DISCLAIMER: Do I look like an older British dude? I thought not. No, of course I don't own Alex Rider...honestly, it's perfectly obvious.
Soon after arriving, Fox got called into the Sargent's office for the third time in the last 24 hours. He didn't like the thought of leaving Alex alone for even a minute but he had no choice. Besides, the unit would probably still be in the cabin, with the knowledge that their newest team member would be arriving soon.
"Sir." He clicked his heels together, saluting. The sound of the AC was disturbingly loud.
"Fox. It seems that Blunt has retired." The Sargent's voice was tired, but Fox barely registered it.
Blunt.
Had.
Retired.
"What?" He finally managed to get out.
"Why don't you have a seat, soldier." The Sargent gestured to a nearby chair.
Fox collapsed into it. His shock must have been written across his features because the Sargent's voice softened marginally.
"Mrs. Jones has taken over. She wants Alex, or Cub," Here he gave Fox a knowing look, "taken to another safe house as soon as possible. Her excuse is that this place hasn't had a background check in months and there is a possibility that Scorpia might have infiltrated it. In which case..."
"Alex could be in danger." Fox finished for him, the pieces finally falling into place.
"Yes. K-Unit has already been informed, but I wanted to tell your personally that I-"
His voice was cut off by gunshots. Shouts and running feet sounded from outside.
"Alex." They both said, standing up and rushing out the door, guns at the ready.
******************************
Alex slowly walked under the hot sun, towards the barracks, towards his new home. For that was what it was. What it would have to become. No matter how much he didn't want it, it was what was and he needed to learn to just accept it.
For once, it wasn't muddy and pouring. In fact, little clouds of dust followed the teen spy, his head held high and proud. Several of the soldiers, leaving their classes and heading to lunch, stared and whispered amongst themselves, curious as to why there was a teenager in their midst.
Alex ignored them, walking with a lethal grace, the silence of a spy surrounding his form. But although he could ignore their pointed looks, he couldn't block out their voices.
"What's he doing here?"
"He can't be much older than sixteen."
"Is he lost?"
"Are visitors even allowed?"
"Hey, kid!"
Alex's hand tightened imperceptibly on his bag, although he kept up his relaxed stance. He kept walking.
"Kid. I'm talking to you!" Someone reached out and grabbed his elbow. He twisted around, dropping the bag, and slamming his elbow into the man's arm, breaking the hold, before sweeping the man's legs out from under him. It happened in less than five seconds, and before he knew it, the man was on the ground, breathing heavily, staring at Alex with barely disguised shock. Alex felt no remorse. The man should have known better than to surprise Alex. Surely, they'd heard the rumor about MI6 top agent. He'd made sure of that. Maybe they were new? Or maybe they didn't know that it was him? Either way, they at least should know not to surprise people, especially ones who want to be left alone (and it's painfully obvious).
Some of the man's friends, probably his unit, came and helped him back up, sending wary looks Alex's way.
And that's when Alex felt it. He'd been on edge ever since he'd left the security of his own room, but this was different. His senses were suddenly screaming danger. He began to scan the buildings, searching for the threat. His hand twitched, adrenaline racing through his veins.
The SAS member frowned, and spoke, reaching out tentatively. "You ok, kid?"
Alex held up his hand for silence.
One of the man's team-mates spoke. "Hawk. Look at his stance. Something's wrong."
Hawk turned back toward Alex. "What's going..." He slowly trailed off as Alex pulled the gun from his belt, unconsciously stepping in front of the SAS member.
"Kid? What's going on?"
"Snipers." Alex said flatly, flashing his MI6 badge in their faces, his eyes still scanning the rooftops. The assassins had to be somewhere.
The man cursed, his mates slowly drawing out their guns.
"How did you know?" He asked Alex softly, beginning to look around with critical eyes as well.
"Let's just say, I know when someone is trying to kill me."
One of them spoke into a comm, effectively cutting off their conversation. "Tiger, snipers, unknown number. F-Unit trapped in square with underage teen. Send back-up. We've been compromised. Alert the Sargent." They formed a ring around Alex, more SAS soldiers spilling out onto the open ground.
"We're going to have a talk about this later, kiddo." Hawk said, giving Alex a stern look.
"I'm not a kid and you have to leave. They're here for me." Alex said, determinedly. His pulse was racing, the sense of danger causing actual pain.
The man frowned, and opened his mouth to speak, shoving Alex behind him. "No way, kid. This is dangerous. Help is on the way. Stay behind me."
