The Midnight Files

Chapter 1

 

The mission would have been successful had the SAS and MI6 been more reliable. After Ian had been discovered, he’d sent MI6 a message for them to send in the SAS and pull him out. They answered his message, telling him that they’d pull him out, but they never showed up. So his captors stole everything from him except the clothes on his back and then got their idiotic muscle men to beat him up. It had been easy to get away, hotwire a car, and start on his way back to London. But he was surprised that he was still alive much less conscious. And even though he was awake, he felt far from good.  

 

Both of his floating ribs were broken and he could feel them very painfully poking places they weren’t supposed to whenever he breathed. Over his left eye and stretching to his left ear, was a mildly deep gash. His right side had a large friction burn on it. All his injuries combined plus the blood loss was the reason he was feeling so uncharacteristically unsure of himself. He'd never been drunk before, but he sure felt drunk now. The only thing he was sure of was the dark of the night with the occasional pools of light from the street lights, and the route home.

 

This time he’d really got it. No doubt he would have to go to the hospital and Jack’s suspicions about him coming home injured would grow exponentially. This time he wouldn’t get out without the truth, which in a way he liked, because even though he was very, very, used to lying, he didn’t exactly like lying to Jack continually. Especially when she seemed so concerned about his well-being.

 

Ian Rider blinked twice to clear his head. He had been in Chelsea, now he was on Kings Road now, so…he only had to turn off on Chaney Walk, get home to telephone service and then he could pass out.

 

Ian finally reached his house. He exited the car and slowly limped to the house. The change in temperature from the car to outside wasn't too great, because inside the car had already been cold. When he reached his house he remembered that they had also taken his keys, which meant that he had to wake up Jack.

 

So he rang the doorbell. Once…..Twice……as he rang it a third time he began to feel conscious slipping away. He turned around and leaned his back against the door and took a few deep breaths to try and regain composure. He ended up sliding down the door anyway…Finally he faintly heard footsteps coming down the stairs; it had to be Jack.

 

The door opened quickly and Ian fell backward. Jack would have tried to catch him had she recognized him right away, but she didn't. However she did stop his head from hitting the floor.

 

At first Jack stared at him before it registered that this was Ian Rider.

 

“Oh My God!” She breathed.

 

 She leaned over him and flicked the light switch. Often he had come home injured, or ill, but…never this bad. His jacket and shirt were both gone and his stomach was covered in bruises. On his right side there was pure raw flesh as though someone had just ripped all the skin off. Both of his lowest ribs on both sides were also broken and he was completely unconscious. Leaving the front door open and him partway inside and partway outside, she dashed for the phone and called an ambulance. As she told them details she couldn't stop thinking: "Oh My God! I can’t believe this. Why!? Ian doesn't have any enemies, right? This wouldn't happen to a bank manager. Why?"

 

After she hung up, she walked back over to Ian and knelt beside him while she waited for the ambulances to arrive. There was also a gash on head running from his left eyebrow to his ear. She rested her hand on his forehead; he was feverish. She let her hand stay there while she waited for the ambulances.

 

When ambulances did arrive, besides worrying about Ian, Jack was also worrying about Alex. The poor kid was only nine years old, and he was already serious and experienced enough. Now his only blood relative was being transported to a hospital. And if he woke up right now, it would be terrible.  

 

“Can you give me a name?” A paramedic was asking her.

 

“Ian Rider.” She told them.

 

They continued to ask her questions and she answered all that she could.

 

"Miss, do you know anything else? You said he is an overseas bank manager?"

 

"I thi--Yes." Jack answered.

 

"Do you know where he was coming from? Or--" The paramedic was cut off by Alex, who had came saw the paramedics moving an unconscious Ian from the front doorway to a stretcher, and Jack standing by talking to a paramedic.

 

"What happened, Jack?" Alex asked in a small, choked voice. Alex was wearing pale blue flannel pajamas. His fair hair was tousled and his brown eyes wide with puzzled worry and fright as stared at Ian being lifted into the ambulance right outside the door.

 

Jack hurried over to Alex and her arms around his shoulders. "Don't worry Alex." she comforted. "He'll be okay, and--"

 

Alex ducked out from the embrace and ran toward the ambulance. “No, what happened?" he cried. "Ian?!" A paramedic stopped him from going any closer as all the other paramedics got into the ambulance.

 

"Sorry, you can't go any farther." The paramedic stopped him comfortingly but Alex didn’t want to listen.

 

"Alex," Jack called as she came after him. "you can see him after he's been stabilized in the hospital."

 

The paramedic who stopped him stepped up onto the ambulance and the doors closed. It drove forward off the pavement in front of the house up the road. Alex watched it drive away silently, worry and confuse written all over his face.

 

Then he spun around to face Jack. “What happened, Jack? Is he going to be okay?” He cried.

 

“Yes Alex, of course he’ll be fine.” Jack said as Alex came back and stood beside. “I honestly don’t know what happened.”

 

“Didn’t he tell you something?” Alex looked up at her.

 

“No.” Jack shook her head. “He didn’t get a chance.”

 

………………………………………

 

 

Even after the morning had settled in and visiting hours had started Alex couldn't see Ian because he was being 'tended to'.

 

"C'mon Alex, let's go to school." Jack told him "It's not like you won't be able see him after school, so this is no excuse."

 

"I don't want an excuse not to go to school." he whined "I just want to know see Ian."

 

"And you will get to see him as soon as you're out of school." Jack assured him.

 

Alex sighed and donned his backpack. Then he followed Jack out to the car. As she started the car the car, he asked: "So are you going see him while I'm at school?"

 

"Yes." she answered

 

"That's totally not fair Jack." Alex said in a defeated voice, since he knew he couldn't see Ian before school. As it was he was already going to be late if they didn't hurry. 

 

"It is too," Jack said "you can see him after school, before karate practice."

 

Alex accepted that and they drove to school.

 

“Go on now.” Jack said to him. “And don’t be too glum. I’m sure he’ll be just fine in a few days.”

 

Alex nodded and jumped out of the car. Jack watched him until he walked off toward the building with his friends.

 

After Jack dropped off Alex at school she went to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, the hospital Ian had been taken to. She walked up to the receptionist.

 

"Hello," the receptionist said in a cheery voice, "how can I help you?"

 

"I'm here to visit Ian Rider."

 

Jack watched the receptionist scan the screen in front of her for an awfully long time. "Are you sure it's Ian Rider?" She asked Jack uncertainly, emphasizing the ‘Rider’.

 

"Yes." Jack answered promptly.

 

"Wellll…we don't have an Ian Rider checked in." The blonde woman looked up from the monitor in front of her as she spoke.

 

"But I know he was brought here. He was checked in this morning--early in the morning." Jack said persistently

 

"Well he isn't-- oh, Ian Rider? So sorry miss, he was transferred a little after he arrived. To St. Dominics."

 

"What?" Jack asked, dumbstruck. "St. Dominics?"

 

"Yep. Have a good day." The receptionist answered.

 

"O-Oh okay." Jack stammered.

 

She left the hospital, got back in her car and headed for St. Dominics. Okay, why would he be at St. Dominics?" That hospital was fir the military, the famous and the important. And as far as she knew, Ian was none of those. She would get answers from Ian. She meant it this time. Ian would give her answers from the beginning.

 

At St. Dominics Ian was found, but after she stepped out of the lift on Ian's floor, another obstacle stood in front of her.

 

There were two security guards placed on either side of Ian's room doorway. Jack recollected the room number that the receptionist had given her. Yes, it was the right the room. She bit her lip and strode over to the guards. "Excuse me…" she started.

 

"ID." One of them demanded.

 

She produced it readily and showed it to them. He snatched it from her and scanned it with some sort of device. Then he handed it back to her.

 

"Currently, the patient isn't available for visitors." he informed.

 

Jack opened her mouth to protest, but just then a woman walked out of Ian's room. She was of medium-height, dark-skinned, and had short, black, hair cut very badly. She was sucking a peppermint and seemed very surprised to see Jack. For a moment neither of them said anything then the woman said:

 

"I assume you are Miss Starbright." at the same time that Jack said: "Who are you? And what are you doing in Ian's room?"

 

"A colleague from work." She said with something that seemed to be an attempt at a cordial smile. The she whispered something to the guards and left.

 

Jack didn't know what to say, but the guards were letting her through, so she went.

 

Ian was sitting up in the bed, propped with pillows. He wasn't wearing a shirt and his whole mid-section was covered in bandages. His head was also bandaged. Perhaps he had heard the exchange outside the door because he was obviously expecting, though when he looked at her, his eyes were sleepy.

 

"Ian," she started, walking over to the bed and sitting on the edge. "we need to talk."

 

"Hello Jack." he said purposefully "not even a ‘how are you’?"   

 

"Ian you have been hiding things from me, I know that for a fact. Whatever the reason you haven’t told me—I don’t know, maybe you don’t trust me, but--"

 

"Jack," he cut her off "I will tell you…after I leave the hospital."

 

"Why 'after'?" she sighed "Ian listen, I know you've been lying to m-- us for a long time. Don't I at least have the right to know what happened to you?"

 

"Home is safer." he answered calmly, "And…I had to."

 

"Why?" she sighed again.

 

"I said I would tell you when I leave the hospital."

 

Jack considered it. "Okay then, so, um, how are you feeling?

 

Ian gave her a trademark wry smile. "Fairly better than last night, at least I don't feel drunk anymore."                                                                                                                              

 

"I don't suppose you could tell me who this to you either?" she guessed.

 

"No."

 

"Oh well then…" Jack voice trailed off when the door opened.

 

It was the doctor, he was short Italian man with dark eyes, rounded dark hair, and a round friendly face.

 

"Why hello," he spoke without an accent. "I am Doctor Josh Giovanni." He said to both of them.

 

"Hello, Jack Starbright."

 

He turned to Ian and walked to the bed and glanced at a clipboard he was holding. “I understand your name is Ian Rider and you were mugged?”

 

Ian began to nod but then stopped abruptly and answered ‘yes.’

 

 

“Hmm…” The doctor said while nodding. “Well, Rider…" he glanced down at the clipboard in his hands. "You'll probably be staying here only a few days. You have a pulmonary laceration," he looked up. "a scrape against the lung, it is being taken care of. We just have to drain the blood from your pleural space and lung will heal. The bruising of your torso and your four broken ribs only need to heal. As for the scald, it's a second-degree burn and you need to keep it bandaged so it won't get infected. I assume you don't live alone?"

 

"No." Both Jack and Ian answered.

 

"Good." Dr. Giovanni continued. "I would say at most you'll be here for 6 days if nothing goes wrong. Right now I want to take a look at your wounds while you’re awake."

 

 Ian yawned involuntarily.

 

“And, by the looks of it I had better hurry up if I want to do it while you’re awake.”           

 

"Well, I'll be leaving then, see ya later Ian." Jack said as she stood and left.

 

After Dr. Giovanni had finished, he left and Ian was alone in the room once again. He would have gone to sleep if he hadn’t had something to muse over deeply: what Jones had told him.

 

Apparently when he had sent for help, MI6 had responded, they had sent the SAS backup. Somehow the SAS had arrived at the wrong location. A perfect duplicate of the building Ian had been in. Only the building that the SAS had arrived at was the original. MI6 had had the correct location of the original building in their files, but the original was nothing but an empty building.

