"What was that?" Eagle asked both happily and a little afraid. "We can't just leave."
"Really, watch us then." Cub growled back as they walked in the dark back to their cabin.
"That's why you didn't want me doing a medical on you isn't it?" Snake said as he realized it. "What happened to you?"
"That's not your business. You're my unit, not my family. You will do well to remember that." His voice was back to it's emptiness and they weren't sure if it was worse than the cold emotion he displayed earlier. He slammed open the door to their hut and stopped mid step.
Inside was another soldier who looked up in surprise. "I guess they were right that you'd come back sooner than expected." The only thought that crossed Cub's mind was who were 'they'? The soldier continued. "Sergeant wants you in his office." he walked out the door before pausing and looking at the youngest member of the team. "I'd put a shirt on if I were you."
Cub did as he was told and they all changed into new uniforms before racing off to the sergeant. It was better to not keep him waiting.
"k -unit"
"Sir!" They all shouted in sinc, standing to attention despite the pain it caused their bodies from their previous beatings.
"At ease, soldiers." They relaxed their stances. "We have a visitor who wants to talk with you." even as he said it the door in the back of the room opened and a woman entered the room. She was wearing a grey suit and sucking a peppermint, the smell following her into the room. The unit frowned as they realized it was Mrs. Jones. Cub glared and the woman only nodded to him.
"Alex. Is that anyway to treat me? I'm your employer. We've been over this." She frowned at the disrespect but turned back to the unit anyway. "As you know. You are one of the best units in the SAS and we need your specialties. You will provide backup for Agent Rider as he goes undercover to.."
"No." Cub's voice was quiet but defiant. He turned to the sergeant. "Permission to be blunt sir."
"Permission granted soldier."
"Heck to the no Tulip." Mrs. Jones frowned at the use of her first name. "I'm not going on another mission for you. I will never go on another mission for you. I have nothing left because of you and you have nothing left to get me to work for you. My mother is dead because of you. An innocent life lost because of your lack of protection. My father is dead because of you. You gave him enemies and he was killed by his best friend and my god father. My uncle killed because of a stupid mission you sent him and then me on. And Jack." His voice cracked for a moment before it came back harder, angeryer, sharper as if he was trying to take her apart piece by piece. Trying and succeeding. "And you got Jack killed." Ben frowned and the sergeant held back tears at learning just how much the boy in front of him had lost. But he didn't cry, it wouldn't be very sergeant like of him to do. "I had to watch as Jack, she was like a sister to me. Was blown to smithereens by someone who looked exactly like me. All because you had to send me to Egypt."
"I understand you've lost a lot Alex but,"
"Don't you dare but me Ms. Jones. Anything I can do can be done by someone else. Someone who is paid to do it, trained to do it, and has the proper ability to do it. The world was fine before my missions and it will be still." he took a breath and was interrupted.
"Tom"
"Excuse me." Cub growled and everyone flinched at his voice.
"Tom Harris." Ms. Jones had the sense to look a little scared
"What about him?"
She seemed to gain her confidence back as she continued, her voice now as empty as Cub's normally was. "Tom Harris. He's your friend and had parents going through a divorse. Drunk dad and a mom who's always fighting, it did get quite violent. He's currently in Italy right now, correct? It would be such a shame if Jerry's bank was suddenly empty, his house taken, his cards cancelled, his job gone. Tom would have to go back to his parents, they both would. That wouldn't be good, would it? Or if Jerry happened to get in a car crash? That would be even worse." K-unit and the sergeant felt sick, they were blackmailing the boy. "Sabina Pleasure." Alex growled."Beautiful girl Alex. Her father is a journalist isn't he? He's gotten in trouble before with his stories, when you were in France is an example. I can see the headlines already. 'Journalist killed in house fire, wife overdoses on antidepressants' it would be perfect. Sabina alone and sent to an orphanage, her happy life ruined. She would want to move in with her boyfriend. But wait. He's in the army right now, isn't he?" She smiled and Alex glared. "The only thing he has now is what's in his cabin, everything else sold by the bank. Of course she would hate you after she learned that it was all your fault that her parents are dead. I'd say your last two relationships are done for Alex." She set a folder on the sergeants table. "Think about it. I want an answer by tomorrow." She started walking out the door but was stopped by Alex's words.
"What am I?" He sounded honestly curious.
"Parden?" She turned back around and everyone watched the teen.
"I want to hear what you say because I think you've forgotten. What. Am. I." He paused after each word to punctuate his question.
"You're an agent." She responded but seemed unconvinced by her own answer.
"Wrong. I'm many things but an agent isn't one of them. I'm a teenager, 17 years old. I'm a survivor. I've lived through everything that the world has thrown my way. I'm a liar, twisting and hiding the truth is my specialty. I'm a spy, not always for you and not willingly. But above all I'm a Rider. Alex Rider, son of John Rider and nephew to Ian Rider. If there is one thing that a Rider is, it's dangerous."