There. A flash of silver. On the roof of the mess hall. Alex quickly aimed and fired, but not before the other assassin pulled the trigger. The shots echoed in the completely still clearing, not completely masking the sickening thunk sound of the enemy bullet entering a body. Alex blinked, his vision swimming, letting out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Why was everything so quiet? He looked around. SAS members were running everywhere, toward him, away from him, firing at black figures on rooftops. Everything was silent. Why couldn't he hear? He should be able to hear. He turned to face Hawk, a question on his lips, but the soldier's face was white and he was staring at Alex's chest.
Alex looked down. Red was swiftly covering his white t-shirt, leaking out of a clean bullet hole in his abdomen. He raised a shaking hand to his stomach. Wait, shaking ? Alex looked back up at the soldier, and the pain finally hit him. He groaned, and his legs gave out, strong arms catching him. Hawk caught him in his arms and was gently lowering him to the dusty ground. The man's mouth was moving swiftly, his eyes hard and worried. Alex's head lolled to the side, all and any energy seeping out of him along with his warm, red blood.
His blood. There was lots of it. He could feel it pooling beneath him. Boots thumped toward him, and someone's hands pressed down on Alex's bullet wound. He gasped, his vision going white with pain.
A loud, gurgling sound reached his ears, as he struggled to breath. Why couldn't he breath? Why couldn't he feel? Darkness pressed on the edges of his vision, dragging him down with false promises of peace, of a world without pain. Sounds wafted in and out of range.
The last thing he saw were Fox's panicked features, mouthing words to Alex.
"Stay with me, buddy."
******************************
"How long do you think Fox will be gone?" It was Eagle who asked.
"I don't know. Probably more than a couple of hours." Snake replied, not looking up from his playing cards.
"But he's been gone forever already!" The sniper whined.
Snake rolled his eyes and continued with the card game. He had a sneaking suspicion that Eagle was cheating.
"What do you think of this whole mission?" Falcon asked from his bunk, a frown on his face.
"What is there to think about it? It's a mission. Nothing else." Wolf grouched.
"You don't think it's strange? What kind of messed-up brain does this agent have that would warrant a SAS babysitting crew?" Falcon pressed.
"A pretty bad one, I'd say." Snake said flatly.
"No duh, Sherlock. We didn't even get a file about him or anything. It's all 'classified'." Falcon snarked. He was visibly wound up about something.
"Look. It's obvious that this...agent...is in a heap lot of trouble, but so are we if we can't get our act together." Wolf said quietly. "It's painfully clear that Fox's arrival has made a fissure in our relationship as a team."
Eagle put down his cards, placing his face in his hands. Snake watched him worriedly.
"But we need to keep moving on. He won't be here forever. Besides, he left and that was his decision. We've got Falcon now. We don't need Fox anymore." Wolf's voice cracked at the end. He clearly missed Fox's decisive actions and hilarious temperament as much as anyone else, despite what he was trying to say.
Snake swallowed. "He's right you know." The others looked at him in astonishment, including Wolf. "We keep living like Fox is just going to pop his head in someday and say that he's back for good. But we all know that that's not going to happen. He's gone. For good." He swallowed around the lump in his throat and tried to ignore the tears in Eagle's eyes. "And I know it hurts. But we can't let his return compromise this team and, inadvertently, this mission."
The team sat in silence, caught up in their thoughts.
Wolf spoke. "He always did have a way of making us bloody uncomfortable."
Eagle and Snake erupted into laughter. It sounded hysterical, but it felt good. Even Falcon had a smile on his face, although he had no idea what they were talking about. Because of the laughter, they didn't hear the calls from outside.
But they did hear the gunfire.
The reaction was immediate, just like they'd been trained to do.
Snake jumped up, knocking his chair over, dashing out the door, his gun out and at the ready, the safety flicked off. He felt the others at his side, as they stepped out onto the battleground that was Brecon Beacons.
Battleground was a good description for it. Soldiers were hunched behind random vehicles, behind trees, dodging bullets, firing back at the snipers oh-so-cleverly hidden on the rooftops. How had they gotten there? Was this just another super-strange exercise?
But his attention was drawn to a huddle in the middle of the area, out in the open, with no cover. There was someone on the ground. They were bleeding. Snake rushed over. Hawk was a medic in training, not a qualified, battle-worn one. He'd need help.
The person was choking on their own blood. Vaguely, he saw the Sargent and Fox running over. It was then he realized whose wound he was compressing.