 

However, the mission hadn't been a fail, he'd still gotten the information he needed. Only now another organization knew his face as a spy, and that wasn't good. But, the mission was still a success, and…he also had other things to worry about now: telling Jack that he was spy. He really wished it hadn't come to this, because Jack just probably…wouldn't understand. She would probably get angry because he had lied to her--and Alex-- for so long. Hopefully after she signed the Official Secrets Act, she wouldn't ask anymore questions and don't let Alex know. Alex was clever kid though, but he couldn't tell him now. Now he was too young, when the time came, he would know better then anyone else.

 

 

 

 

Alex waited for Jack impatiently for her to pick him up from school. If she didn’t hurry up, he would have a less time to see Ian because he’d have to go to karate practice. And he wanted to actually get to talk to Ian.

 

He knew he probably wouldn't find out much from Ian, because he wouldn't tell him. He never really told him what was going on with his work, but then again Alex was only a child and Ian was an adult. However, Alex had his way of finding out things: Ian's office. He'd never been in there alone, and knew Ian didn't want him in there alone, but if Ian's work got him injured, he had the right to find out why--or at least he thought he did.

 

Jack finally, drove up.

 

“What took so long?” Alex said as he climbed into the car.

 

“I didn’t take long.” Jack answered. “This is when I always show up.”

 

“Yeah, but this time I have to hurry up so I can see Ian before I have to go to karate practice.”

 

“And you will, karate practice isn’t for another thirty minutes.”

 

As they drove on, Alex wondered which hospital they were going to. When they arrived at their destination he was very surprised.

 

“How come he’s here, Jack?” He asked as they both exited the car and walked toward the entrance.

 

“What do you mean?” Jack had no idea that Alex had extensive knowledge on St. Dominics.

 

“One time a girl asked Ms. Caite why there are so many different hospitals, and Ms. Caite said for different injury cases and different people. And she said St. Dominics are for army people and famous people. So why is Ian here?” Alex explained.

 

As Jack pushed through the revolving doors she pondered her answer.

 

“I don’t know why he’s here, Alex.”

 

“Didn’t you ask him?”

 

“Actually I didn’t.” Jack admitted.     

 

Alex thought about it. Ian was rich but he wasn’t famous. And he definitely wasn't an army person either. So the only reason he could have been taken to St. Dominics was for…protection. What could Ian do that was very secretive, paid lots, and was very, very, dangerous?

 

At the end of the lift ride, Jack was about to leave Alex when she remembered the guards. But Alex didn’t wait her. He walked right up to them.  

 

"Can I go through?"

 

"What is your name?" One of them asked.

 

"Alex Rider."

 

"You can go."

 

Alex opened the door to the starch white hospital room and stepped inside. Ian was lying on his back with a white sheet covering him up to his shoulders. His lips were slightly parted and his eyes half-closed. 

 

“Buh-bye, Alex. Call me when you need me to come pick you up.” Jack called after him.

 

“Kay.”

 

Alex walked over and knelt beside the bed. "Ian?" he called softly.

 

Ian's eyelids fluttered open; then closed again.

 

"Ian?" he repeated.

 

Ian opened his eyes and looked at Alex briefly, and then he closed his eyes again. "Hi Alex."

 

"Hi, Ian. Do you feel much better or just better?"

 

"Much better."  He replied.

 

"How long are you going to be in the hospital?"

 

Alex was straight and to the point, Ian liked that. "The Doctor said at most a week."

 

Alex nodded in acknowledgement. "And after you get out of the hospital, how long before you can go back to work?"

 

"Many weeks, Alex."

 

Alex nodded again and seemed perfectly satisfied with that answer.

 

The room a little while Alex seemed to be considering his next question. Ian watched him thoughtfully looking into space. Finally, he turned back to Ian and said: "What happened, Ian?"

 

"What do you think happened, Alex?" Ian replied easily.

 

"You got beat up." Alex said instantly.

 

"Then why did you ask?"

 

"Because there's more to it than that, much more." Alex replied matter-of-factly. "Not I expected a legitimate --or true-- answer." he added in a mumble.

 

Ian opened his eyes and was about to ask him what he said, but then Dr. Giovanni entered the room.

 

"Rider," he started cordially, "glad to see you're awake again. And--ah, who is this?" He said while extending a hand toward Alex. "Dr. Josh Giovanni." he introduced. "You’re Ian nephew, I presume."

 

Alex nodded while shaking his hand. “Alex.”

 

"Very happy to meet you." Dr. Giovanni said. "And Alex, how old are you?"

 

"Nine," Alex answered. "but I'll be ten next month."

 

"Ah." The doctor nodded.

 

"Um, Doctor, when will Uncle Ian be discharged?"

 

"To be exact, unless something happens, 5 days."

 

As he was speaking, Dr. Giovanni had walked over to Ian who steadily been falling asleep regardless of the other two people in the room. Now he had returned to the half-asleep state that he was in when Alex came in the room.

 

"And if he rests like he's supposed to," Dr. Giovanni continued. "he'll be absolutely fine in not too long." He turned back to Alex, "He's asleep so you should leave now."

 

"Okay I’ll leave soon." Alex said as Dr. Giovanni left the room.

 

Alex sat still in a chair close to the bed and watched Ian sleep while he thought.

 

Soon Ian reopened his eyes and looked at him. “Alex, what are you doing?” He asked in slight annoyance because he knew that Alex knew that he didn’t like it when people watched him sleep.

 

“Watching you sleep and thinking.” Alex replied.

 

“Please stop it.” Ian said as his drifted close again.

 

In a way Alex stopped because he was half-daydreaming, but he didn’t actually look away from him.

 

After he was sure that Ian was actually sleeping he stopped watching him and got up to leave. He used the phone that was in the room to call Jack and ask her to pick him up.

 

While he waited for Jack outside St. Dominics, he thought over the possibilities of what Ian real job could be. The guards outside his door proved that he was at St. Dominics for protection, but still, secretive, dangerous, and good pay wasn't enough to go on. The only other thing was that it required lots of traveling. Anyhow, the dangerous-ness and the secrecy were his biggest clues, so he concentrated on that.

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Approximately 7 hours later, at his house, Alex, dressed in pajamas, slipped out of his bedroom and stole up the stairs to Ian's office at the top of the house. After supper, he had searched Ian's bedroom for an hour straight, trying find the key to his office; he never found it. So he resorted to the lock pick that Ian let him have from a few years ago.

 

Alex climbed the stairs quietly until he reached the top. Straight ahead was the door to Ian's office. He got right to work picking the lock. It wasn't hard; he liked to go around the house and try to pick locks. But after he'd picked the lock, the door just wouldn't open. He pushed and pulled as hard as he could. It was as if there was a padlock on the other side, or at least something that was stopping him opening it even after he had already picked the lock. It was as if there was something on the other side stopping it from being opened, and there was no trace of it on this side, how did Ian get inside? After one final push, he gave up and leaned against the door.

 

"Darn it." he said quietly.

 

He leaned off the door and frustratedly went back down the stairs. Jack had already gone to bed, and he was supposed to have gone to bed too.

 

He ran back to his room and flipped the light off as he leaped into the bed. Even though the December night was frigid, the heat was off just so he could curl up underneath his quilts.

 

 

Chapter 2

 

Almost exactly 5 days after Alex had tried to get into Ian's office, only a few hours earlier, Jack and Alex drove to St. Dominics. They had planned to pick him up in the afternoon, but Dr. Giovanni told them that he needed a few extra hours. And for some reason those few extra hours had left him a very bad mood. When Jack and Alex arrived he was very cranky and extremely uncharacteristically unreasonable.

 

When they got to Ian's hospital room, they met Dr. Giovanni standing in the doorway and the guards were gone. Dr. Giovanni was smiling slightly. Both Jack and Alex have him puzzled look at his knowing expression, then they both turned to look inside the hospital room.

 

Ian was standing at the window with his back facing them, staring out into the night sky. He was wearing a pair of pine green, silk pajamas and no shirt. The bandages around his torso were very crisp and starch white, obviously freshly wrapped.

 

"How're you feeling?" Jack asked him from beside Dr. Giovanni in the doorway.

 

Ian didn't answer.

 

Jack walked over to him. What the matter, Ian?" She asked again, slightly worried at his uncharacteristic behavior.

 

He sighed but still didn't answer.

 

"Okay, what's your problem?" Jack demanded.

 

"Can't we just hurry up and leave?" His voice was much quieter and softer than usual, and he sounded very tired and very irritable.

 

Jack shrugged and walked back over to Dr. Giovanni.

 

"C'mon," Alex said suddenly "I don't like hospitals."            

 

 Jack nodded at Alex in acknowledgement, but turned to the doctor anyway. "What's the matter with him?" she asked temporarily cocking her head toward Ian.

 

Dr. Giovanni cleared his throat and began. "I'm not sure how, but he aggravated the incision that was made during treatment to cure the pulmonary laceration and it started bleeding. So we had to re-stitch it, and I don't see why that would make him so livid because it washisfault. Then some complete idiot of a nurse gave him caffeine pills--emphasis on caffeine-- instead of aspirin for his headache. Even though it helped his headache, now he’s very tired. I had to fire her of course; we've had this same situation too many times to count. I though, would be very unhappy if I were accidentally given caffeine pills of all incorrect medications instead of aspirin."

 

As Dr. Giovanni was speaking, Alex walked over to Ian and grabbed his arm and pulled him past Jack and the doctor and into the lift. Jack had to run into it before the doors closed.

 

"Thankyou so much Dr. Giovanni--from me and Ian!" Jack called out as the as the door closed.

 

Then she turned back to Ian and Alex, who were silently waiting in the lift. "You know, you two are rude." She said to them.

 

Ian just leaned against the lift wall and sighed again wearily and Alex said defensively, "I was going to say good-bye."

 

As soon as they reached the car, Ian got in the passenger seat and closed his eyes.  Jack glanced at him. "Gee, he must have been really tired." she commented. "Though I don't see why that means he had to ignore me."

 

"It was probably just easier." Alex supplied.

 

"Yeah, but why?" Jack said as she started the car.

 

"Because if he ignored you, you wouldn't want to talk to him and then when he got a chance he'd be able to sleep peacefully 'cause you'd leave him alone."

 

Jack glanced over her shoulder at Alex. "You two think alike, don't you?"

 

Later on when they reached Ian's house, Ian was steadily going to sleep in the sofa in the sitting room, and Jack was cleaning up supper's dishes.

 

Alex came down the stairs with a game of chess under his arm to play with Ian; he didn't know Ian was sleeping.

 

"Alex did you go finish your homework yet?" Jack yelled from the kitchen.

 

"Uhhhh, not yet." Alex called back.

 

"Alex, c'mon, you never leave your homework overnight."

 

Alex came to the kitchen doorway and looked at Jack. "Right," he said. "I never leave my homework overnight, so why can't it wait this once? Besides tomorrow is Saturday."

 

"You'll get into the habit. And what's so important that you need to do now?"

 

I just play this game with Ian, but if I do my homework first, he's going to go to sleep."

 

Jack turned from the sink and pointed over his head. "Take a look behind you Alex, he's already sleeping. Now go do your homework."

