Prologue

Zara Asker had seen many different recruits in her job as head of CHERUB, but none quite matched the one sitting opposite her. The boy was perched on the edge of his chair as if poised for flight. His eyes were continuously wandering about the small circular office, taking in every miniscule of detail. Zara guessed he had figured out every in and out of the office.

"Nervous about something?" she asked gently.

"No, ma'am," said Alex politely. The head knew he was lying.

"Are you sure?"

Alex glanced at her. Did she know? Did she suspect that Alex had gone through what no fifteen (now sixteen) year- old should ever go through?

"I'm fine. Thank you." Zara sighed. This wasn't getting them very far.

"Alex, this is an organization called CHERUB," began Zara. "Mrs. Jones asked us to offer you a position and a recommendation coming from the head of MI6 isn't to be taken lightly." Alex said nothing.

"That was meant as a compliment," prodded Zara.

"Thank you…?" There was a small question in his tone of voice, but Zara could hardly blame him. He was, after all, speaking to the head of CHERUB, a highly secret organization.

"We would be happy to offer you a position here," continued Zara. "Mrs. Jones has already confirmed that you'll be staying here for…awhile. In that case, we would like to continue your education as well as you physical fitness. We would like to go over some tests. We're not allowed to do a physical on you, but the dentist and doctor will check you out for any abnormal things that aren't included in a physical. I know that doesn't make much sense, but in simple terms, you'll simply fill out your quota of physical exercise without medical instruments. If you'll come with me, I'll bring you to your first test." Alex followed her out. He was glad there was no physical. Even though Zara's description of things was a little confusing, he was relieved nonetheless.

"This is Bruce." Zara's voice interrupted his train of thought. "He will dual with you. I presume you know what dojo is?"

"Yes. It's a training hall reserved for martial arts," intoned Alex who was already removing his shoes and socks. Zara was impressed, but would be more impressed if Alex could defeat Bruce.

"Good. Then, you know the rules?"

"We fight until one goes down and submits. There are at least three bouts in which the winner must win the majority of them," recited Alex from memory. Zara nodded.

"I'm afraid you'll have to fight without the proper clothing," she said apologetically. Alex shrugged. He was indifferent. "Take your positions."

Alex crouched down in a defensive position and surveyed his opponent. Bruce was small, and looked to be about 13 or 14 years old. But something in Bruce's eye told Alex he was an expert martial artist. They always have the ready stance and the look in their eye that spoke, challenge.

Bruce moved forward in a twisting kick. Alex blocked it immediately and followed up with a kick of his own. Bruce evaded it and attempted a spinning kick in Alex's direction. Alex barely managed to duck under it. Bruce was fast. He sent a jab in Alex's direction in which was blocked by his opponent. Alex grit his teeth as pain lanced up his arm. He moved forward and sent his fist into Bruce's mouth. Bruce yelled in surprise and fell. He recovered with amazing speed and sent a fist in Alex's direction. Alex's head snapped back with the force of it.

C'mon, a voice seemed to be telling him. You've fought far more aggressive and mean opponents than a 13 year old.

Allowing the adrenaline, Alex surged forward and sent an unusually powerful spinning kick at Bruce in which caught him in the jaw and sent him to the ground. With catlike speed, Alex pinned him and found himself growling, "Submit, or I'll break your arm," in Bruce's ear. Bruce nodded shakily. Alex let him up.

Zara was surprised. Alex was the first recruit to beat Bruce. She marked that down on her clipboard and proceeded to watch the next two bouts. Again, Alex won. Bruce didn't even get to threaten dislocating a single bone. By the end, Bruce was panting in exhaustion while Alex stood tense, ready for another fight if need be.

The boy has a defense mechanism thought Zara. He's not even tired yet. Just, wary.

"Well, Bruce, you may go back to class and have the infirmary look at your injuries." Bruce scowled. Zara continued as though she never noticed anything. "Alex, you and I are going for a walk."

Zara lead him down to a small room. In the room, sat a chicken. The chicken looked miserably at Alex as though it already knew its fate.

"I want you to kill the chicken."

"No." Alex knew what he wanted. He saw the chicken trapped and restrained when only to be slaughtered later by a kid.

"But Alex, it's a chicken. It won't feel anything. Just take the pen and aim for the juncture in its neck," Zara pressured.

"No."

"Why?"

"It's unnecessary."

"But what if the chicken is dangerous?" asked Zara. Alex turned a baleful look on her.

"I don't see it attacking you or anyone else. Except, maybe its cage bars because that's what I'd be doing now. Can we please move on? I think I've passed your test," said Alex somewhat irritably. Zara sighed. The kid was good. She had to give him that.

"Let's go."

A moment later, Zara had introduced him to Paul and Arif; both at University but were on leave and volunteered to help out around CHERUB for some pay.

"Your goal is to get across the obstacle course as fast as you can," said Zara. "Go."

Paul and Arif did a double take as Alex sped away down the track. He crawled under the chicken wire easily and scaled the wall. It wasn't unlike SAS training except the wall wasn't slicked with a substance to make it harder to climb.

He dove in and out of the beams and crawled up among the ropes. He launched himself over the mud pit and monkey barred across the puddle of who knew what? Paul and Arif had drawn beside him, but they couldn't go faster than Alex.

