Prompt: Self-preservation: the first law of intelligence

Alex sighed as he walked into the Royal and General Bank. He walked through the waiting room and into one of the elevators, thankfully catching one by himself. The last few and most recent calls he bothered to answer from Jones had sounded particularly stressed on him coming there and that it was not a mission. If it's not a mission, then what does she want, Alex thought as the elevator doors opened. He made his way down the hall and opened the door to Jones' office, without knocking of course. Mrs. Jones' eyes flickered to him and then back to the man speaking.

"Where is this agent of yours who's supposed to be here right now? Shouldn't he be punctual? God knows I am," the man stated.

"He is different than other agents, Michaels, and-"

"He is right behind you. What do you want Jones?" Alex asked cutting her off and sitting in the chair next to Michaels.

"This is the agent you want to take over training today? He is a child Jones. You might as well give it to a new agent."

"Alex is our best agent. He has a hundred percent success rate," Jones informed him. Agent Michaels looked doubtful. Alex sighed.

"Let me introduce myself. Agent Alex Rider," Alex said, sticking a hand out to shake the other agent's.

"Rider? As in-"

"John and Ian Rider," Alex confirmed. "Now you want me to take over training, Jones? You know I have refused multiple times, and why is he here?"

"Agent Michaels was supposed to do a field simulation training excercise today but yesterday, the trainees were practising throwing knives and one hit Michaels in the leg, patially severing a tendon. He came to me to find a substitute for today and I called you."

"No."

"Alex, do you have anything better to do?"

"No, but you know what they are going to say when they see me, Jones."

"Yes and I know that you love seeing those reactions," she shot back.

"Fine," Alex groaned.

"Agent Michaels will introduce you to the class."

"Nope, I'll introduce myself. You two are welcome to watch though," Alex said as he stood and left the room.

"Are you really going to let him go down there by himself?"

"Of course. I would take his offer of watching though. It is quite interesting," Jones told him, dismissing him.

Alex walked trough the open doors to find a group of adults clustered in a group talking amongst themselves.

"Should we just practise throwing knives or something?"

"You remeber what Agent Michaels said: No throwing knives without supervision, especially after yesterday."

"Should we just leave?"

"No what if the head checks in or somene else important?"

"Well it's not like there is a substitute or anything," one protested.

"Actually, there is," Alex cut in. The trainees turned to look at him disbeleif clear on their faces. "One of you partially severed a tendon in Agent Michaels leg yesterday, so I will be your substitute today." One of them laughed.

"That's funny kid. How do you know about this place? Where are your parents?"

"What's your name?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because I am going to help make sure you don't die," Alex replied, groaning internally. This was worst than the last batch of trainees Jons had him help train.

"It's Stefan," someone called out.

"Thank you. Now Stefan, how do you think I know about this place? I work here. As for your second question: It's none of your business."

"Who are you?"

"I am Agent Rider, now just a few notes from just meeting you, you need to learn to hide your emotions better. Disbelief covered all of your faces when I first walked in. Second of all, you need to learn to never underestimate anyone, then again, it has helped me a lot..." Alex shrugged, "Anyways, Can anyone tell me what the first law of intelligence is?" One of the trainees raised their hands. Alex called on them.

"Name?"

"Gwen. Is it don't be caught?"

"Nope, hopefully this exercise will teach you guys what it is. This law is what I like to call me specialty. Okay so now we're going to start your training exercise. You'll be doing a field simulation. I'll split you into four teams of three. Each team will go to a separate end of the "compound." Your goal is to get to the center and the innformation first, transfer the information to the flashdrive and get out first. I will be going between groups. Since we can't use actual guns, we will use paintall guns. You get hit, your down, lay down and don't move. Questions? No? Good."

With that Alex separated the trainees and gave each one a flashdrive before climbing to the top of a turret on the "compound."

"GO!"

Alex climbed down the wall and headed North towards Stefans group. Alex ducked into and alcove as he heard them coming. He watched them pass him before stepping out.

"You need to be quieter. I heard you coming which gave me time to hide. You'd be dead if this was real," Alex told them, smiling as they jumped, staring at him.

"Geez kid."

"You're going to need to take the next left, going straight leads to a dead end. Be careful, Gwen's group should be around that area as well."

Stefan nodded and took the next left leading his group, Alex followed to watch how this would play out. He watched as they took turns going around corners first. Good strategy for beginners, but it will get them killed in the field, Alex thought when he heard the fist shot fired. Alex climbed a wall to watch what happened. Gwen's group had found Stefan's first, Gwen had taken the first shot hitting Stefan in the arm before running through the other two, followed by the other two on her team. The other two one Stefan's team picked him up and looked up at Alex.

"It was just the arm, but you can't use it and one more hit your dead," Alex told them before disappearring to the other side of the wall, jumping down and landing silently. Alex stood and faced the next group he was going to tag onto.