 

Defeated, Alex put the game back on the kitchen table and went back upstairs to his room. Meanwhile Jack had finished washing and went to the sitting room and sat in the sofa across from Ian. When she had told Alex that he was sleeping he hadn't been quite; now he was.

 

Before she woke him up, she thought about it. Maybe, with how miserable he was, this wasn't a good time to talk about it. Especially since it something so secretive and important; yeah she'd wait. Probably when Alex went to bed, or when Ian awoke himself. Since there was nothing else to do, she curled up in the sofa with a novel to read.

 

…………………………………………………………..

 

Alex awoke to the sound of an exclamation from Jack. He looked around and blinked. Oh, he'd fallen asleep while he was supposed to be doing his homework. Who could Jack be shouting at? Ian? He stood and hurried over to the top of the staircase and listened. He heard snippets of a conversation, and sure enough, Jack was shouting. But the voices were far away, they had to be in the cellar.

 

"…Ian really!" he heard Jack say in an unbelieving tone.

 

He strained his ears to listen harder, but he couldn't hear much more; they had lowered their voices.

 

…..

 

"Now just sign this." Ian showed her the document that he had had in the folder during the whole conversation.

 

"What is it?" Jack asked a hint of unhappiness still in her voice.

 

"Official Secrets Act. I mean it when I say you can't tell anyone.

 

Jack took it and signed it. As she was handing it back to him, she commented: "Alex isn't a stupid kid y'know."

 

"I know that. He'll find out when he needs to." Ian responded curtly

 

"And when wi--"

 

Ian cut her off "Must you ask?"

 

"Ian it still irks me that you didn't think you could trust me with this secret. It’s so important yet so…unbelievable. Of course I do believe though, but…all these times when you've come home poisoned, ill, injured…and just didn't think you tell me this. I don't think you trust me."

 

"It's not that I didn't trust you not to tell anyone Jack, but I couldn't tell you. And right now I'm not supposed to be telling either. It's supposed to be as secretive as possible. And I had to sign this document when they hired me, so I wasn't supposed to tell anyone."

 

Jack gave him a puzzled look. "But you told me your employers knew you were telling me."

 

"No I didn't," Ian said impatiently "I said I got this document from their offices. That doesn't mean they know."

 

"Ian you've been in the hospital, so when did you get it?"

 

"A long time ago in case I needed one. Do you think I'm lying?"

 

Jack didn't answer; she just moved toward the cellar's staircase and went back upstairs. Soon Ian emerged to the kitchen too.

 

Unlucky for the two adults, Alex had heard all of this as he lay at the top of the staircase to the cellar. When he heard Jack coming to the bottom of the steps he stood up and ran back to his room as fast as he could. Then as he sat in his room catching his breath and smiling about his narrow escape Jack poked her head in.

 

"You finish that homework yet Alex?"

 

"Um, not yet." Alex said reluctantly

 

"You've been in here for almost three hours Alex, what have you been doing?"

 

"Uh, I fell asleep for a little while." He said sheepishly

 

Jack smiled slightly shook her head disapprovingly. Then she turned and headed back up the hall.

 

Alex soon heard Ian call Jack's name in a slightly puzzled tone. "Going somewhere?" Ian added. Alex listened in.

 

"I'm going to visit my parents; I'm staying over there for about…no more than 3 weeks."

 

"When are you leaving?" Ian asked.

 

"Early tomorrow morning."

 

"Did you intend on telling me?"

 

"Yes." Jack's response was very terse.

 

Alex listened to Ian walked back up the hall. Then he thought about what he heard downstairs; Jack was not in a good mood. But she wasn't supposed to tell him, and in the mood that she was in, he doubted he could get her to tell him either. But now he knew something else. Something was stopping Ian from telling anyone. Something he had to sign when he was hired. This was a mystery. And something even better than finding out all this was that Ian intended for him to know, but not now…

 

Even though it was Friday night, Alex went to bed because Ian was going to bed and he was sure Jack would when she finished packing because she had to catch an early plane. So he went to bed…without finishing his homework.       

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

The next morning, when Alex woke up, he went straight to Jack's room; she wasn't there. He went downstairs, and she wasn't there either. "So she must have left already" he thought. He went to kitchen and got some cereal, after finished eating he did his homework, just to pass time until Ian woke up. Then when he finished his homework, he went to read book.

 

About two minutes into reading, he stopped and went to Ian's bedroom. But Ian was still sleeping. He sighed. Then out of boredom, and idea hit him.

 

He looked at Ian, lying on his back sleeping peacefully. He still wasn't wearing a shirt even though it was winter. "Maybe wearing a shirt over chest bandages is uncomfortable." Alex thought. The fact that Ian wasn't wearing a shirt was a great help in what Alex was going to try to accomplish.

 

Ian's bandages were slightly loosened and not crisp anymore; Alex assumed he hadn't had a good night. Even though Alex knew that the state that the bandages were in right now didn't necessarily mean they had to be changed, he wanted to. So he was going to try to get rid of those bandages--without waking Ian up. He knew it was near impossible, but if he was tired enough he would sleep heavier, although that wasn't saying much, seeing that he slept so lightly in the first place.

 

Alex got himself a blade and a pack of sterile bandages, though he very well knew that he couldn't wrap them while Ian was sleeping. Then knelt on the bed beside Ian, and moved the quilt. Okay, so they weren't quite as loose as he'd thought. He slowly pressed the blade into center of the top wrap of the bandages, close to Ian's collarbone. Ian's skin was cool to touch so he paused and turned up the heat and then came back and continued. As he sliced he sliced further he stopped going so slowly and swiftly cut the rest of it down to his navel. Then he heard Ian hiss in pain and instantly regretted it.

 

Alex watched in sheer shame and disappointment of failure as Ian's eyelids fluttered open. He stared at Alex for a long time, first puzzled, then annoyed. He sighed and pushed himself up on his elbows.

 

When Ian had pushed himself up, the bandages fell away and Alex saw the lengthy incision he had accidentally made. Alex downcast his eyes shamefully. "Sorry, Ian" he said in a small voice.

 

"Alex what were you trying to do?" Ian asked slightly angrily while pushing himself to a complete sitting position.

 

"I was only trying to help." Alex said in a smaller, somewhat sad voice.

 

Ian softened. "Okay, you can help me change the bandages, but first we need to clean up this cut."

 

"Okay." Alex jumped of the bed and ran to the bathroom to get gauze. When he returned he noticed the burn on Ian's side for the first time. He paused in walking back to the bed; then he came and sat on the side of the bed.

 

"Ian, what happened to your side?" He asked tentatively

 

"It got friction burned." Ian said simply.

 

“What’s a friction burn?” Alex asked

 

“It’s what you call a rubbed out burn.” Ian told him, knowing he understand immediately.

 

“Oh.”

 

Alex didn't ask anymore questions about it but he kept looking at it as he helped Ian change the bandages.

 

As Alex helped him, Ian mentally swore that he would never let a nine-year-old help him change bandages again. Alex was conscious of the few hisses that Ian had tried to suppress, so when they were finished, he had a rather sad and guilty expression on his face. However, Ian didn't notice.

 

"Did Jack leave already?" Ian soon asked after he had lay back down.

 

"Yeah." Alex answered glumly.

 

Ian glanced at him. "What's wrong, Alex?"

 

"Nothing."

 

Ian put his arms behind his head. "So exactly why did you come in here to wake me up?"

 

"I didn't come t--" Alex started defensively

 

"Yeah, but you knew I was going to wake up anyway."

 

"I guess because I was kinda bored."

 

Ian turned his head completely to face Alex. "I know it's Saturday and I'm not going anywhere, and I would play a few sports, but…"

 

"I know," Alex accepted "you're injured."

 

"Yeah, and I'm still tired." Ian added.

 

"That's okay, we can still play board games right here."

 

Ian raised an eyebrow "Which board games?"

 

"Chess," Alex said while sliding off the bed. "and don't go easy on me."

 

"Okay, then." Ian said, smiling

 

And, to Ian's complete disbelief Alex won him while he wasn't trying to go easy on him, even though Alex refused to believe that he hadn't been trying to go easy on him.     

 

 

Chapter 3

 

The following Wednesday afternoon, Ian's boring day was interrupted by a phone call from Brookland School. It was the school nurse calling to tell him that Alex wasn't feeling well. He had vomited all his lunch and he was feverish.

 

"I get five children coming here with the same bellyache and fever this afternoon. Until now I see that it was bad lunch. How can a cafeteria serve young children rotten food!?" Ms. Dessie finished disgustedly.

 

"Okay, I'll be on my way to pick him up." Ian hung up and left for the school.

 

When he reached, he noticed that there was an unusual amount of cars parked there and adults coming from the building with ill children. When he got Alex from the nurse's office, he was actually fainter than he'd expected. After he'd carried him to the car he fell asleep and didn't wake up until he reached home, where he then began to be very miserable.

 

….

 

Ian stepped out the kitchen with a cup of tea he'd intended to drink while reading news on his laptop. But to his surprise, Alex was sitting wide awake on the sofa. He sat beside Alex and rested the mug of tea on the coffee table.

 

"Do you want something?" he asked gently, knowing Alex's moods whenever he got ill. But Alex didn't answer.

 

"You don't feel any better?"

 

"No." Alex said very purposefully.

 

How come you didn’t get any tea for me?” He said while eying the tea, so Ian offered it to him.

 

"I don't want it." Alex said rudely.

 

Ian gave him a look. "Well if you don't tell me what you do want, I can't give it to you."

 

Alex did not answer.

 

"Alex, you being ill, doesn't you are to be disrespectful or irritable." Ian said.

 

"I'm not being disrespectful!" Alex shouted. "I did not ask for tea."

 

Ian put down the tea again and sighed. "Do you want anything?" he soon asked again.

 

Alex seemed to think about it this time. "I want," he paused "water. And I want you to leave me alone."

 

Ian rolled his eyes at Alex before getting a cup of cold water for him and then going to his laptop.

 

Soon afterward Alex fell asleep again and Ian took his temperature it was 102.66 º F, so it wasn't very bad.

 

Less than a minute after Alex fell asleep the phone rang again; this time it was MI6.

 

"Hello?"

 

"Rider, we have an assignment for you. It is very simple--until next week that is." Mrs. Jones familiar voice came across the phone line.

 

Ian said nothing so she continued.

 

"It should only last twenty minutes."

 

"Wow." Ian commented.

 

"A terrorist organization is agreeing to hand over all their weapons in exchange for 5 million dollars. A contract will be signed, and the checked exchanged the files with the codes to enter their weapon bases. The exchange will be this evening at Hyde Park. There will be three representatives from Silhouette you're going to go there as part of an escort for them. We want to see if the deal is valid, so you you'll stay at the park and see it through."

 

"What about next week?"

 

"The Silhouette representatives are going to stay in London for a week. When they leave, I want you get on the plane with them and stay in their hometown for a couple weeks to find out if the whole thing was genuine or not. It seems highly unlikely that this is all authentic."

 

"What time will the exchange be?"

 

"5:00 pm."

 

"I can't make it."

 

"Why?" There was a hint of surprise in Mrs. Jones's voice.

 

"Alex is sick and the housekeeper's out."

 

The other side of the line was silent for a while. "Oh well then…" She hung up. Ian soon put the phone down too. He actually wanted to go. He really wanted some action. How long was he supposed to bear staying home all the time?

