Disclaimer: I don't own the Alex Rider Series
The Para soldier lay in full uniform with his binoculars pressed to his eyes, scoping out the small farmhouse. He'd waited so long for this. Five years of climbing the military ranks and now he was getting his call up for the SAS. All he had to do was complete this mission and he was in. In for good.
He'd be making more money for his wife and new born daughter, Heather. That was important to him. He'd grown up in the rough streets of Glasgow, in a council house. His father hadn't a pot to piss in. He got the dole but he spent it on drink and smokes. His mother, God love her, worked in a factory five mornings a week and looked after the family. He was one of the only Para's who knew what it was like to be hungry as a child.
He saw no movement in the house.
"Bravo two, this is Tango one, in position and ready to roll" he radioed in using his throat mic.
"Tango one, this is Bravo two. Go on ahead, we'll cover you" came the reply in his ear piece.
He desperately wanted to be promoted to Bravo. Bravo was the radio rank of the SAS and after tonight, he'd be one.
He moved forward stealthily, making his approach as silent as possible. As he crept up the garden, scoping the ground before him with his night vision lenses, an uneasy feeling set into his gut. As though he was being watched. He pushed it away and looked up at the house, checking each window. The last sight he ever saw was a bang of light from one of the upper floors. He didn't feel any pain, he was dead before he hit the ground.
Shots exploded from the hills surrounding the house. Glass panes smashed and live fire embedded itself in the wooden doors. There were muffled shouts and calls from inside. The unit of SAS moved down toward the house quickly, throwing caution to the wind. Shots were fired on them and two of them fell. The others were forced to take cover behind an old ramshackle shed and by the time they could get up, the occupants of the farmhouse had fled.
Wolf burst through the door angry that such a cock up had happened on his mission. He thumped upstairs and looked around angrily.There were whimpering noises coming from the bedroom he went into.
He took a deep, calming breath and looked around, trying to locate the source of them. He crouched down and peeked under the bed. Large, dark brown eyes stared out at him.
Wolf reached out hand. It was the only thing he could think of doing short of lifting the bed up and pulling the boy out from under it.
Small fingers grasped Wolf's hand and he carefully helped the boy to his feet, taking in his appearance and making a note of it. He had blond hair that hung over his eyes, large brown eyes and scratched, dirty cheeks. They were chubby, as most children's' cheeks are, and gave him the adorable look that all children have. He was a short fellow dressed in a light brown pair of shorts and a white t-shirt with no shoes or socks. Wolf gave him a confused look. What was he supposed to do now?
"Do you have a name?" asked Wolf helplessly.
The boy stared at him, confused.
He babbled unintelligently and Wolf frowned. This boy wasn't speaking English anyway.
Fox and Snake entered the room and stared from Wolf to the boy and back.
"Who the fuck is that?" asked Snake bluntly.
"He was hiding under the bed" replied Wolf, not taking his eyes off the boy.
"Who is he?" asked Fox, staring at the boy.
"He's not speaking English. I really don't know" informed Wolf, tearing his gaze from the boy and training it on Fox.
"Well, get him to talk" ordered Fox.
Wolf scoffed. "How am I supposed to do that?" he asked.
"Ask him a question" suggested Snake.
"I have a question for you two and all. Where's Eagle?" asked Wolf.
"Downstairs keeping watch in case any of them try and come back" informed Snake.
Wolf turned back to the boy.
"Who are you?" he asked slowly.
The boy retorted quickly in a soft tone making sounds Wolf didn't understand.
"French! Wolf, he's speaking French!" exclaimed Fox.
Wolf shot him a skeptical look.
"Do either of you speak French?" he asked.
"A little" muttered Fox, blushing.
"Why would you know French?" asked Snake.
"Who cares? Can you understand him?" asked Wolf.
"I get the jist of it. He says he wants his father" said Fox.
"Who is he? Ask him that. Does he speak English?" asked Wolf.
Fox used his basic French to convey the question.
The boy nodded, eyes wide and scared.
"Who are you?" asked Wolf.
The boy murmured something in French and sobbed heart wrenchingly.
"He says the man told him to speak French or he'd get clattered" translated Fox, forehead wrinkled in concentration.
"Tell him no one's going to hurt him now. Tell him I'll protect him" said Wolf.
"What am I, a translator for fucking Amnesty International? How am I supposed to say that?" snapped Fox.
Wolf shrugged.
The boy nodded and coughed once.
"Will you really protect me?" he asked hoarsely.
Wolf crouched down.
"Of course I will" he answered.
"I'm Alex. Alex Rider" whispered the boy, holding out his hand.
Wolf shook it.
"I'm Jamie. Jamie Byrne" he told Alex.
Alex smiled slightly.
"Are you the only boy who was here?" asked Wolf.
Alex shook his head and a tear rolled down his nose and splashed on the floor.
"My Jamie gone" he said quietly.
Wolf frowned and Fox gasped.
"Wolf, it's the Rider kid! John Rider's son! Even you must remember the sergeant who briefed us. Told us to keep an eye out for the Rider boys" said Fox urgently. Wolf thought back and frowned.
