Prologue

John Rider sat at his desk at home, scribbling furiously. Outside the door, he could hear his wife dragging their luggage down the hall and to the front door. The cries of his young son, Alex, who was only a year old, could also be heard from the desk. Alex was suffering from an ear infection, and was unable to go with John and his wife, Helen, on their trip. He would stay with his uncle until they got back.
The slam of the front door made John jump.
"John, Helen, I'm here for Alex!" Ian, John's brother, shouted up the stairs. Helen rushed down the stairs to greet him. John signed the paper he'd been writing on and shoved it into a manila envelope. He left the office and went to meet Ian.
At the foot of the stairs Helen was handing Alex and his bag to Ian. "Be very careful with Alex, he's delicate," Helen said in a very serious tone. Ian looked overwhelmed by the motherly protection.
Helen grabbed her bags and pulled them out the door. She looked at John when he finally arrived. "Hurry up, John, or we'll miss the flight," she said.
John, with one last glance at his home, grabbed his bag and shoved the manila envelope into Ian's only free hand.
"Just don't drop him."

Ian's POV

Ian pulled up to a large suburban house. Alex was crying next to him in his recently installed high chair. Getting out of the car and opening the other door to get Alex out of his high chair, he noticed a wrinkled manila folder. Well, that explained why his seat as so uncomfortable. Ian had almost forgotten about it, and had he not noticed then, it probably would have fallen to the floor and been considered trash, never to be seen again except by a woman who helped pull cardboard out of recycling repositories. He grabbed it, not thinking much of it, and walked up the driveway and into his house, throwing the folder on the kitchen table and carrying Alex down the hall and into his room.
Once Ian felt Alex had settled in (a crib had been moved into the household beforehand), he walked into the kitchen, intent on getting something to eat. Leftover lasagna, perhaps. Those colorful noodles were also easy to make. Deciding that lasagna was easier to just heat up, Ian decided to go with that. This was when he noticed the folder still on the counter top. He ignored it once again, in favor of food. The folder couldn't possibly be that important, or at least not enough to disrupt his food eating, right?Deeming it okay to read and eat at the same time, Ian decided to open the folder.
It was a perfectly normal day. Ian had often taken Alex before, as his parents were often away on important "business trips." Ian knew from experience that Alex was normally a very quiet baby, and Ian's sleep was almost never disturbed by Alex.
Ian opened the folder. Alex started to cry in the other room.
Chapter 1 The Truth.
(Alex's pov)
It's almost time to leave. The black taxi sits outside, waiting for me. Sitting alone, in this big, empty house, I've never felt more devoid of feeling, of anything really, since Jack left after a couple of missions.
"It's too hard for me. I am going back home to Washington. Besides, you don't need me anymore Alex, you grew up." she had said before getting in a cab and driving off.
I stand up, ignoring the honking of the horn outside, and go to grab my hoodie from the hall closet; I notice a manila envelope lying in the back, covered in dust. I begin to open it, but before I can the driver honks the horn of the cab again; loudly.
"Hurry up, we haven't got all day kid!" he calls out irritably. I stuff the envelope into my backpack and run out the door.
Sitting alone in the back of the cab, I begin to think about the last two years of my life. I wish I knew when everything started going wrong.
*****Flashback*****
Being woken up at two in the morning by the doorbell was not how I expected my day to start, but that's how the destruction of my whole world began. An hour after Jack answered the door, she came up to my room. Opening my bedroom door and letting the light from the hall brighten my dark room, she sat down on my bed.
"That was the police. Alex, I'm sorry but Ian was killed in a car accident. They police are saying that he wasn't wearing his seat belt, when the accident occurred. There wasn't anything that the paramedics could do to save him." Jack wraps me in a tight hug and whispers that everything will be okay, and for the first time in a long time, I allow myself to cry.
The next couple days pass in a blur; I am just going through the motions of things but never actually stopping to take a breath. The funeral was depressing. There were only a few people who made it and I didn't even know them.
Two days after, I discovered Ian's real job, a spy for MI6, I was told through a letter with MI6's letterhead that I was going to be sent for training at a military camp called Brecon Beacons before having to complete a mission of my own. Almost two years later and I had just finished another mission, when Jack told me that she felt it was best if she left and went back home to her family in Washington. Never have I felt so alone as I did then. Watching Jack drive off in the cab only intensified the feeling of being truly alone with no family for the first time.