 

He went back to his laptop, and occasionally threw a glance over his shoulder to observe of Alex's condition. After about half-an-hour there was a thud behind him he looked up. Alex had fallen off the sofa, but now he stood up.   

 

"I feel better now." he announced.

 

"Oh, really?" Ian questioned.

 

Alex walked toward Ian. "Yeah, and I'm not tired anymore at all. Can I go to Amalia's house?" He definitely did seem rested. Amalia Schulze was Alex's German friend. She was his same age and very tomboyish and daring; the two of them got along very well.

 

"Alex the daring games you come up with are bad enough. You can't play together when you're ill. And she might be too."

 

"But I don't feel ill anymore."

 

"Alex, sicknesses don't go away like that and you know it."

 

"I know," Alex said impatiently. "but I feel good right now. And besides, her mum will be there."

 

Ian thought about it. It would allow him to go to the exchange, but he knew the kind of things that Alex and Amalia could do when they went to play.

 

"Come on, pleeeaase?"

 

"Okay." Ian finally said, but since he still looked skeptical, Alex quickly said: "Mrs. Schulze will be there, you know she won't let us do too much."

 

"First I have to ask her." Ian told him.

 

"She'll say yes." Alex said carelessly, and ran off to get his roller skates.

 

After Ian spoke to Mrs. Schulze he turned back to Alex, who had been patiently waiting.

 

"What did she say? Is Amalia ill?"

 

"Lucky for you, no she isn't and her mother said yes."

 

"I told you." Alex said with slight conceit. Ian noticed but said nothing; the boy had a proud streak.

 

"Go get your helmet and pads and meet me outside in the car." Ian said to him.

 

 

When they reached the Schulze home, Amalia had her mother were waiting outside on the front porch of their huge Victorian style home. As soon as Amalia saw the car, she jumped off the porch and let her bike, which she was holding in one hand, clatter to the ground beside her. 

 

Amalia was a dark girl; in that she had black hair and dark hazel eyes and a tan.

 

As Alex was getting out of the car, she shouted across the vastness of their front yard.

 

 "Hi, Alex! Mum said you can stay until after dinner if it's okay with your uncle!" Alex looked back at Ian, he nodded. He didn't bother with getting out the car, because their front yard was too much trouble to cross for no real reason. Mrs. Schulze just waved to him and waved back before driving off.

 

"He said yes!" Alex called back to her.

 

"O.K c'mon we're gonna race!"

 

"Uh, I didn't bring my bike." Alex said.

 

Amalia looked at the skates in his hand. "O.K, we can skate race." then she lowered her voice and put her arm around his shoulder while they both walked back to the house. "We're gonna see who can race the fastest in the house on tiles before falling…"

 

_______________________________________________________________________ 

 

  Now Ian finally realized why the two soldiers on the other side serving as guards in the escort for the prime minister looked so familiar. They were two SAS soldiers he had trained with once. They were Snake and Cheetah; two from K-unit. Cheetah was the scout of the team and Snake was the communications specialist and tech. There were two other members, who weren't present; Wolf, the leader, and Jaguar, the medic.

 

Snake caught his eye and smiled crookedly. He had known that Ian was going to be there. Ian returned his smile. Then he looked around suspiciously; he felt like he was being watched.

 

Ian looked around, moving his eyes only. The head representative of Silhouette was in front of him to his left. Nothing about his nature seemed suspicious. It was something else…He looked at Cheetah and Snake again but their expressions were blank and serious. Finally Cheetah caught his eye, and he too seemed to notice something aloof.

 

The Silhouette head had finished his speech; he certainly hadn't tried to make them seem regretful of what ever terrorist attacks that they had executed in the past. He made it very clear that he was only doing this because this large amount of money would benefit him and everyone he works with greatly. That itself might pose as a hint of insincerity, but that didn't seem so, because he also appeared very honest.

 

The exchange was going to begin very soon now. The weapon bases that Britain was going to be given access to were as protected as imaginable. The paper of codes to enter them would show up as blank unless studied under the right combination light rays. That paper and the three men from Silhouette in front of him were the only means of getting in to the bases. If these men were killed and the file of codes destroyed, there would be no way to get in the bases. Ian thought that it was pretty stupid to bring all of the only means of getting into the bases here to England just for this; suppose something happened. But it was required.  

 

Silhouette had also even taken such precaution as to install into the weapon bases a system that made it so that if none of the three men who knew the codes, 'registered' them selves in the bases for two days, the bases would self-destruct. Just so no one else would ever be able to get into the bases if the three men were killed and the file lost.

 

The exchange begun; Ian watched closely. The uneasy feeling became more prominent.           

 He glanced up at a Snake again; he was agitated.

 

The folder was now leaving the hands of the Silhouette head. At that moment, suddenly machine gunfire erupted the small stage. Ian instinctively leapt behind the stage to safety trying pull whoever he could with him.

 

The machine gunfire lasted about 5 seconds, but seemed like a full minute. After a moment of the silence Ian straightened and surveyed the scene silently. Someone hadn't wanted this exchange to go through. The three men from Silhouette were dead and the file of codes was un-salvageable.

 

The prime minister and his escort were unhurt except for one person…it was Cheetah. He had tried to save whoever was being aimed for. Ian walked over to Snake who was kneeling beside his fallen comrade.

 

"Is he okay?" Ian asked quietly

 

"No…I think he’s dead. He’s not breathing." Snake answered slowly, in his normally quiet voice. Then he straightened and turned to Ian.

 

"Obviously someone didn't want this to happen." Snake said as he too, surveyed the scene. "And whoever did it was probably pretty angry that Silhouette even dared to try to go through with this."

 

Snake glanced back again at his fallen comrade, but looked up when he heard sirens nearing.

 

"Even though I'm sure MI6 has been watching and already knows what happened," Ian jumped down from the stage. “I’d rather not stick around.” He pushed through the dispersing crowd that had been watching.

 

Finally, he pushed out of the entrance to the park and made his way to his car.

 

He had only just started off for Liverpool St. when his car suddenly seemed to gain mind of its own. It was almost as if someone were remote controlling it. It--or whoever was controlling it-- drove it into an alleyway and then stopped. Ian tried to drive back out but it wouldn't move, so he got out and waited for a confrontation.  Then something abruptly slammed into his back and he hit the asphalt head-on.

 

"Screw you, Rider." A haunting man's voice said smugly.

 

Ian rolled over and began to rise, but the man hit him across the face with something that felt like a crowbar and he saw stars. When Ian fell back the man walked and stamped on his chest.

 

"You just always gotta go stick your nose your nose in things that didn't concern you." The haunting voice continued. 

 

Ian gasped for breath, his weakened ribs were being pressured and the air was being pushed out of his lungs.

 

Even though the man was standing on top of him, Ian couldn't see his face because he was wearing a ski mask. All he could see was devilish, really, really, bright, solid hazel eyes, smirking at him.

 

Ian grabbed the left ankle--the one he wasn't using to stand on him--of his attacker and yanked his leg toward him, sending him falling backward to the asphalt. Then Ian jumped back to his feet, still gasping for breath. But before he was able to do anything else, some other phantom man came up from behind him and grabbed him around the neck while tackling to him to the ground.

 

Next thing Ian knew, he could barely breathe and all he could see was blood and stars. He knew the second man was kneeling on top of him, with his hands around his neck choking him while continually slamming his face against the ground. As he was doing this he said something to Ian in Japanese but Ian couldn't quite understand him. Then the man hit him with something in the back of his head and he felt it begin to bleed and consciousness begin to slip away.

 

He could still faintly hear the first man's voice saying "Leave him alone and let's get outta here."

 

He couldn't breathe. He couldn't see…but he could faintly hear Snake's voice.

 

………………………………………………………

 

 

The moment Ian's eyes opened he was met with a blunt throbbing in his head and instantly regretted awakening. He knew he was in the hospital again. Something told him to glance to his right and now he knew why he woke up. Alex was sitting in chair not far from the bed watching him sleep. Ian really didn't like it when people watched him sleep, but he said nothing to Alex. Now Alex was giving him a look that he couldn't quite describe, but it definitely wasn't happy.

 

"You said, you wouldn't go back to work for weeks." He suddenly blurted.

 

Ian didn't know what to say. Partly because he was trying to remember why he was in the hospital, but he knew he couldn't ask Alex.  

 

"Amy's mum said I could stay with them until you're better." Alex started to tell him. "So she dropped me of here and left to go pick Amy's little brother from swimming practice. And she said I can call her when I want to leave."

 

Ian watched him as he spoke; he seemed remorseful and…maybe just plain unhappy. His eyes were downcast and his head turned away, but after Ian said nothing, he looked back at him.

 

"Do you still feel better?"

 

Alex began to shake his head, then paused, and then went ahead and continued.

 

"I'm sorry, Alex." Ian said quietly.

 

Alex didn't say anything else, but he considered telling Ian what he had heard the night before Jack left; which was actually why he was silent for such a long time. But then he told himself that he wouldn't let Ian know that he knew anything about it until he knew for sure and completely what Ian's job was. And he had a very good idea…

 

Alex stood up and moved to the door.

 

"Have you called Mrs. Schulze already?" Ian asked him from his lying flat position on the bed. He had budged from that position since he woke up. Alex supposed that he probably had a headache judging by the all the bruises on his face, and the bandages around his head.

 

"No." he answered cautiously "I'm going to the restroom." Then he slipped out the room.

 

He didn't lie, not yet. He was going to the restroom. After that he would go back to his house, because he wanted to try to get into Ian's office and he wanted to be by himself.

 

After he went to restroom came back to Ian's room and leaned in through the door. "Okay Ian I'm leaving now, bye!" But Ian didn't answer, so he went in the room.

 

The man had either fallen asleep or unconscious, but Alex thought it was the latter. So he left. Little did he know about how much trouble it would cause….

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Chapter 4

 

 

The thin man in the swivel chair finally spoke. "I know knew I could trust you to do it right Harl; you always do." He seemed to be choking with the way his raspy voice sounded.

 

"Don't try to flatter me, Gonzalez, if you trusted me why did you send Kao Kan with me?" Lester Harl said brusquely

 

"Because I wanted it done very quickly." The much older man answered in his raspy voice. He was always more comfortable around his other employees. Harl was so intimidating sometimes. "Why didn't you come straight back from the park like I asked?" He added, trying to regain the voice of authority.

 

"Because Kao noticed Rider there, undercover as part of the escort, and he insisted to teach him a lesson about poking his nose in places it doesn't belong."

 

"But you didn't do it thoroughly?"

 

"I have no business Rider, besides the fact that I hate him, so I hurt him and made Kao leave him alone. Now hurry up and tell me what you want me to do so I can get out of here."

 

The thin old man finally spun around in the swivel chair. Harl prayed he wouldn't turn on the dim overhead light when he began to speak because this guy was uglier than a vampire bat; he didn't.

 

"You know that Nicholas Alston used to work for us, right?"

 

"Yeah, and he left like, what? Eight years ago?" Harl answered impatiently.

 

"Yes. I've been waiting for his youngest, most beloved son to grow up so I could kill him for revenge on him. And he knows I intend to get revenge on him, so he and everyone he loves--which is only his young son, Jake Alston--are highly protected. So my security specialist searched them out and he knows how to get to them. His name is Boris Granger and his address is 435 Rover Rd."