"Jeez kid. What do you do? The triathlon?" complained Arif. Alex inwardly smiled to himself.

"Don't you wish?" he said, and sped up onto the beams. He could see the mats underneath but it was still a long way to fall if he slipped. Besides, it wasn't like he was tight rope walking across a line away from a burning skyscraper. When he reached the drop, he didn't hesitate to throw himself off it, even managing to throw in a flip or two, earning him a little scratch that stung like the devil. Arif dropped next to him and rolled.

"Whoa! That was fun! And here I thought we were going to take a stroll." Alex nodded seriously.

Why do recruits take things so literally? Wondered Arif absentmindedly as Paul dropped.

"You're pretty fast."

"Thanks." Alex shrugged. "You're pretty good too."

"Thanks kid. We've been doing this for awhile though."

"Not unlike me."

"What?"

"Nothing." Alex really didn't feel like discussing it. Zara tapped impatiently on her clipboard.

"Alex, we'd better go get your physique checked out and your IQ tests done," she reminded.

"Physique?" snorted Arif. "Probably got a six pack under there." Alex rolled his eyes.

The physique 'check up' consisted of running for as long as possible on a treadmill, or, in Alex's case, until the instructor got tired of watching him run and fell asleep.

The IQ tests were somewhat challenging seeing as though Alex hadn't exactly been in school while he was masquerading as a 'normal' schoolboy across the globe. The easiest were language, math, and science. Speaking English was easier than writing it.

"Mrs. Jones asked me to try this test out on you," said Zara. "I'm not sure why she wanted it done, but she did. Can you dismantle the gun, put it back together, and load it without blowing your foot off. Then, I want you to shoot those targets at the end." Zara pointed. She was truly puzzled why Mrs. Jones had such an odd request, but this boy was different so she went along with it.

Alex quickly dismantled the gun, and in 10 seconds, had it back together again. In a blink of an eye, he had it loaded and emptied it all into the target's bull's eye except for one stray bullet that wandered into the outer red zone.

Zara snapped her mouth shut, and said, "Let's move on shall we?"

The pool was clear. Alex could see the brick on the other side. Clothes and all, he dove in and swam down to the bottom. There was nothing to it, except maybe a minor incident:

"Alex!"

Drowning. The water was closing in around him. The oxygen was being depleted. They meant for him die! Suffocating! Tamara Knight!

Alex, unthinkingly, made the universal diver's sign that he was okay and grabbed the brick and swam toward the start.

Zara watched with increasing apprehension. Something wasn't right about the way Alex was swimming. He was too cautious. He even stopped for a moment. Zara wondered if he was all right until she saw him make the universal diver's signal and swim up toward the surface. She marked him down in green however, and handed Alex a dry towel.

They were back in the circular office. Alex's hair dripped down his neck, but he didn't seem to care. Zara was reading his results.

"You're physical results are very good. I see you're a superb martial artist. No many can beat Bruce in a fight, least of all, a recruit. How long have you been doing martial arts?"

"Since I can remember. My uncle got me into it," said Alex.

"Good. Now, you're resilience to interrogation is sound. Although, back talking interrogators isn't always the wisest choice."

"Sometimes, it works."

"How would you know?" Alex asked. "And what do interrogators have to do with this?" He had a very bad feeling whirling around in his gut.

"Nothing important. Teasing," Zara reminded him, unaware of the fact that Alex was a lie detector as well. "Your IQ scores were lower. Mrs. Jones mentioned you were out of school quite a lot due to illness." Her tone suggested she didn't believe a word of it. "That isn't tolerated here unless you're on your death bed." Alex nodded. He preferred it that way.

"Your language skills are good, but you're going to have to pick one outside of a Latin based language. Maybe Japanese or Russian. French, Spanish, and a little bit of German are good though. Italian could be improved on your own schedule. Moreover, your scientific and maths skills are good, but they do need a little brushing up. Your English needs a lot of help, but we'll work with you on that. Overall Alex, you'd make a good person to have around CHERUB. I'd like to be the first one to offer you a position here."

Alex couldn't shake off that feeling of foreboding as Zara offered him her hand of acceptance. Knowing, he really didn't have a choice whatsoever, Alex couldn't help but stare at it.

A/N: I changed the Dojo thing because some of you are really getting kind of annoying and a few of you are being a bit mean about it ,and I'm sick so I kind of got fed up with it, so I hope those individuals who are being picky about it are happy (namely two of the 100 people I've talked to). You know who you are. And no...I am NOT going to change anything else in this PROLOGUE. It's a prologue. I know it's short and it's a faster moving -paced chapter than I would even like, but I'm not going to change it. My best friend said, "Get over it."

I've gotten some very unpleasant reviews and I ask that you guys dont send mean criticisms. Just remember every author has their own style of writing.

Otherwise, thank you to all of you have reviewed and supplied "constructive criticisms" which are allowed. Thanks for all of you who've supported me! It really means a lot about it! I was going to quite writing since some of you weren't being too friendly about it, but now I've written a few chapters ahead to like, 10, so I'll hopefully get those posted soon! I may give sneak peaks if I get enough good reviews. :D