He remembered. The mother and father had been blown up. Well, their plane had. The kid, along with his older brother, had been snatched from his nanny by a terrorist organization, one that made Scorpia look like children. Stiletto, a society only a few World Leader's knew about. MI6 had a special branch that tried to keep an eye on it but Stiletto was impenetrable. No one had ever captured an agent, no one had ever talked to one. Yassen Gregorovich was suspected to have worked for them at least twice but that was as close as anyone ever got to discovering one of them. A possible suspect.
"Yeah, I remember now. Look, let's get going. If we hurry, we'll be back in London tonight and we can give him up" said Wolf quietly.
Fox nodded and looked seriously at the other two.
"Who's carrying him?" he asked.
Wolf snorted.
"I will, wise-ass! Come on" he said.
He reached down and scooped Alex up into his arms, gently carrying him.
Fox and Snake exchanged a snicker then followed.
"You left the fucking wee one behind!" snapped Gavin Brown.
"How was I supposed to know he was under the fucking bed!?" swore his brother, Charlie.
"You were outsmarted by a four year old! Gregorovich managed to hold off the SAS and take the other boy" pointed out Brown, checking his temper.
"I'm not fucking Gregorovich, am I!? I'm your fucking brother! I told you taking two weens was a bad fucking idea but did you listen to me? Och no, you went ahead with it you stupid fucker!" snapped Charlie.
Yassen Gregorovich looked at the two men he'd been forced to work with on his last mission. Complete idiots.
"Let me remind you, Gentlemen, that a child is present" he chided softly.
Both men looked down at the six year old as if just reminded of his presence.
"Get him out of here Yassen. Please. Just act as ward for the night or something" said Gavin softly.
Yassen tilted his head.
"The director will not be pleased we lost Alex. It is a shame" said Yassen.
Both brothers nodded in agreement.
"I will bring Jamie up to my rooms and set up the spare bed for the next few days. You two will go to Barcelona tomorrow and alert the director of the outcome. I will follow you out when I get his call. I'll bring the boy with me" he said seriously.
The brothers agreed and Yassen put his hand on Jamie's shoulder and propelled him from the room, careful to be firm but not cruel.
"Who are you?" asked Jamie, attempting to turn around.
Yassen gently kept Jamie's head facing forward.
"I am a friend of your father's" he said quietly.
Jamie stopped in his tracks and tried to turn around.
Yassen kept him facing for wards and moved Jamie again, keeping him walking.
"What's your name?" asked Jamie.
"That is none of your business James" said Yassen, stopping at the doors of an elevator and calling it.
"It's Jamie. How do you know who I am?" asked Jamie.
"Your father spoke of you often but that is neither here nor there" informed Yassen.
The doors slid open and Yassen led Jamie into the lift, pressing the button for the twelfth floor. The lift went up and Yassen stood in silence, watching Jamie. Jamie looked at him and frowned.
"You're not one of dad's mates" he said.
"And why do you think that?" asked Yassen, intrigued.
"Because if you were, you'd be a lot nicer" noted Jamie.
Yassen smiled slightly.
"Plus, you're not from England and dad doesn't know any foreigners, he works in a bank" said Jamie surely.
Yassen frowned. So the boy didn't know the truth? Well, he wasn't going to be the one to tell him.
The lift doors slid open again to reveal a long corridor. Yassen used a key to open the second door on the left and led Jamie inside.
Jamie ran in and immediately started bouncing on the bed, forgetting himself completely.
Yassen frowned slightly, irritated.
Jamie jumped from the bed with more grace than your average six year old and stared at Yassen.
Yassen marveled at how much the boy resembled John. He had fair hair that hung in his eyes. It was dirty and had clots of soil in it from being pressed to the ground with Yassen on top of him when leaving the house. He had large, soft blue eyes that reminded Yassen starkly of John and the boy had lost the chubby cheeks his four year old brother had. He had all his baby teeth, polished to a pearly white and his skin was mildly tanned, hinting of a holiday.
"You need a bath" Yassen said honestly. It was the only thing he could think of to say that didn't involve him being maternal. Even then, it was a slightly maternal comment to make.
"Your not my mum!" protested Jamie stubbornly.
"True, but you are filthy. Now, in there is a bath and a shower with shower gel and shampoo. You can have a bath or shower, whichever you prefer" said Yassen, gesturing toward his bathroom.
Jamie stared at him as though he had two heads.
"What?" asked Yassen snappily.
"Mum always runs my bath for me" conceded Jamie, blushing and staring at his feet.
Yassen sighed.
"Wait here" he ordered.
He strolled from the room, the door locking automatically. He hurried along the corridor to the store closet. He took some bubble bath (meant for female agents), a sponge, a towel and the smallest bathrobe he could find.
He hurried back to his room and opened the door only to find Jamie with one leg out the window, ready to jump.
Yassen dropped the things he'd collected and rushed over, grabbing the boy.
He cursed himself in his head. This was a child! Granted, an extremely intelligent one, but a child none the less. He'd have to be more careful from now on.
He pushed Jamie onto the large bed and frowned at the boy.
Jamie had a guilty, caught-red-handed look on his face.
Yassen loomed over the boy like a thunder cloud.