 

Harl turned and left. He could try finding Alston himself, but that might be a waste of time. So he mounted his motorbike and struck out for Granger.

 

About ten minutes later, Harl dismounted his motorbike in front of a small, old, redbrick house. He walked up to the knocked. Soon a young brunette woman opened it.

 

"Who're you?" She asked carelessly.

 

"I'm here for Granger."

 

"I am a Granger." She responded.

 

"Boris Granger." He said with a raised eyebrow.

 

She stepped back from the, allowing him to come in, but he didn't. "Boris," She yelled up the staircase behind her. "someone here for you!"

 

An ugly, overweight, middle-aged man lumbered down the staircase. He didn't speak until he found a sofa to drop into, causing Harl to have to come inside to talk to him.

 

"So Gonzalez sent you here for me, eh? What do you want?" He asked.

 

"I need to know how to get to Jake Alston."

 

"Hmmm, but what's in it for me?" Boris asked, with a smirk, because he knew he had the information so he make Harl do what he wanted.

 

Harl didn't answer.

 

"Tell you what," Boris continued "I'll tell you how to get to Alston if you kidnap Alex Rider for me."

 

"Why do you want him?"

 

"You know Ian Rider, right?" Boris asked without answering his question.

 

"I know who Alex Rider is." Harl snapped impatiently. "But I'm not a kidnapper, I'm a contract killer."

 

"He lives on Chaney Walk and--"

 

Harl walked out and shut the door. He already knew where the Rider home was, and since Boris obviously wasn't going to change his mind so it didn't make sense to waste time arguing.  

 

………………………………………………….

 

Alex walked all the way back down to the first floor, and sat on the sofa in the sitting and sighed. He wondered why he had thought he would be able get into the office now. And now he had to bike all the way to Amalia's house; it wasn't far away but he didn't feel like using his muscles right now. As a matter of fact, all he wanted to do was sleep…

 

He lay down in the sofa and curled up, wishing and wishing he hadn't left the hospital. But checking out Ian's office wasn't the only reason he wanted to leave the hospital, it was also because he was angry with Ian so he wanted to leave, and he couldn't have called Mrs. Schulze yet because with how short a time he'd been at the hospital she couldn't have done what she had left to do. But he was angry because Ian had lied to him, and angry because he assumed that Ian actually let him go and play with Amalia even though he was sick because it was way to get away from him just so he could go and do…whatever it was that left him in the hospital again. Though one thing was weird, Ian always left London went he did his work, and this time, he was already back and in the hospital.

 

Alex pushed it out of his mind; he really didn't want to think about Ian right now. His stomach ached and he felt feverish and weak. As he was lying there he was shocked to hear a terrible scratching sound. Terrible because he knew what it was, lock picking. He rolled off the couch and stood up. Ian couldn't come to save him as he always would, so there was only thing to do.

 

He ran to window and threw it open. Then jump back onto to the sofa and put his legs out the window. He heard the front door open. He slid out and landed on the ground on the balls his feet.  Then he ran around to the front of the house and peered in through the front window, but he saw no one. Then he felt someone close in on him. Alex spun around and looked up fearfully.

 

It was a man with a pistol. He was wearing a leather jacket and black jeans. His hands were almost completely white. It was almost completely dark out now, and since the man was shadowing the little light that was left, Alex couldn't see his face. But his eyes seemed to glow bright, solid, hazel. 

 

"What do you want with me?" Alex asked the fear showing in his voice.

 

"If you do as tell you, I won't have to use it." The man whispered to him. And Alex knew the gun was what he was talking about.  Alex swallowed.

 

The man grabbed hold of Alex shoulder and pulled him away from the wall, turning him around and pushing him toward the road.

 

"You're going to get on the front of that motorbike and be silent." The man whispered.  

 

Alex couldn't just let himself be kidnapped; Ian would be so worried. And especially not if there was something he could about it.  There were neighbors, he could scream for help.

 

He began to walk very slowly toward the motorbike. Just as he was about to open his mouth to scream he felt the cold barrel of a gun against his lower back.

 

"Walk faster and don't try any thing funny. Even if you scream I can get out of here with you before anyone can catch me."

 

Oh well, so much for that.

 

After Alex got on the front of the motorbike, Harl got on the back and kept the pistol at Alex's lower back.

 

Alex could have been happy, since he always wanted to ride on a motorbike, but under these circumstances he felt nothing but fear and remorse. Right now, all he could do was wait until they reached there destination, and try to take note of where they going just in case he ever escaped.

 

And when they stopped in front of a tiny old redbrick and Harl moved the gun from his back and stuck it in his waistband, Alex thought that maybe his chance for escape might be better. One problem though was that all the other houses in the area looked abandoned.

 

"Get off." The man behind him said impatiently.

 

Alex climbed off the motorbike slowly; he wasn't moving slowly to anger the man, he was only moving slowly because even with the excitement and fear, he still felt weak and tired. But apparently the man got impatient or something because shoved him off to make him hurry up, and Alex fell off and scratched his face against the pavement.

 

When Alex got back to his feet, he was mad, and would have really caught that man in groin had he not blocked. Then Alex thought he was really going to do something bad to him, but he didn't. Instead he laughed at him.

 

"Get moving," he said to Alex, while pulling out his gun again. "and stop trying to delay me, it won't do you any good."

 

So again, he had no choice but to listen and go to the house.

 

Harl knocked on the door and then grabbed Alex's arm very tightly before putting away his gun again.

 

A brunette about as old Jack opened, when she saw Alex she smiled and stepped aside; it wasn't a pleasant smile, it was more of a sinister satisfied smile.

 

Since Alex hadn't moved yet, the kidnapper pushed him inside and stepped inside too. The interior of the house was worse than the outside, or at this room was.  

 

Ahead of the door was a narrow, steep staircase. To his right was one step down to another room.

 

This room was small and if wasn't so messy it would look pretty bare. There was one sofa in front of him facing a TV and its back facing him. Beside the TV was a two-seater that was facing him. And sitting in the sofa was--probably--the ugliest man Alex had ever seen. And he looked really happy to see Alex and Alex didn't like it.

 

"Alright Granger, here's the kid, now give me what I want."

 

The incredibly obese, unsightly man held up a folder but didn't move from where he was sitting, eating a large cup of McDonald's French Fries. So the woman who opened the door took it from him and passed it to the kidnapper, who took it and looked through the papers in it with a look of anger and uncertainty. Then Alex realized that he was only just really seeing how he looked; not like the type of man to go around kidnapping innocent nine-year-olds.

 

He had really, really bright and solid hazel eyes; so bright that they looked fake, but somehow Alex knew they weren't. His hair was light brown and cropped close, and his skin was slightly pale but his cheeks were flushed.

 

He said a lot of stuff something in a language Alex didn't know, and from the tone of his voice Alex thought he was swearing. Then he took on last glance at Alex and then left.

 

Now Alex was left with the other two people. So apparently the man only kidnapped him for these people. But why him?

 

The woman had left to what Alex supposed was a kitchen. And the ugly man had finally lifted his weight from the couch and came lumbering over Alex. Alex really didn't want to be anything but ten feet from him so he waited until the man had already made it around the sofa that he was closest to and then slipped around the staircase and stepped over to the kitchen doorway which was several feet to the right of TV. He guessed must have instantly decided that he wasn't going to go all the way back over to the TV just to try to intimidate Alex, because he just instantaneously dropped into the sofa that he was closest to.

 

"Do you have any idea why you're here, Alex?" He asked. He had this slob-ish kind of voice that just reminded Alex of how unsightly he was even though he had purposely turned his head away so he wouldn't have to see him.

 

Alex shook his head.

 

"No idea at all? Well it's because your uncle."

 

"No it isn't." Alex said instantly; not because he knew it, but because he didn't want any strangers to try to turn him against Ian seeing that he still kind of angry at him. "It's because of you, because you made that man kidnap me."

 

"Ha!" The man said humorlessly "You trying to be defensive. Well I wouldn't want you kidnapped if your uncle hadn't done what he did to me."

 

Alex said nothing.

 

"Did you know that your precious uncle is a spy?" A voice behind him, full of hatred, suddenly said. "Or that he kills people? Or that he carries a gun around with him?"

 

Alex was just silent, because for a moment he was considering whether or not to believe it. One morning when Ian had dropped him off at school because Jack had been out that morning, Amalia had insisted that she saw his uncle with a pistol and she still believed up to this day, but he never did. And from what spies did--or from what he knew anyway--what Ian did definitely did fit the bill. But, did he kill people? No. He would not believe that.

 

"No he doesn't," Alex contradicted determinedly. "he doesn't kill people."

 

"Yes he does," the woman, all of a sudden so angry, insisted. "He killed my parents and all my sisters!"

 

"No he doesn't!" Alex shouted; he was pretty mad, since he fear wasn't overtaking him because he didn't feel particularly threatened by a man who couldn't move any faster than .5 miles per hour. Or a woman who would live with that man. And since he was actually pretty angry with himself for not just doing as he was supposed to have and Mrs. Schulze, and Amalia, and Dr. Giovanni, and Ian, would be so worried about him, plus he was only angrier at Ian for not telling this information that he now knew was true (it never occurred to him that he was Ian’s nine-year-old nephew, and he didn’t necessarily have to tell him everything) he didn’t care about shouting and actually forgetting that he wasn’t exactly supposed be arguing with these people. 

 

However, he really didn’t expect the woman to advance on him with a really thick wooden stick.

 

“How are you going to tell me?” She snarled. “He blew them up with a remote bomb! And he did on purpose! He blew up my parents and five innocent little girls! How good does that make him?!”

 

She did seem very convinced that Ian had done this. Alex on the other hand was very convinced that Ian hadn’t done it. Then the obese man told Alex to shut up and then he turned to the woman.

 

“Joanne, go put him in his room.”

 

She grabbed his shoulder roughly and began to push him out of the kitchen doorway and back to the staircase, since Alex was angry, he pulled out of her grasp, so she just pushed him up the stairs. At the top of the stairs they turned right down a bare hallway at the end there was a very small, high window and on the left wall, a door to a very small room.

 

“This is your bedroom until your uncle agrees to our terms.” She spat; then shoved him inside the room and shoved the door shut. Alex heard her lock it with an outside lock.

 

The second thing Alex noticed about the room—more like vicinity—was that it didn’t have a window. The first thing was how messy it was. These people were people were apparently very messy people, though this room didn’t seem like one they used regularly. It looked more like they had used it a long time ago and now they just stored junk in it.

 

The room—or vicinity—could in no way have been a bedroom. It was about as large as a storage closet. It was extremely messy, and it was stink; it smelled like rotten fast food. There were empty pizza boxes, Burger King burger wrappers, shopping bags, and carryout cartons, on the floor. In the corner there was an broken olive green armchair and a sky blue camp bed. And there were boxes of old videos and other old stuff Alex guessed.

