/AN/ Hello again and sorry again for the wait- once again I made the horrible decision of starting a story with no real ideas for an actual plot, so it took me a while to summon the will to keep writing. Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter! All of them are highly appreciated and kept in a gold frame in my mind :) . Anyway, at last here is a new chapter (the formatting at the end went weird and I'm not sure what happened so sorry if that causes and inconvenience, also if you see any horrible errors please do let me know) thanks for reading!/AN/
The rest of Smithers' presentation finished without any more problems or interruptions. However, the brief eye contact Alex made with him as he squeezed through the door on his way out promised painful revenge for his public humiliation at the hands of the teen.
A few minutes after Smithers left, the kids in the hall were let out for a small break before the next talk which was to be given by representatives from a different department. Alex was slightly disappointed that he had arrived too late to hear Smithers talk about the technology department, because for all the times he had talked to the man and received gadgets, he actually knew very little of how the department worked. They seemed even more secretive than the field workers. He was definitely going to ask Tom about what had been said although with his luck, Tom would have slept through most of it.
As the students filed out of the room, Alex stuck close to Tom in an attempt to use his small best friend as cover from the furious gaze of Mr Jackson who was obviously searching for him among the sea of teenagers. Luckily Alex managed to slip outside before the teacher found him and proceeded to yell at him for being rude to Smithers (and his earlier performance of sliding in through the window). Once outside, Alex immediately began to search for the fat man. His presence here obviously meant something; if MI6 didn't want him to contact Smithers he wouldn't have been here today and Alex would still be unsure whether the man was alive.
A quick glance around the courtyard told Alex that the man was nowhere in the immediate vicinity. He was about to take off down the path that led to main gates when he suddenly remembered something. Perhaps…? Alex's eyes were once again searching, frantically scanning the face of every person in the courtyard. He was about to give up when he noticed the mischievous blue eyes and short brown hair, standing unassumingly just outside the gate. He seemed to be taking a call but Alex knew better than that.
Gently nudging Tom, Alex mumbled out, "Five minutes, I need to check something out."
"Oh no you don't Rider, not again! Do you have any idea how worried I was when you weren't on that bus today? It was like that time when you ran off at that mutant garden centre, or in Italy! Both times you barely came back alive! Nope, I am not letting you out of my sight again during this trip." The smaller boy crossed his arms and nodded as if he'd said something Alex could never argue with.
Pulling his hand through his hair in annoyance, Alex tried to reason with Tom, "Look. I'm literally going to be about five minutes and you will be able to see me the entire time." He jerked his thumb in the general direction of Smithers. "I just have to go talk to someone. It's kinda important."
Tom looked torn. Alex sighed.
"You can come with me if you don't make a scene." He offered.
At that, Tom's face brightened and broke out into a grin.
Alex led the way over to where Smithers stood, glad that the other students were milling around as well. Technically they were allowed to leave as long as they came back in time for the next talk, but Alex was always over-cautious, especially since he didn't want to be interrupted by Mr Jackson. He casually sidled up next to the man in black jeans and a loose, informal shirt and waited for a moment, hoping that Smithers would be the one to start the conversation. Thirty seconds of awkward silence stretched out between them and Alex began to worry that maybe this wasn't Smithers, that his mind was just playing tricks on him. After all, it had been over a year since he'd seen him for the first time without his fat suit.
"Smithers..?" Alex ventured. He cast a glance at Tom who seemed thoroughly confused.
Suddenly the man looked up from his phone, as if noticing Alex for the first time. He hastily took out some almost invisible ear phones and turned slightly sheepishly towards the boy.
"Alex!" Smithers adopted his Irish accent, "Dear me, I should really be more careful. I barely noticed you there. Mind you, these new ear phones I've been developing are marvellous! A new take on an old design. You remember those sunglasses I gave you for Egypt for listening to people's phones? Well, these work similarly but with a few new features."
Alex flinched slightly at the sudden mention of such a sore subject, but found himself intrigued nonetheless.
"Unfortunately, that's all classified and since you're not working in the field with these I can't tell you what those new features are." Smithers chuckled at Alex's disappointed face. "Aw don't give me that face, you know I'm just messing with you." He laughed and clapped his hand down on Alex's shoulder in a friendly but firm pat. Alex exhaled sharply in what could have been mistaken for a short laugh, as his ribs, which were still very much broken, protested against the sudden pressure. A small black spot appeared in his vision for a moment and danced around Smithers' face before slowly fading away. Smithers seemed not to notice.