Cub's.
Snake let loose a string of expletives, his fury rising up. The boy beneath him, stared at nothing, his eyes clouded over with pain, struggling to simply breath.
"He's going into shock. And he's going to suffocate if he doesn't get an oxygen mask. " Snake said roughly. Fox appeared at his shoulder, brushing Cub's darkening blonde hair out of his face, attaching the much-needed mask gently, as if he was close with this mysterious boy.
"Stay with me, buddy."
Cub's eyes fluttered closed. Fox felt for a heartbeat.
"It's faint, but there."
"Stretcher!" Snake yelled over his shoulder. The battle was dying down, but there were wounded all around him. They'd been picked off like turkey.
"Attend to the other wounded, soldier. I'll take over from here." It was the Sargent. Behind men with a stretcher stood waiting. Snake nodded, moving out of the way, and watching as they lifted the unconscious teen onto the stretcher, his clothes stained with the blood that had sunk into the dry ground. Hunching down they carried him into the infirmary block, where the trained doctors would be waiting. He was going to be fine.
Turning to the other soldiers, sporting wounds also, Snake worked on auto-pilot, not really realizing what he was doing. The shock from seeing Cub again, bleeding out on the ground, was finally taking over.
Was this why they had been attacked? Was Cub really some rich man's son? What was the boy's real name? That bullet wound must have killed, and yet the boy hadn't ever screamed. Of course, he had been drowning in his own blood, but still.
Was this... was this the agent? Was Cub... Alex?
Snake shook his head roughly, as if to clear his thoughts. Impossible. Alex Rider was not a boy. Anyone with bad enough PTSD to warrant a SAS crew to keep an eye out, would have to be a least in their thirties. It could never be Cub. This was ridiculous.
But something in his brain, told him it wasn't, that he was right, why else would Cub have suddenly reappeared, with Fox having come back as well? If Cub wasn't Alex, where was Alex?
Either way, Snake was going to have a few choice words with Fox.
*****************************
"This is the last time this will happen, Mrs. Jones. I cannot have you compromising the security of my camp."
"Sargent Wilson. You were unprepared through no fault of mine."
"We were unprepared because we never expected it to happen. This is supposed to be one of the most secure places on the planet."
"So update your security."
The man resisted the urge to growl. "With all due respect, ma'am, I have eleven wounded soldiers under my command because of a lack of information. A lack of information concerning one of the most dangerous men in the world, who just so happens to be under eighteen and employed by you. What ever gave you the idea that it would be fun to turn a fifteen year old kid into a spy, send him to a SAS training camp filled with men who would take that as a personal insult, send him on dangerous missions to the point where he is being hunted by the most infamous terrorist organization in the world, and then not tell me about it?" His voice was dangerously soft. "It is my duty, to my men, to their families, and to my country, to know everything about the men serving under me, so that when the time comes, I can best protect them. It builds trust. You are decimating that trust by having that boy here. I want him gone and I want your assurance that you will never, never employ an under-aged teen again."
"You have my word." Mrs. Jones sounded weary. But Sargent Wilson was still livid.
"I want you to know, Mrs. Jones, that just because you run MI6, doesn't mean you're safe. My eye will constantly be on that child, making sure that he is protected, making sure he has back-up, a place to go if he needs it." He knew better than to make Alex quit. Once you started, there was no turning back. Oh, the life of a spy. Alex would never be able to quit. The rush of adrenaline, the knowledge that you just saved a life, he would never be able to leave that behind. It was like a drug. "He won't be able to quit. You know that, don't you."
It wasn't really a question. But she answered anyway. "David. I'd change everything if I could. But I can't. The only thing that's left for me to do is make sure that no-one is ever hurt like this again. I wish I'd had the back-bone to see what Blunt was doing in the first place."
Sargent Wilson hung his head, still holding the phone to his ear. "One last piece of advice, Mrs. Jones. Don't ever underestimate loyalty. Family doesn't always mean blood. He was, is, one of my soldiers. If I see him being abused, I will take my vengeance. You have been warned. "
Click.
There you are. Chapter three. I hope you aren't disappointed, because I had a ton of fun writing this chappie, although there were a few times where I was just like "... ... ... ... I don't know how to phrase this..." I'm super excited with where this is going, and in case you haven't noticed, I try to update every Thursday! Hope you enjoyed!
Don't forget to vote or leave a comment, because, heck, comments are always wanted.
Over and out,
AgentAlexxRider101
"For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah." - Psalm 61:3-4