 

Alex sighed deeply and felt tears sting the back of his eyes. Thinking of how much easier it would have been if he had just stayed at the hospital with Ian, instead of going back home because he was mad at him and he wanted to know what his job was. Now he knew, and he would have been much happier in the safety of being in a room with Ian, even if he was in hospital bed. He would give anything to be back with Ian, where he would always be safe, or even at Amalia’s house in one of their huge guest bedrooms sleeping, because now he was really tired and he couldn’t go to sleep in here. But there was nothing else he could do, so tried to blinked back the tears and began to clean the room, using the shopping bags as trash bags

 

 

 

Ian pushed himself to a sitting position in the bed a lot faster than he should of even though his head felt like it was surely going to float off his body and stared at Dr. Giovanni straight in the eye and then Mrs. Schulze.

 

“What the hell do you mean by ‘he’s lost’?” He asked them both in deadly voice.

 

“Just that.” Mrs. Schulze answered irritably “I left him here with the doctor and you; you’re telling me you didn’t wake up at all during any of that time?”

 

“No, I didn’t.” Ian answered, and he was starting to get angry. “Have you tried calling my house number?”

 

“Yes.” Mrs. Schuzle said. “And mine.” She added. Amalia just stood behind her mother looking really worried for Alex but she didn’t say anything.

 

“Ian,” Dr. Giovanni said, speaking for the first time. “At St. Dominics, there are cameras in the patient’s rooms, and…according the video, you did speak with Alex. And he told you told that he was going to call Mrs. Schulze. Then he left. He didn't say where he was going. You don’t remember any of that? ”

 

“No he didn’t speak with me.” Ian said decisively “This is the first time I’ve woke up from being in the hospital, and I haven’t seen Alex ever since I dropped him off at your house.” He said nodding to Mrs. Schulze.

 

“Maybe that injury to the back of your head is more serious than I thought…” Dr. Giovanni said.

 

Ian didn’t care about his head injury, but he was sure that he hadn’t seen Alex ever since he had dropped him off. He sighed. It was just like Alex to go off somewhere he wasn’t supposed to and then try to get back before anyone noticed. But it wasn’t like him to go off for hours without communicating anyone.

 

“Have you checked my house then?” he asked Mrs. Schulze

 

“Yes.”

 

So Ian lay back down and sighed again. Alex had been kidnapped, and what was he doing? Lying in a fucked hospital bed. 

 

 

Chapter 5

 

 

Alex looked around, rubbing his eyes. At first he didn’t know where he was, but then he realized. He’d fallen asleep in the hole of a room that had been given to him. And he also didn’t feel really sick anymore.  

 

Instantly he stood up and tried the door, it wasn’t locked. So he opened it and stepped out. Up the hall, Joanne was sitting at the top of the staircase laughing. When she saw him, her expression didn’t change. She just glanced at him at then tuned back to whoever it was she talking to.  Which left Alex kind of stuck in the hallway, because when he tried to go down there she refused to move.

 

Suddenly she stood and turned to him, gesturing for him to come down the stairs. “Come.” Then she went down. She didn’t seem angry at him anymore. He followed her.

 

Downstairs, she told him to go in the kitchen where there was a bowl of cereal waiting for him. He ate it because he hungry, and while he did, he noticed that he didn’t see the obese man anywhere, or who Joanne could have been talking to.

 

A little after he finished, and just sat there thinking, there was a sharp knock on the door.

Joanne walked over and opened it. It was the kidnapper from yesterday, only this time his bright hazel eyes were furious, and he was wet with rain.

 

When he stepped inside, he had the folder that the overweight man had given him, and he seemed to be looking for him.

 

He turned to Joanne. “Where’s your brother?” He asked in a livid tone.

 

She seemed pretty amused with him being so angry and just grinned and pointed behind him. He spun around, now facing the room that was one step down from the front room. Joanne didn’t seem to care much about anything that happened between those two men so she went back upstairs. Since no one was paying attention to him, Alex got up and came out kitchen.

 

“If you think you think this some joke, Boris, you’re in for something else. I'm a contract killer and I would kill without pay right now if you weren't any use to me.” The kidnapper snapped. Alex shuddered, if that man was killer he was so very grateful for not being a target.

 

The man threw the folder down behind on the coffee table in the front room, where Alex was. The papers all spilled out on the floor.

 

“Now what?” Boris’s lazy voice floated up.

 

“There’s no one at that address.”

 

Alex knelt on the floor and picked up some of the papers. The first one was a street map, the second was a profile for a man named Jake Alston, and Alex read it.

 

He was 20 years old, but had only been so for 2 days. His occupation was a soldier. There was an area for a picture but there was none. Apparent this man was the target; Alex felt sorry for him. Suddenly, he felt eyes on him, so he looked up. The man was staring at him, or more like glaring at him, because he wouldn't put down the paper. So he dropped it.

 

Harl turned back to Boris. "So why didn't you tell me that he was out of town?"

 

Alex heard Boris laugh. "Because, if I told you he was out of town last night instead of this morning you wouldn't have kidnapped him for me, now would you, Harl?"

 

Harl threw a glance Alex's way and Alex looked away because he didn't like the way those clear, bright, hazel eyes looked. Though he was sure they would be much more pleasant if his expression had been friendly.

 

"When will he be back?" Harl had turned back to Boris.

 

"Saturday morning."

 

Harl walked out and closed the door behind him. He left without the papers, so Alex got back the profile paper and the map and folded them and stuffed them in his jeans pocket.  Then, he stood to go back into the kitchen because he was pretty sure Boris didn't even know he was down here and Joanne was nowhere to be seen. And maybe he could even try to escape by the kitchen window.

 

No such luck. The window was somehow electrically locked and he couldn't open it because couldn't find a control panel of any sort.

 

He heard some lumbering toward him, and since he knew that Boris's ignorance of him being awake was an advantage, he ran for only exit from the kitchen that wasn't the front room; the cellar. He slipped in and shut the door just before Boris entered the kitchen. While he was standing there, on the top step of the staircase to the finished cellar, he remembered all that Joanne had been screaming at him about yesterday. About his uncle being a killer. And he started thinking that maybe some part of it was true because she was so emotional about it and he didn't think she would come up with all that. Unless she was a very good actor. And it also occurred to him that if Boris was actually looking for him, standing at the top of the stairs would be a very good place to be if he didn't want to be seen. 

 

So he quietly went down the flight of stairs into a somewhat large room for how small most of the rooms in the house were. The room was carpeted and completely bare, so he continued out into a hallway. He walked down the dim hallway until he came to a peculiar room. The wall that was facing the hallway was completely transparent glass so he could see inside.

 

The room looked like--could be--a cage. The floor and all the walls (except the one that was facing him) were metal. But in the room was a yellow bottle with no label. And a solid glass cage that had at least 80 very exited insects flying around something in there.

 

Alex was stared at it for a long time, wondering what it was doing here and what type of bugs they were. He couldn't even tell if they were if they were flies or some other type of small flying insect because not one of them ever stopped, and he couldn't get in to room at all to get a better look at them. As a matter of fact he didn't even see a door.

 

Alex stooped and kept watching them and wondering why these two people would have a cage of about 80 bugs in their cellar along with nameless yellow bottle.

 

Alex suddenly heard the cellar door open. He straightened and ran down the hallway there was on door at the end but, unfortunately, it was locked.

 

So instead he turned and waited to be confronted. When Joanne cam e to the other end of the hallway, she just raised an eyebrow at him in funny way and the shrugged and gestured for him to come.

 

So Alex followed her, thinking to himself that she wasn't really mean to him, even though she was a kidnapper. Unlike her brother who was mean, and ugly.

 

Upstairs, Boris was in front room watching TV, and got the feeling that that was all he does.

 

He turned to them. "Jo told you why you're here last night. And you're going to stay here until your uncle destroys his life for us. He gonna give up everything he has and give up his job and get out of country and ruin his life, just for you."

 

Alex just had the notion to say something rude, and spoke before he even thought. "Or else?"

 

"Or else I'm going to torture and he will know it." Boris said simply.

 

"He won't do it. He won't have to." Alex returned in his own calm way. "Ian is smarter than you, and he can find me and get me out of here without giving you anything."

 

Boris snarled, but Joanne just laughed at him, which made him angry. "How do you figure that?" she asked.

 

Alex shrugged. "Well, you included more than just yourselves in the kidnapping, so it'll be easier to find you, and I know that the guy who kidnapped wasn't wearing gloves, so Ian can trace his fingerprints and find him easier." He knew about tracing fingerprints because once Jack and Ian let him a watch a criminal movie and when he asked Ian about, he told him.

 

Both adults did seem surprised that he knew that, and Alex was happy with himself. None of three though, knew that Harl purposely didn't wear any gloves.

 

Seemingly, Boris didn't know what to say to that, so he just made Joanne take him back to the little closet/bedroom.

 

_______________________________________________________________________       

 

 

Ian awakened again with a headache to the feel of being watched. He turned his head to the right; there was a nurse sitting there, watching him sleep, only not in the same way that Alex was. Ian sort of glared at her unconsciously and she instantly looked away and then stood up.

 

She left and then soon Dr. Giovanni came in without her.

 

"Ian --" Dr. Giovanni started pleasantly.

 

"Has Alex been found?" Ian asked sharply, cutting him off.

    

Dr. Giovanni was slightly surprised, "No." He answered reluctantly.

 

Ian swore in French under his breath. "What else do you know about it?" He looked back up at the doctor.

 

Dr. Giovanni was silent for a second. "That the police are searching for him and the fingerprints that they found on the doorknob don't match with any of their criminal profiles."

 

"The police can't find out what I can find out what I can." Ian muttered. "When can I get out the hospital?"

 

"Well, how do you feel?" Dr. Giovanni asked him.

 

"My head is still pounding, and my still chest hurts."

 

"I think it was the injury to the back of your head that caused the amnesia, and that's where the continuous headache is coming from too, but that's all fixed. And as for your chest, well that just has to heal, and you really need to rest it before something worse happens to it. So as it is, you're just here for observation; for the rest of today and tomorrow."

 

Ian glanced at the clock on the wall; it was 1:56 p.m., which meant Alex had been missing for almost a day now, and Ian feared the worst. With all the enemies he had, it was likely that they would do so just to hurt him…But as long as he was stuck in the hospital he couldn't do anything whatsoever.

 

Then there was also the whole idea about him being the last one seen with Alex. And he knew that that hadn't happened. After he had left the park…Well, he would admit that he couldn't remember what had happened after he'd left the park, but he definitely was sure that he hadn't seen Alex ever since he had dropped him off at Mrs. Schulze. But Dr. Giovanni was convinced that that was the way it was.

 

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Thursday evening; Alex was sitting at the supper table, angrily watching Joanne and Boris in the front room.  They were watching a movie and they had literally chained him to the chair, and he'd been sitting there for over two hours. This was some punishment. Now he was convinced that they weren't going to hurt him, or at least Joanne wouldn't, and Boris was way too lazy to bother.

 

Alex sat there angrily, watching the two. His hands weren't chained down but his arms were so there still wasn't anything for him to do to get out. Except turning over the chair backwards and then trying squirm out. So he did that; when the back of the wooden chair hit the floor both adults glared over at him but he didn't care. Then he did manage to wriggle out of the chain and stood up. The other two obviously knew he'd gotten out but they didn't care. They knew that he couldn't get out of the house at all unless he broke the kitchen window or went through the front room, neither of which he could do because they would hear the window break, or else they would see him come through the front room.  So he went down to the cellar, but as he was going down he heard Joanne say: "

 

“No! I said pause it! Now just hold up." Then she appeared at the top of stairs. 