"How are you anyway, old chap? That was a fine entrance if ever I've seen one back there."
Alex cringed. "Uh, the bus managed to leave me behind during a sick stop, and no it wasn't me who threw up- I've been to space you know, and I had to find my own way here. But Smithers, as much as catching up is nice, I really need to ask you, why are you here?"
"I was telling these fine kids," he motioned to Tom who was paying no attention to them and playing on his phone, "about the work we do down in I.T." Alex huffed and rolled his eyes.
"No, I mean why are you here, now?" He lowered his voice to avoid drawing unwanted attention, "MI6 obviously didn't want us to make contact until now. Why? I almost thought they'd forgotten about me." He laughed humourlessly.
"Alex…ah, I wish I didn't have to be the one to tell you this…"
"Oh hell no. If you say what I think you're about to say then we are going to have some serious problems."
"Alex. I -"
"Nope."
"MI6 is-"
"Wait."
"What?"
Alex leant in to whisper in mock-horror, "You're not becoming my new guardian are you?"
Smithers opened his mouth, then frowned and closed it again. He took a moment to stare incredulously at the young teen in front of him. He must have been staring for longer than he thought because Alex's smile faded and he looked concerned as he waved his hand in front of Smithers' face. Abruptly, he snorted and shook his head.
"Woah, I thought I'd lost you there, or worse that I was right."
"Why would you even think that in the first place?"
"When I first came back from America after Cairo, they tried to send me to live with Crawley. I managed to convince them that I could look after myself and they gave me my own flat. I found out a few weeks ago that there were cameras and bugs from MI6 in every room except the bathroom and when I disabled them three guys with guns came in because they thought I'd been attacked. I thought that maybe MI6 decided that I can't be trusted on my own anymore."
Smithers nodded sympathetically. "No, I'm afraid that's not the reason but I must say, living with me wouldn't be that bad compared to some others they could put you with. I don't know why you seemed so horrified…but we're getting off topic. Alex, I'm afraid MI6 need you again."
"Big fucking surprise."
"Well that wasn't quite the response I was expecting."
Alex looked at Tom who was still doing a pretty good job at looking as if he couldn't care less about their conversation whilst still listening intently. He looked back to Smithers and shrugged. "I was expecting it. They haven't contacted me in over a year with anything other than housing arrangements. That doesn't mean I'm okay with this though, I was rather enjoying normal life."
"Yes, well it seems MI6 need their small Bond back in action, although this mission doesn't seem that bad from what I've seen."
"That sounds familiar." Alex rolled his eyes.
"That's the spirit! Okay, I'll just give you a brief summary of what I've been told and then if you take the mission you'll receive a nice extensive file on everything you need to know."
"Yippee. I cannot contain myself."
Smithers quickly opened up an app on his phone and began reading. "Alright, so you have no choice and MI6 will take away your flat and make you live on the streets if you don't take the mission. All the usual."
"Jonesy really takes after Blunt with her threats doesn't she?"
Smithers nodded then continued, "You are also going to live in this city for the duration of the mission, hence why you're here now. I won't be able to stick around too long after you've settled in but I'm basically here to convince you're teachers that you need to leave early so that you don't have to go back to London with the school."
"Good luck with that. Mr Jackson hates me to the core. I think he actually dreams about killing me. You should really get `6 to police check him again. Someday he'll turn feral."
"I can have that arranged. Now, I can't really tell you too much more until you agree to take the mission and that includes your friend who I'm pretty sure has been listening to us from the beginning." He motioned to Tom who looked over angelically as if he'd only just noticed them.
"He has. Tom's my babysitter you see. He makes sure I don't die when I go out in public."
"That's right!" Tom piped up from behind Alex. He strode over and slung an arm over Alex's shoulders, causing him to have to laugh and force a smile through the unwanted tears of pain that poked the back of his eyes. He probably looked a bit crazy. "Don't worry, I can keep secrets. I've kept Alex's for nearly two years now."