*****End of Flashback*****
"We're here kid." The cab driver's voice brings me out of my thoughts. I climb out of the cab and get my bags from the trunk of the cab. I begin trudging through the rain and mud to what I remember as being the sergeant's cabin. Knocking on the door to the cabin I let myself reminisce about my surroundings. There are many cabins and buildings placed strategically around the area, I can see a murky lake in the distance, an obstacle course takes up a majority of the west side of the camp, and woods surround the camp on two sides. The Sargent opens the door, " Cub, back again? I had though MI6 were joking when they sent you here before," His tone hadn't lost any of the downgrading patronising tone he adopted when I was here last. " Yes Sir they decided their best agent needed extra training, so I'm here," my scathing reply caught him off guard as he quickly dismissed me with a short "Find K-unit."
I quickly get to the cabin and discover that k-unit are sat around playing cards. " hey guys," my soft greeting surprises them and they turn to see me stood at the door, "did you miss me?" Fox jumps up, "Cub? I thought you were on that mission in Greece?" " yeah and I though you had left the SAS?" My reply was quick but it seemed to spark the other members of the team into motion. After about an hour of answering question after question from k unit and receiving scathing comment after scathing comment from wolf, I decided now was a good time to read that folder from earlier. I reach into my duffel and grab the manila envelope. I start pulling the papers out and find a letter addressed to Ian, which has already been opened. I am in the process of unfolding the letter when I hear The Sargent call for lights out.