Jamie blinked twice and stared determinedly up at Yassen.
"Where's Alex?" he asked abruptly.
Yassen frowned. That was a very sudden question to ask. One Yassen wasn't prepared or able to answer.
"Where's Alex?" repeated Jamie.
Yassen looked at the boy, curious about what was going to happen.
"Where's Alex?" said Jamie, his voice rising slightly.
Yassen was slightly amused. What did the boy expect to accomplish by this?
"WHERE'S MY BROTHER!?" yelled Jamie at the top of his lungs.
Yassen nearly smiled. He just about restrained himself from chuckling.
Jamie jumped to his feet and ran for the door but Yassen grabbed him and lifted him off the ground.
Jamie kicked out at Yassen and his kick glanced off Yassen's stomach.
Yassen scowled and carried Jamie back over to the bed, dropping him on it.
Jamie started to get back up until Yassen shot him a look that would have made an axe murderer sit still and quiet on the bed, never mind a six year old.
"Stay right there. I'll get the bath ready for you and then, when you've finished, I'll get you something to eat" Yassen said quietly in a dangerous tone.
Jamie nodded with an unsure and Yassen turned around to go into the bathroom. He left the door open as he adjusted the taps till the bath was full of warm, but not too warm, water. He then poured the entire bottle of bubble bath in and walked back into the bedroom.
Jamie stared at him angrily, his eyes glinting and Yassen began to feel an uncontrollable urge to laugh.
"What?" he asked quietly, keeping his amusement from his voice.
"You're stupid. What's the point of taking a bath if I'm not going to change into clean clothes afterward?" said Jamie superiorly.
Yassen's jaw clenched and he frowned.
"I will get you some clean clothes. I would most likely have them by now if you hadn't decided you wanted to jump out a window" replied Yassen.
Jamie shrugged and drew a deep breath
"Well, if you got snatched in the middle of the night with your kid brother and taken to another country and to a strange house where you could hear you brother crying but not be allowed go to him and then got caught in a gunfight and be dragged out of the house when you're tired and grumpy and then be sat on by a man who weighs a ton and then brought on a plane and taken to a weird hotel place by a man who sat on you and still hasn't apologized and seen two big men arguing and cursing and ignoring you and the heavy man who sat on you brings you upstairs and demands you take a bath even though you had one two days ago and you wouldn't be so dirty if he hadn't sat on you then I think you'd try and escape too, don't you?" he said, surprising Yassen with the amount of air that he held in his child sized lungs.
Jamie collapsed back onto the bed and Yassen frowned. Was that really what had happened? The boy made it sound so, so traumatic. Yassen did the only thing he could think of doing.
He met the blue eyes of the boy and said as sincerely as he knew how "I'm sorry for sitting on you".
The boy smiled and nodded.
"You should be. You should think of going on a diet or something" said the six year old, clearly unaware that such a comment would have offended anyone but Yassen.
"Go on then, into the bath. And stay there. I'll go and find clothes" ordered Yassen.
He stood, arms folded, watching to make sure Jamie did as he was told. When Yassen was sure Jamie had gotten into the bath, he turned and walked from the room, the door once again locking automatically and strolled down the stairs to the help desk.
A young woman sat behind the desk, a bored expression on her face. As soon as she saw Yassen, she smiled and looked him up and down approvingly.
"Yassen. I had heard you were back" she said, smiling at him.
Yassen leaned slightly on the counter and tilted his head to one side.
"It's true. Tell me, Ms. Rhyes, have you got any clothes for a boy?" he asked.
Ms. Rhyes smiled at him.
"Ms. Rhyes isn't my name Yassen. It's Caroline" she said, grinning.
Yassen was bored.
"Well, do you have any clothes that would do a boy?" he asked.
Caroline shrugged.
"Why?" she asked.
Yassen frowned.
"I need them for the boy" Yassen said.
Caroline smiled.
"The Rider? Which one?" she asked, smiling.
"Not important. Do you have clothes or not?" said Yassen, forehead wrinkling slightly in an annoyed way.
Caroline smiled.
"Of course I do. I'll send them up and they'll be there in say, fifteen minutes?".
Yassen nodded and spun on his heel, striding effortlessly back up the stairs and unlocking his room. There were wet footprints all over the carpet, the blanket was lying on the floor in a mess and Jamie was nowhere to be found.
Yassen rushed from the room and was heading for the stairs when he heard a shriek coming from the canteen. It had purposefully been built on the second floor so it faced outward at the back of the building. Yassen jogged in and flung the door open and stood in the doorway, dumbstruck by what he saw. That buffoon Nile was there and he had slung the boy over his shoulder and proceeded with spinning around. The boy was laughing loudly, screaming almost. Yassen coughed and Nile stopped, turning slowly to face Yassen.
"Hi!" he said brightly, clearly quite pleased with himself.
"What are you doing with my ward?" asked Yassen quietly.
Nile put Jamie down and gently pushed the boy behind his back in a somewhat protective gesture.
Jamie poked his head round and grinned at Yassen.
"Well...
Left you a bit of a cliffhanger, didn't I? Go on, leave a review, you know you want to!!!!