Alex Rider: Luck of the Goddess

The Email, The Hope, and The Explanation

Spoilers for anything passed Scorpia Rising

One email had spiraled it all.

He wouldn't have came across Percy Jackson if he hadn't gotten the email.

He wouldn't have made a new ally if it hadn't unearthed a memory.

He wouldn't have found peace.

Alexx

I'm al

He had already written the letter. He read it one more time.

Dear Liz and Edward (and Sab), You've all been incredibly kind to me since I came to America. I don't know how to thank you for all you've done for me. You picked me up after everything that happened and took me into your family, and I don't know how I would have been able to go on if it hadn't been for you.

I know it hasn't been easy for you. I know I haven't managed to fit in the way I would have liked ... at home and at school. I really have tried. But I can't forget Egypt. I can't get it out of my head. Sometimes it's like I'm going mad. I'm sorry about that. And I'm also sorry about what I'm doing now.

Something has happened. Sabina will explain. I got an email and it's made me think that perhaps Razim managed to lie to me and that Jack may be alive after all. Maybe I'm wasting my time and causing you all this worry for nothing but I know I won't be able to sleep until I've found the truth. So by the time you read this I will have gone. Please, please don't send the police after me and whatever you do, don't tell Mrs Jones or anyone at MI6. Please don't try to follow me. I know what I'm doing. I'm fifteen now, and anyway, if you think about all the things that happened to me last year, I hope you'll agree that I can look after myself.

I don't think I'll be more than a couple of weeks. Can you tell them at school that I'm sick? And apologize to Mrs Stevens that my essay on conscious life was so rubbish? I promise you that I will text and email to let you know I'm OK.

Thank you again. I'm sorry.

With love, Alex

Alex had debated for several minutes if he needed to add demigod stuff in there, but he really didn't want the Pleasure's heads to explode. He'd already changed their lives enough as it was.

He propped the letter up on the kitchen table. He had already packed his backpack, taking just a few clothes and his laptop, before Sabina and her mother had left. He had his passport and he had five hundred dollars which he'd taken from his savings, money that had come to him when his uncle, Ian Rider, had died. He had a stash of Drachmas in case something godly happened, which didn't seem likely. The gods didn't like to get involved in Alex's spy things, apparently. Alex also had a debit card that was tied to an account controlled by Edward Pleasure. It was his own money that he would be using and unless Edward blocked the account, he would be able to support himself while he was away. He had already used the card to buy a ticket online.

The taxi arrived ten minutes later. Alex left the house, locking the front door behind him and posting through the keys. He threw his backpack into the back seat and was about to get in when he noticed something on the other side of the street. Three boys. One of them dark and thickset. The other taller and more muscular. Colin Maguire and Clayton Miller. The third boy was very small, about ten years old. He was holding an ice cream. He looked scared.

Alex went round to the driver. "Do you mind waiting a moment?" he asked.

"Sure." The driver was young, Chinese American. "Take as long as you like. The meter's running!" Alex straightened up, then crossed the road. The Taxi could wait. The Gray Sisters weren't the best option, but they'd do it a pinch.