"Sorry kid, but I'll lose my job and probably get sent to prison if I tell you Alex's mission. I've let you stick around up till now because I know you know about Alex but seriously, it wouldn't only be me that would get into deep shit if I told you. You'd probably get sent to juvie as well as becoming a target and Alex has some scary enemies. You'd best be heading off now. The next talk is going to start soon and you both probably want to be there. I just need to talk with Alex for a moment more." Alex had to admit, Smithers could be pretty intimidating when he wasn't in his fat suit and actually behaved like a professional operative. He wasn't surprised when Tom gulped then nodded and briskly walked away after shooting Alex a funny look.
"That was a bit harsh. The guy's my best friend." Alex felt his good mood slip a bit as he watched his last link to normalcy literally walk away from him. It's actually happening again. I'm going back.
"Yeah, sorry about that but I wasn't kidding. Sometimes the truth hurts. Also it was necessary." Smithers turned on the ball of his foot to face Alex again. "I'm assuming you'll take the mission?"
Alex shrugged. "It's not like I have a choice is it?"
"I'm afraid not son. Believe me, I feel pretty awful to have to be the one to make you do this."
"Strangely, if anyone other than you had said that, I most definitely would not believe them."
Smithers smiled sadly. "I don't blame you. Now, I wasn't expecting you to turn up with a friend so I don't have time to tell you the mission face to face right now." He took out his phone and began typing furiously. "I'm going to send you an email with a link to a secure website which has pdf files on your mission. I'll give you the password now so that you can access it as soon as possible because the link will expire in three days. If you have any questions I'll be around in the city for the next few days and make sure to call me before your class leaves so that I can have a custody battle with your teacher." He finished typing with a flourish and hit a button. A few seconds later Alex's phone buzzed in his pocket to alert him of a new email.
"Will do Sir." Alex sighed. He felt defeated. He couldn't remember the last time he had put up this little resistance to go on a mission.
Smithers put a hand on his shoulder again, more gently this time however. "I'll see you in a bit. You should probably go now if you don't want to be late again."
Alex nodded, still feeling thoroughly dejected at the thought of a new mission. "See ya." He mumbled, raising a hand as he started walking back to the hall with the last few stragglers. At the door to the hall he looked back to see Smithers sling a rucksack over his shoulders and board a motorcycle. That was one vehicle Alex would never have pictured Smithers using a year ago. Alex snorted to himself as a picture of Fat Suit Smithers popped into his head.
Inside the hall again, Alex quickly searched for Tom who had decided to sit in the front row for some reason. There was a spare seat next to him which Alex dramatically plonked himself into, suddenly feeling worn out. Whether it was due to the emotional stress of being thrust into the world of espionage again or the fact that he still had a bleeding wound in his arm and broken ribs, Alex wasn't sure, but right now all he wanted to do was rest.
"Why did you pick the front row? This is where the people who actually pay attention sit."
Tom huffed, clearly still annoyed at being threatened by Smithers. "I didn't choose to sit here. There were no seats left near the back when I arrived. Apparently someone told everyone that the next talk will have audience participation."
Alex groaned and slid down in the hard plastic chair. His ribs throbbed but he didn't really care. "Don't make eye contact and we should be fine." He muttered. A second later the projector above a white board flickered to life and Alex groaned again only louder and nearly slid off his chair and onto the floor. A sharp hiss of "Alex!" from the cluster of teachers to his left made him position his butt back on the chair, but he remained slumped forward. On the board was projected a typical army recruitment poster sporting the words: Join the army, Become a better you. Around the words were pictures meant to depict different branches of the army accompanied by some navy and RAF posters as well.
The entire image looked as if it was made for a school project on Microsoft PowerPoint but it seemed to create the desired effect among the teenagers. As soon as the word "army" appeared on the board, a ripple of interest made its way through the crowd. Alex knew that a large number of the boys in his school had their sights set on various posts in the army so he wasn't surprised that they were excited for this.
Alex nudged Tom, motioning to the slogan on the board. "That's what I was talking about on the coach." He snickered. Tom cracked a smile and Alex suddenly felt a bit better having patched up his relationship with his best friend with that small gesture. He understood Tom's frustration at being unable to help Alex when it came to MI6.
The heavy wooden door opened suddenly on the right of the hall and the children fell silent within the same second. Alex held his breath as the four representatives from the army walked in in a manner he could only describe as efficient. Calmly, he began cursing every higher power he could think of, saving special words for Mrs Jones who obviously thought it was funny to reunite Alex with his buddies from K-Unit whilst on a school trip.