"So?"
"So?" Alex scoffed. "Do you remember when I was 14 and on air force one?" she nodded and the others just stared at him, trying to figure out where this was going. "Do you remember that as Yassen Gregorvich died in my arms I decided to listen to his advice and go to Venice?" another nod, "Remember my first mission?" another nod. "What was it?"
"To kill me." Ms. Jones was pale and it was then that k-unit knew where this was going.
"Exactly. So, what's the difference between now and when I stood in your living room with a gun pointed at you?"
"There is no glass now." She was frozen in her spot, fear flickering in her eyes.
"There is no glass now, yes. But that's not what I meant. Three years ago I had a gun pointed at your skull. But as you know when I fired the gun, I moved it so even if there was no glass it wouldn't have hit you." His unit relaxed a little at this new information. "However, I can't promise that will happen again. You see, I was a fourteen year old who was angry, scared, and didn't really want to kill you. You would have been my first intentional kill. Now, I say it's the same. I'm not angry, I'm furious. I'm not scared and I really do want to kill you. And because of you, you wouldn't be my first kill. You really should have realized something like this would happen if you had me assassinate people." Ms. Jones was shaking just the tiniest bit. "So leave with this knowledge Ms. Jones. I will not do this mission, my unit will not do this mission. I don't care what it is, I will never do another mission for you, ever. If you lay a finger on Tom, Sabina, or their families. The next bullet I fire will leave a nice little whole between your eyes. Alan Blunt will follow right after." Alex smiled, and it was the most terrifying thing any of them had ever seen.
"Alex." Ms. Jones' voice was sacred, sad, but sincere. "We never meant to do this to you. I promise we will never contact you again. I'm sorry." She hesitated to move.
"Get out." he bit out through clenched teeth. She did as she was told and the door shut with a click. Alex pivoted back to face the sergeant, his face once again a blank mask.
"Cub."
"Yes sir."
"What happened to the boy that came here three years ago?"
"He grew up sir. He learned that the world isn't all rabbits and rainbows." there was no response to his reply. "May we go sir?"
"Yes. You have the day off tomorrow," He looked at his watch, "I guess today off to heal and recuperate from RTI. Dismissed." The five soldiers saluted before walking back to the cabin they called home. Four of the five staring holes into the back of the fifth.
For the second time that night, Cub slammed open the cabin door. He slipped off his shoes and was about to sit down when he was pulled into a hug. He instinctively flinched as his body came into contact with another but he relaxed as he realized it was just Ben.
"I'm sorry about Jack, Alex." The boy flinched again as he heard her name. "If you ever need to talk I'm here alright, about any of it." Truth be told, Ben wasn't sure that he wanted to know all that Alex had been through but he would be there if he needed to talk to someone. He let the boy go and got in his own bed. Snake flicked off the lights as he was the one closest to the light.
"So, you have a girlfriend Cub. Is she cute?" Eagle asked into the silence.
"Shut up Eagle!" Alex yelled, his face burning red. They fell back into silence that was once again, quickly broken.
"We're talking about what happened tonight night in the morning. Just so you know you're not getting out of it Cub." Wolf mumbled, into a somehow friendly silence.
"Why not know?" Eagle asked, he wanted to know as much as possible as soon as possible.
"Too tired" was his only response.
Unfortunately, that night they didn't get much sleep. They were awoken by mumblings followed by a muffled scream early into the night. Snake was the first one up and was about to wake their youngest member from the nightmare when he was stopped by Fox.
"Don't touch him!" Snake froze immediately, asking with his eyes why not. The rest of the unit got up and circled around their friend who was screaming with a hand over his mouth, quieting the sound. "Don't ever touch Cub when he's sleeping. He's a spy and tends to get a kind of 6th sense. His is very strong, if someone wakes him up he immediately attacks them. The first time I woke him up I ended up on the floor, losing consciousness before I realized what happened. He does it automatically and does it before he even fully wakes up. If we wake him up he'll try to hide his nightmare from us and this leads to him not sleeping for days on end. The first time that happened he only slept when I told him that if he wasn't I wasn't. Don't wake him up. Ever. He needs to sleep even if it's spent in fear."
The rest of the night was spent around the table, listening silently as their friend cried, screamed, and pleaded for people not to die. Names where yelled and sentenced mumbled in absolute terror. Snake and Eagle had tears running down their faces as they listened to Cub say over and over that it was his fault, they didn't know what he was seeing but it wasn't good. Wolf sat in silence, praying to no one that it would stop so that the poor boy could sleep peacefully. And Ben just sat there, waiting for it to end. It was easy to say that they had a long night.
Sorry that this is a shorter chapter, I'm struggling with writing right now so sorry if it's taking longer to put things up or if the quality is lowering. Happy, late Forth of July!!! If you're not American than happy random day of a random month!!!)
- AOP