his down grew stronger as his struggles grew more and more desperate, it wasn't enough-
"Alex!" Arms were around him, suffocating him, he struggled, "Alex, its me, Ben." That voice was familiar, slowly his struggles weakened, "Hey, shh." He relaxed as slowly his tears lessened and heart stopped trying to beat its way out of his chest, the hand running through his hair calmed him,
"Sorry." Alex choked out,
"Alexander, what have I always told you. You don't need to apologise, it's not your fault." Slowly Alex sat up hugging his knees to his chest, his top and trousers were soaked with sweat,
"What was it?" Ben asked, the blonde was pale and shivering, "Are you OK?" Alex wasn't normally this bad, slowly Alex nodded, Ben raised an eyebrow but before he could repeat the question Alex was off the bed and rushing to the bathroom, Ben raced after him worried. Alex was kneeling over the toilet throwing up, Ben knelt next to him and held him up, brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"Sorry." Alex repeated,
"Alex." Ben's voice held a warning, he tried to be grumpy but seeing Alex leaning against the bathtub, white as a sheet, shivering and coated in a thin sheen of sweat his anger crumpled, "Come on, shower, now." Ben started the shower then left Alex to it. Ben was now really worried, something had happened in Russia that had made his usual nightmares worse. He had had them ever since the CIA's last mission. But he had never thrown up before. He glanced at the clock, it was only midnight, if he was lucky the Scott would still be awake, he grabbed his phone and dialled the number,
"Snake, sorry about the time but I'm worried about Alex. Really worried about Cub."
That didn't go where I wanted it to but...
His testing is next, any ideas on tests? Please Review!