*****The Next Morning*****
I wake to the feeling of someone shaking me rather violently. Before I can realize what I've done, I have the person's arms pinned behind their back and their chest lying on the spot where I had been on my bed. Looking down I notice that it is Eagle pinned down.
"Sorry, I didn't even realize what I was doing." I mumble, glancing away, slightly ashamed.
"Where the hell did you learn to do that kid?" Wolf barks at me. Suddenly remembering my hold on the wriggling Eagle, I let go. Ignoring Wolf's question I begin to get ready for my first day in hell. Today we will be in languages until lunch and then hand-to-hand combat afterwards.
Wolf is now glaring at me for ignoring his question. Curious glances are thrown my way from the rest of K-unit as we make our way to the mess hall for breakfast. Once there I begin to get strange looks from the rest of the soldiers in the camp as well. I can hear them whispering about me, trying to figure why a kid has been placed in a military camp again. Keeping quiet after I have finished the meal, I wait for K-unit and we begin our trek to the language classroom.
As soon as we are there the teacher begins to ask me to speak in Spanish, I do and this only agitates him more. The same occurred with French, Japanese, German, and Mandarin. By this time the other soldiers in the room are stunned and the teacher was furious that I had actually been capable of fluently speaking in multiple languages. Knowing that he had meant to embarrass me and prove that I wasn't meant to be here. It makes me feel good that I proved him wrong, in languages anyway.
After lunch we head to the combat training building and are paired up with partners to fight. The teacher, who is new this month, is curious to see if I can actually fight so pairs me up with Snake, the weakest at combat in K-unit. Snake and I stand facing each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Snake starts off by throwing a punch towards me which I easily duck. I kick my foot out in a fanning motion and hit Snake's legs hard enough that he stumbles and I follow it up with a jab to the chest which causes him to fall. It seems he was caught off guard by that move. Noticing that he has had the breath knocked out of him, I wait to see what his next move will be.
His next move is to do nothing. He just lays there on the ground, wheezing. I don't know what's wrong. He slowly pushes himself up and clutches at his side. I stand there and stare as he slowly limps toward our instructor and mumbles something. The instructor nods his head and stares at me and as Snake goes and sits on one of the benches that are on the side of the padded floor. I have no idea what has happened.
The instructor is still looking at me as he calls out, "Wolf." Wolf snaps to attention from the other side of the floor, where he's been busy practicing with Fox. "Yes, sir?" The instructor lets his attention be drawn away from me and towards Wolf. "Come over and have a nice little spar with Cub." I can see the suspicious look in Wolf's eye, but he now has on a smirk. I can tell he doesn't think very much of my fighting ability. I also don't think he was watching me when I was sparring with Snake, maybe if he had he would take me more seriously.
We are standing about four feet apart, facing each other. We bow, keeping our eyes locked. Wolves, by nature, are very flexible, very fast, and very strong. I understand now, how Wolf earned his name. He was good. Amazing, even. I keep losing his position, his blows are coming from all directions. I can feel myself starting to panic as my instincts start to surface. I try to calm down but I can't. As I feel him closing in on me, my instincts take over and adrenaline rushes through me as I begin to panic.
I can see his movements clearly now. He tries to punch my left, I block on the left. He tries to uppercut me, I downward block. He tries to roundhouse kick me? Easy. I fight back. And I was fighting. He was losing. The opponent would fail. The opponent needed to be defeated.
I was close consecutively kicking and punching. Which may seem like an obvious and easy tactic, but it is harder if you switch it up a bit, not allowing yourself to get in a habit. It was working. I was pushing this opponent backwards and I could practically feel him starting to panic. I got a bit fancier in my movements, starting putting things that had a bit more power in them. The reason people twirl in movies, before the kick, is to gain momentum. Momentum is increasing the force. Putting added force on this opponent was a good idea, as it was muscular, and muscles tend to add a bit of a shield to any body part. But I was elbowing him in the stomach, by this point.
All I have to do is defeat him. He was staggering by now. One more kick ought to do it. So I jumped, and I kicked. He stumbled back and fell. Hard. My body isn't listening to my mind telling it to stop. I continue fighting and Wolf is barely able to defend himself at this point.
I could feel the hands on me now, dragging me away from the person and pinning me to the floor. I was dizzy. What had just happened? I couldn't see out of the splotches covering my eyes. I waited for them to clear away. In place of the spots was... Snake?
Snake was hovering over me, he was the one pinning me to the floor. I creased my eyebrows in confusion. I opened my mouth only to get a sharp burst of pain that I might have winced at a little. My lip is busted. I didn't remember that happening. "Snake" ,I asked, ignoring the pain in my lip. He raised an eyebrow, apparently surprised for some reason that I didn't know of. "Cub? You good?" I was sure of how to respond. I felt fine, sure, but I couldn't remember anything from the last (I had to glance at the clock that was just visible over Snake's right shoulder) seven minutes? I also notice that there's only about five minutes of combat training left.
"Yeah, yeah I'm okay." I respond, even though I'm not sure if I'm even alright. Snake gives me a concerned look, but slowly let's go of me and helps me up. I looked around the room, observing what had happened since my black-out. Fox had won his spar against Eagle and Wolf was lying down and breathing hard a couple of feet from where I was. Speaking of which, "What was wrong when you went to go sit down, Snake?" He looked at me, surprised by my question. "Cub, in our fight, I'm pretty sure you bruised my ribs. Honestly, If you had done what you did again, it might would have been enough to crack them." I looked up at him, I hadn't known I had done that much damage. "I'm sorry", I tried but, Snake just shook his head, glanced up at something and said that it was time to go back to the cabin. After our first conversation there wasn't a word between us.
As soon as we have reached the cabin, I head inside and sit on the edge of my bed. After kicking my muddy shoes off and placing them by the door and pealing the drenched socks from my feet; I sit cross-legged on the bed and pull out the packet of papers to begin going through again. I pull the letter out first to read Ian,
If you are reading this letter than Helen and I must be dead and you have become Alex's guardian. If this is not the case, I ask that you return this letter to where you found it and, if you give into your curiosity and read the contents, never speak of what you have read.
If you are Alex's guardian there are a few things that you need to know.
1) Alex is not Helen and my biological son. He was taken from his true parents just after his birth and given to Helen and I by the heads of MI6 2) Alex is to be trained as a spy so that he will one day join MI6 and become not only their best agent, but their secret weapon 3) Alex's real name is Collin Reed Murray. His biological parents live in Peebles, Scotland.
I know I can trust you with this information Ian, but if it were to fall into the wrong hands there would be serious consequences. Nobody is aware that I have written this for you and I would like to keep it that way. Burn this letter so that nobody, especially Alex, will ever know.
In the short time he has been in our care so far Helen and I have come to love Alex as our own and we trust that you will take great care of him if we die.
John I can feel my chest tighten and my heart feels as if it is going to jump out of my chest. I can't believe it. I don't even know who I am anymore. I want to know who my parents are and why they didn't look for me. I want answers.
Setting the letter aside I see a birth certificate. The name on it reads Collin Reed Murray, born on February 13, 1998. His mothers name is Ainsley Paige Murray and the father's name is Callum David Murray. This is must be my real birth certificate, I quickly scan through the other papers in the packet and find medical records of my parents and myself. This is suddenly becoming all to real, I don't even know what to think any more. I am so caught up in the papers that I don't notice Snake grab the birth certificate, that I had set aside.
"Where did you get this?" he speaks through gritted teeth. I don't know what to say, why would he care so much about where I got my birth certificate from.
"I asked you a question, Cub."
"Why does it matter to you?" My voice falters as I say this not understanding what was going on.
"It's mine, why do you care anyway?" My voice is firmer this time. I see Snake's face whiten as I say this. The rest of the unit is confused by what is happening between Snake and I.
"What do you mean it is yours?"
"I mean that it is my birth certificate and that is my name on it. So unless you have a need for it, for some unknown reason, would you please hand it back to me? I say this as calmly as I can, I am starting to lose my patience with Snake.
"Impossible."

*****Snake's POV*****
"Impossible," It can't be him, it just can't be.