 

"You really want to feel those mosquitoes don't you? Boris won't hesitate. You're going back to your room now. C'mon."

 

Alex followed her, hardly even thinking about where he was going, just unconsciously following her. He was wondering what she meant. Were they going the let the mosquitoes bite him as punishment? When she pushed him back into his room and locked it quickly and left, he didn't really care.

 

Alex sat on the floor. He was right now telling himself that he needed to come up with a plan. Because he figured the only reason they weren’t hurting him was because they knew that Ian was in the hospital. And if he was in the hospital he couldn’t do anything to save Alex, so there was no need to hurt him, just keep him until Ian could do what they wanted.

 

Alex stood up walked over to the camp bed, falling heavily on the canvas. If Ian wasn't going to get out the hospital anytime soon then he needed to come up with a plan. It may sound pompous; a nine-year-old trying to outsmart two adults, but they underestimated him, and that was their mistake. Besides, Ian and Jack did say that he was an extraordinary child

 

 

Chapter 6

 

 

If it was Friday morning that meant Ian only had one day left in the hospital. But he didn't know that also meant that he was going to get a surprise visitor. 

 

After Ian had eaten the breakfast that had been brought to him, he lay back and mused over the recent happening; of course, Alex's kidnapping on top.

 

His thoughts were broken through when the door opened and it wasn't a nurse or Dr. Giovanni.

 

It was a middle-aged man with black hair; tall and clean-shaven.

 

"Sky?" Ian asked in surprise.

 

"Yeah, Cobr--"

 

"Don't call me that." Ian said hastily and quietly.

 

"Right, sorry." He said walking over to the bed. "How long're you going to be stuck in here?" The Scottish accent was always more familiar every time Ian heard it.

 

"Tomorrow morning I'll be out." Ian answered.

 

"Did you know that one of those goons back there beating you up was Kao Kan?" The man asked. "And the other one was Lester Harl…I have a feeling he was one who shot down Cheetah too."

 

Ian silently digested this information. "Kao Kan? And how do you know this?"

 

Snake shrugged. "I can easily spot Kao Kan; I trained at an army camp with him once. And, well, it's not hard to spot Harl because his eyes look like hazel colored light bulbs. Literally."

"Oh." Ian nodded, then he glanced at the clock. "

 

"So what's wrong with you?" Snake suddenly asked after a quiet moment. "Besides injury-wise; you're usually much more sarcastic and, not talkative, but more talkative than this."

 

"I'm in the hospital, Sna--Sky." Ian said, trying to dissuade him from pursuing that.

 

Snake leaned forward over the bed, and looked Ian in the eye. "Yeah…but there's something else." He insisted.

 

"Snake," Forgetting he wasn't supposed to use his codename. "you've only known me for a month so--"

 

"You're beginning to sound like Ryand when he's solemn about something." Snake said, cutting him off and straightening. "Fine, I'll leave you alone."

 

Snake turned to leave. "Alex has been kidnapped." Ian told him solemnly.

 

Snake turned back. "Who is Alex?"

 

Ian gave him an annoyed look. "My brother's son. I told you before."

 

"How old is he?"

 

"Just nine."

 

Snake was silent for moment. "Do you have any idea which of your enemies would want him? And are you sure he'd been kidnapped and not…" Snake stopped there, without voicing the rest of it.

 

Ian gave Snake a long look without saying anything; a look that would have made anyone else uncomfortable. But Snake just looked straight back at him, letting him know that it really was possible. Ian knew that, he just didn't want to acknowledge it.

 

"No…" Ian finally answered slowly. "I don't know…I can't find out anything as long as I'm in this blasted hospital."

 

"It is your fault you’re here you know." Snake pointed out, exasperatingly right, as far as Ian was concerned.

 

"What about your unit, do you all have a replacement for Cheetah?" Ian changed the subject.

 

"Actually, he wasn't dead, but he’ll never be able to work in the field again.. But we did find a replacement for him. Wolf's--I mean Ry's-- young friend, Jake, he's a scout type but I don't really like him; too much like Ryand only immature."

 

As he began walking toward the door to leave, he paused and said to Ian: "Look for a message; find one, then think it through hard before you do what it says; don't, then rack your brain for an enemy who'd be stupid enough to kidnap someone without leaving a message before you give up." Then Snake was gone. 

     

Not that Ian didn't know that already, but Snake telling him again made him think about it harder.

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Alex smiled triumphantly. He had done it, finally. He'd successfully unscrewed the doorknob with a spring from the armchair. He pushed the door and it swung open. He almost laughed. He quickly closed it back, and sat back on the small bed, smiling. Now, he had a plan, but first he was going to get back at them for helping to kill innocent soldiers, for kidnapping him, and for trying destroy Ian's life.

 

His plan was to use the old clothes in one the boxes to create a rope that he would dangle out the tiny window that was right outside the door. Then he could down that, but there was still one problem: he didn't know what to anchor the rope to. He could tie the clothes-rope to springs from the chair and then weave the spring through the canvas of the camp bed, but that probably wouldn't hold, and though he might be daring, and he always wanted to climb in and out of windows, falling two stories to ground wasn't appealing to him.

 

Another option was using the cardboard of the boxes along with springs, and the chair(since it was the heaviest thing in the room) to create a contraption that would hold, but that he had to think about.

 

Alex stood up and replaced the knob because he couldn't afford for them to know that he could get out.

 

As for getting back at Joanne and Boris; well, he what he wanted to do was empty their bank account, but he had no idea how to pull that off. So he would have to settle for destroying their most treasured appliances. He really wanted to do something worse to them for trying to kill people and--speaking of that, he needed to find a way to save him. So he decided he was going to save the man, forgetting about how hard that might be.

 

Alex stood up and began to unscrew the doorknob again, not thinking about it as he turned, he was thinking about saving Jake Alston. Let's see, both him and the kidnapper knew that he would be back tomorrow morning. And he'd probably go to his house that same morning to kill him right away. Alex had to get there first.

 

After Alex unscrewed the knob, he slipped out into the darkness of the hallway and didn't dare turn on a light. Then he quickly ran down the stairs and into the lounge where he knew there was a computer. He pulled the folded paper of Alston's profile out of his pocket and punched his address into Google Maps. He lived on Manor Rd, and Alex had no idea where that was. And didn't know the address of this house so there was nothing he could do for the man.

 

"Oh well." Alex said very quietly and very sadly. "Poor him, he's gonna die. I wish I could I save him." He sighed and turned off the computer.

 

If Alex had stayed in the room and thought about his plan really as hard as he was capable, though he had thought it through pretty thoroughly for a nine-year-old, he would have realized that he should have set up the escape through the window before he smashed the computer parts, not after. But he didn't.

 

As a matter of fact he could have smashed the computer and TV now if he could use the front door as an escape, but he couldn't, because all the exits from the house on the first floor had those electrical locks that the kitchen window had, so he had to get out using the window upstairs.

 

But, instead of setting up his escape, he went to search the kitchen for a hammer, which he found in the broom closet along with a screwdriver. He pocketed the screwdriver and as for the hammer…he destroyed the computed first. Then he got a sharp knife from the kitchen and cut the cord off the 36-inch TV before he smashed it too.

 

Then he stooped dead in his tracks, waiting, hoping he hadn't awakened Joanne and/or Boris.

 

After he waited for what seemed like an hour just to make sure no one was awake he smashed the computer monitor too.

 

Now there was broken glass al over the floor in the lounge from the monitor, and broken glass in the front room because of the TV. And, Alex was almost perfectly satisfied with himself. The only problem was that he really wanted to save the soldier, but there unfortunately there was no phone number on the paper.

 

 Carefully making sure he didn't step on any glass, Alex went through that floor and turned off all the lights and then came to the bottom of the staircase to head back to the room. He ran up the stairs, but at the top he came to an abrupt stop. He could feel that someone was close to him. Which meant that someone was standing directly in front of Joanne’s bedroom, but the whole house was pitch-black, so he couldn't see. Cautiously, slowly, he moved one foot to edge back down the stairs. He didn't get very far.

 

The light suddenly bursted out in his eyes and so he looked up, an oversized figure stood in front of him.

 

Boris grabbed hold of his upper arm; he certainly was slow, but when he did catch you, he was strong. Alex tried to turn out of his grasp and run back down the staircase, but he couldn't.

 

Boris yanked him toward him and grabbed his other upper arm too and lifted him to his eye level.

 

"What the hell are doing?" He barked in his face. Alex cringed at the burst of hot air and meaty breath, and he didn't answer.

 

"Answer me!"

 

"I will," Alex said. "if you stop choking me with your breath."

 

Boris growled and threw him--down the stairs, he didn't actually touch the stairs though; he more like flew over them and hit the floor on his rear end. And, it hurt. 

 

Alex cried out in sudden pain and surprised tears sprang to his eyes. Then he got back to his feet, but didn't quite know where he should run to. Boris was advanced on him from upstairs, and he as wide as the whole staircase so up was out. Well, out until he moved away from the stairs so Boris could down so he could backtrack up them.

 

After Boris got down to the front room, Alex turned on light so he chase around and back up without stepping on any broken glass. While he was running back up, he realized that Boris wasn't even paying attention to him, so he looked back; and realized that he was absolutely dumbstruck at seeing his TV shattered. Alex continued up the stairs faster than ever, realized he was in very bad situation. Just as he slid into the tiny room and shut the door and began scanning for something he could use to lock them out, he heard Boris begin.

"When I get my hands on that scrawny, insolent, son of a bitch! Little fucked imp! Joanne?! Jo?!"

 

So he knew he couldn't come after him himself, instead he was going to call Joanne. Alex just realized that he should have kept the hammer as a tool of defense. Locking himself in was entirely hopeless. The door opened outward into the hallway so he couldn't pile up things in front of it. So instead he armed himself with a spring from the chair; they might be coiled up and not sharp enough to be daggers, but they would help him.

 

He grabbed a spring, ready to dig it into the first person who opened the door. He was poised on the balls of his feet, like Ian had taught him to, ready to hit and run. He waited.

 

Alex heard Joanne's bedroom door open. "Whaaat?!" She screamed in a high-pitched, snappish voice.

 

He didn't even try to put together his escape plan, they would get him before he even started; besides he had to get to the window outside the room to do it. In moments the door was thrown open. Joanne stood there dressed in faded jeans and a hot pink t-shirt she was very angry.

 

"Just what are you trying to do ya little runt?" She said as she lunged for him. He didn't let her know that he had a weapon yet, he just dodged her swiftly. Then she grabbed him around the stomach and yanked him toward her, lifted off the floor and slamming his back against her chest.

 

Then he made a hard backward jab with jab the spring, and felt it sink into flesh.

 

Joanne yelled and dropped him, angrily pulling the rusted spring out of her thigh. "You're not doing yourself any good." She snarled at him. Then she tried to grab him again, but he jabbed at her hand with it. She, however, just grabbed his wrist, yanked him back up, and then twisted his arm behind him so hard that tears instantly sprung to his eyes and he cried out, and then she took his little rusty weapon from him. Then she held him tight against her chest and took him down the stairs, but not just downstairs, into the kitchen and down the basement stairs.

 

After she pulled him through the bare room and down the hall, they met Boris, and she let him go.