"Again, control your facial expressions. You guys are open books," he greeted them. "Have you guys been walking back to back this entire time?"

"Yeah."

"No. That's no good. Where did MI6 get you guys? Either walk in a triangle formation or by yourselves," Alex instructed them as he heard another group coming by and stepped to the side.

"What are you doing?" one of them, asked. Alex shushed him as he pulled out his own paintball gun and shot a warning pellet which recieved a small yelp. Alex gave the group a look that clearly said get on with it, and left them to fend for themselves.

Andrew Michaels stood in the observation hall watching the training exercise. He watched as Alex scaled down the turret before ducking into the alcove, and the trainees startled jump.

"They'll need to work on that," he muttered to himself. Andrew moved to get a better view as Alex scaled and sat at the top of the wall before going over and landing in front of the next group.

"They all need to work on keeping emotions contained. Especially Robert," he noted. Alex pulled out his gun and shot, which bushed past Cameron's ear. How is his aim so good? Michaels wondered. He tracked Alex as he made his way to the next group, expertly checking corners and awareness to his surroundings.

"What do you think?"

Andrew turned to face Jones.

"He's good. Shockingly so for his age," He tod her truthfully.

"He was born to it. His uncle raised him to be a spy. Alex has turned out to be quite the asset. Despite how I feel about using him, Blunt knew what he was doing."

"How old is he?"

"Fifteen. He started in the field when he was fourteen, shortly after the death of Ian. I was against bringing him in, but Blunt made the right call, in the beginning at least."

"What do you mean?"

"He is reluctant at best to do a mission. If we had left him to his devices he might be more willing at least when we would have recruited him. I hope that his attitude changes as he grows. He seems warmer since Blunt left at least," Jones told him, turning to leave. "And Andrew? I trust you won't repeat this to anyone."

Andrew nodded but she was already gone.

Alex scaled another wall and perched at the top, waiting for one of the last two groups he had yet to tag along with to pass by on their way to the center room. Three minutes later he was not disapointed as Gwen's group started towards him, missing one.

"You really should look up occasionally," Alex told them as he dropped down. "What happened to the other?"

"Paintball to the chest after almost getting hit in the head."

"Oh so that was your group. I shot the warning shot," he told them. "You're almost to the center room but another groups about a minute behind you now. I'd hurry."

With that Alex left, running to the center room as he heard the paintball shots, deciding to get the information in his own flashdrive, in case the teams failed, and climbed on topof a bookself, laying flat on his stomach, gun pointed towards the entrance.

"Come on I think this is it."

Alex watched as one man, walked in before shooting him in the chest, the second person, being wiser, at least held is gun ready and scouted the room quickly, before getting shot by Alex. The last man entered, gun ready and scouted the room before looking up at the bookshelves. Alex smiled.

"Third times the charm. You two, don't announce yourselves to whoever might be in the room, scout the room when you enter, and look up. Well go ahead, you're the last man standing in your group, get the information," Alex told him as he climbed down the bookshelf. Alex watched as the man, Brandon?, sat down and began moving files to his flashdrive, as the remains of Stefan's group came in down two men, including Stefan entered and shot Brandon on the chest before spotting Alex.

"Not bad, but make sure you scout the room, I could have easily killed you right there."

The newcomer decided to take Brandon's flashdrive and left his own behind, before leaving to exit the compound.

"Be careful, the other groups, or what remains can still steal that from you."

With that Alex made his own way back to the exit and meeting place for the trainees, waiting for whoever left with the flashdrive to leave. In the end it turned out to be a woman who Alex learned was named Rosalie before he gathered all the trainees back up.

"Overall you guys didn't do that bad. There are thing you need to work on however. Look up, scout rooms and corners, be quiet, control your emotions and reactions. Back to my original question, can any of you now tell me the first law of intelligence?"Alex looked around and was met with blank faces and no volunteers. "No? Self-preservation. Without it you're dead. Fend for yourself first, your partner and anyone else second. Remember that. You guys are dismissed." With that Alex left the training room and was met by Agent Michaels outside.

"How was it?" he asked.

"Nice crutches. They didn't do too bad, though they didn't know the first law of intelligence, my personal favorite," Alex replied with a smile.

"And what's that?"

Alex faked a gasp. "You don't know? Self-preservation, of course. Without it your dead. That and luck, of course."

"Why is it your favorite?"

"Because I'm the best at it. I've had more experienced partners fail at self-preservation and die leaving me to clean up the mess. It's essential for anyone in intelligence."

"How do you know your the best?" Andrew asked.

"Someone's curious. I've worked with a lot of agencies, I know." Alex began to walk away.

Michaels watched him leave when Alex turned back to face him.

"When it comes to self-preservation Andrew, I'm the king."