 

There was nowhere for him to go, he looked between the two adults defeated; he was scared.

 

Boris grabbed his sweater, and Alex instinctively pulled away, but that was what Boris wanted. When Alex pulled away he grabbed both sleeves and pulled his sweater over his head. Underneath that he was wearing a white t-shirt. Alex now realized he shouldn't have pulled away in such a hurry because now he had cornered himself between the dead end hallway and Boris. If he was fast enough, he could slip past Boris and past Joanne; she seemed to be occupied doing something at the glass wall.

 

Alex waited, on the balls of feet waiting until the right time for him slide across the wall and past Boris. But he couldn't, when he darted Boris squeezed him between his body and the wall; Alex could do nothing. Then Boris pulled him toward him in a death grip and tore his t-shirt off. And then, he turned Alex to face the cage-room. The hidden door was open, and the yellow bottle was overturned. Boris shoved Alex into the room so hard he couldn't stop himself from falling into the spilt, thick, brownish liquid. As he got back to his feet Joanne came in, taking big steps on her toes to avoid as much contact with the liquid as possible. She had something shiny in her hand; a key, and she used it to open the cage of mosquitoes and then bolted, but as she was running out, she placed a hard to his chest, making him fall again, this time on his back.

 

The mosquitoes were obviously attracted to the liquid but not on the ground--on him. His arms, back, chest, and stomach were covered in it. In addition to various parts of his face too.  Alex swatted at them but it was to avail.

 

"These," Boris was saying from outside the glass. "aren't just mosquitoes to annoy you with their itchy bites. You'll get really sick with the disease they carry, and that'll probably teach you to respect adults." He was so smug.

 

Alex was scared, he was crying, but he was still angry, and now Boris insulted his manners.

 

"I do respect my elders!" Alex shouted back. "I don't respect speaking pigs and two-legged female dogs!"

 

Boris left then.

 

The insects just kept on at him, biting him all over, so much he couldn't swat enough of them away. His hands were so sticky with the liquid he couldn't even itch properly, and then the bugs kept biting his back, where he couldn't reach; it was driving him nuts.

 

And then when they left him there for an hour and the bugs continued he cried and cried for Ian. How he wished he hadn't left him that hospital day. How he'd probably be searching for him right now and couldn't find him down in this hole. And how close he'd been to putting together his escape and finding some innocent good-hearted person who would take him back home. None of that was happening…

 

Alex stayed in there for what seemed like a day, in reality it was 1 1/2 hours. He kept his knees hugged to his chest, trying to ward of the bugs was hopeless.

 

Finally Joanne came down the stairs and opened the still hidden door. He was barely aware of her; he felt so faint. She carried him back upstairs and put him in a sofa in the front room. His eyes closed slowly, but he didn't faint--yet.

 

"Boris, were all of the mosquitoes infected?" Joanne's sharp voice suddenly into the silence and wakened him out of his almost-fainted state.

 

"No." was the annoyed answer. "Only a few of them were. I'm not trying to kill him." For once he sounded intelligent.

 

Joanne gave him water, which he couldn't finish before he passed out, with a raging fever.

 

 

Chapter 7

 

Alex woke suddenly. He was still on the camp bed in the tiny room that he'd been assigned when he was brought to this rat hole. He had dreamed that he was back with Ian again, at Amalia's house. It had been a nightmare; Ian wasn't even happy to see him. He was so angry with him, Alex had cried so hard and he had tried to talk to him, make him forgive him, but he had slapped him. It was a complete nightmare, but now was wondering whether he'd rather be in his nightmare or where he was. He knew that he had been unconscious or sleeping for a long time.

 

He stood up and went straight to pick up a spring and began to unscrew the doorknob again, when he remembered that he'd pocketed a screwdriver. He pulled it out and used it; it came off so much quicker. He put back on the knob but made sure he never closed back the door completely. Then he opened the door slowly, incase anyone was down the hall. After he heard nothing, he pushed it open a little more so he could slip out and peer out the window; it was in the middle of the day.

 

He slipped back into the room and ran to set up a contraption to hold the rope. He wasn't going to wait until they couldn't know he was trying to get out, he was leaving now.      

 

He had hardly started when his head started swimming and he felt the fever surge back into him and hunger taking him over. His stomach growled, but he couldn't stop, he just couldn't, it was broad daylight and Joanne and Boris didn't even know he was awake. He had to use the determination of a Rider; after all, he was one.

 

He tied one end of the clothe-rope to one foot of the small bed, and then ran his hand further down the rope and tied part of it around the legs horizontal to the first one, so that the rope was taught between the two legs. Now he just had to make sure that the rope wouldn't untie because there was no way the bed could pull out the room and the window.

 

Alex sat back and surveyed his 'tools' trying to see if there was anything else he could use to hold the knot. But he couldn't think of anything, he would just have to do with this. He stood up and stepped out the room cautiously. No one was in the hallway, but Joanne's room door was open, and if she happened to look out she would see him.

 

He looked up at the window. The panes fitted loosely into the window. With a little pushing and pulling, they could probably come out. Hurriedly, he began trying to pull the window panes out. The first one came out easily, and as soon as he got it out he ran back into the room and put it down. Then he came back out and pulled at the other one until it popped out, but he'd pulled at it so hard that that when it finally flew out, he stumble backward and fell out of his hands.

 

He stood and ran back inside the room, closing it completely behind, and locking himself in. The he shoved both window panes under the camp bed and fell on it trying to look like he was still asleep. But no doubt they would see the pane-less window.

 

Alex's heart thumped in his chest as he lay there pretending to be asleep. He was so close to escape. The door opened fast, carrying breeze with it, Alex could smell Joanne's perfume. Then she shut and walked away. Either she hadn't seen the window or she was up to something. Whatever it was, Alex had get outta here, and fast.

 

________________________________________________________________________       

 

 

Ian opened his mouth to call out an insulting remark, but then stopped. Instead he just stayed silent, but damn, this guy was getting on his nerves.

 

He glanced up from the starch white sheet to Dr. Giovanni. "…which is why I'm not sure if I should let you right now." He was saying, but Ian was hardly listening. All he had really heard since the doctor entered the room was: "I'm thinking you could be let out from now instead, but…" Why the 'but'?

 

"Are you letting me out early, or not?" Ian asked, a little sharper than he had meant to.

 

Dr. Giovanni was either oblivious to Ian's growing anger, or he didn't care. He walked over Ian's bed and rested a hand on his forehead briefly. Then he stepped back and took a good look at him, smiling as he did.

 

Now Ian was sure that he knew was unhappy; he liked it.

 

Ian bit his lip and glared at the doctor, but he only grinned. "Okay, I'll let you out." He said cheerily and carelessly. "I always did intend to."

 

Ian growled. Couldn't he clearly see that he absolutely was not in a good mood?

 

"Ian," Dr. Giovanni said in a different tone. "I know you will find Alex. He's a fine kid, he'll be fine and you will him."

 

Ian looked at him, wondering where his confidence came from, then nodded. It was like his brother; the confidence. John was always confident, he should be too.

 

 

 

    

Alex stared at the three knots around each of two of legs of the camp bed. He had nothing to tighten them; nothing to make sure they would hold, and he had to get out of here before someone decided to come and check on him again.

 

He set to work unscrewing the knob again; for the last time. When it was off, he grabbed the free end of the make shift rope and stepped out the door. Hallway clear; door closed. He had to go up on his toes to see what was directly below the window. He gasped. Concrete around this side and the back of the house. Now what? He couldn't swing around on the rope to be in right position if he went out headfirst if there was concrete below him. But he couldn't get out the window any way but headfirst. Unless he stacked something under the window and climbed on those. So he took the rope back into the room with it.

 

The video boxes; he had two of them. He took one and carried out and put under window, and then the other one. Then he got the rope and threw it out the window. It ended at least 8 feet from the ground, but that was fine. Then he almost completely closed the door. Hoping and hoping the knots would hold, he climbed onto the two boxes, grabbed on to the rope tightly and began backing out the window.

 

He was out now. Two stories above the ground hanging on to a rope made out of clothes. He could still see down the hall, but now he started moving downward, incase someone saw the rope and decided to cut it.

 

He stopped again, however, when he should have continued down even faster, when he heard a door open.

 

Then Alex began sliding down, but he couldn't go fast enough. First the rope was yanked, so hard that he almost fell off. So he paused again and tightened his grip. And it was cut and he fell. He fell on his feet, but he twisted his right ankle.

 

First he screamed when he began to fall, then he began to cry. One, because his foot was hurting so much and two, because he had even gotten of the house, but now they knew and they were going to get him back—Actually no, they wouldn't. As the tears flowed Alex got up anyway hopping toward the gate out of the concrete yard. It was straight ahead of him he would get out. He would. He would!

 

Alex hurriedly undid the latch and hopped out. They would be out here looking for him anytime now. So he used and old trick. He sat down and yanked off the sneaker on his good foot then he threw it down the road. Then he crawled underneath a car parked on the road and stayed there, stifling his cries.

 

The front door opened, and both Boris and Joanne came out and ran around to the side of the small house, and soon as they saw the gate open they turned and looked around.

 

"Look, there's his sneaker!" Boris said pointing.

 

"Why the hell would he take off his sneaker?" Joanne pointed out.

 

"It probably fell off." Boris said walking toward it. "Where else would he have gone?"

 

Joanne didn't move. "The kid was born with smarts, and Ian probably indulged them. He could easily be trying trick us. How far could he have gone being so sick?"

 

"Well do you see him?"

 

"Maybe he went around the other side to hide and now he's getting farther away as we speak."

 

"Then go! I'll go this way."

 

They were both gone. Alex couldn't stay here any longer incase Joanne came back and looked for him here.

 

Joanne was gone around the house so she wouldn't see him, but Boris was still on this street, if he turned around after Alex came out he would see him instantly.

 

Alex wondered if he could hop while Boris ran and still be faster than him. It was a risk he had to take. He rolled out from under the car, taking special care to make sure his foot didn't hit anything. Then he climbed back to his feet on one foot and then began hopping across and up the street.

 

On the other side of the street there was an abandoned house; overgrown with vines. The yard wasn't walled in, and evergreen trees grew all over it. A perfect hiding place, but Alex didn't want to go in there. The trees made it almost dark in midday and it seemed like anyone or anything could be hiding it there.

 

Further down the street there was a deserted park; that's where Alex wanted to go, but he didn't know if he could get there in time.

 

He glanced back; Boris had stopped, and now he was looking around. Alex slipped behind an evergreen tree and sat down.

 

As he sat there, still he realized just how tired and cold he was. He still wasn't wearing a shirt and something was falling…rain? No, snow. It was snowing; he was cold and hot at the same time, tired, hungry, and overall in pain. He was free from them but he couldn't go anymore…He was suddenly so cold, and then he began shaking. Shaking so much and he couldn't control it. Then it stopped and he just felt plain feverish, and he couldn't stop hyperventilating.

 

Finally, he caught hold of himself he was only more tired than he was before, and tears streamed down his cheeks, he just wanted to be home more than anything. But he forced himself to stand up. Ian had told him that his father was a confident and determined man, and he was going to be too. He wouldn't let himself give up now, or any other time in the future.

 

Alex hopped off. Out of the evergreen forest and toward the park. He didn't glance back over his shoulder for Boris. He just kept hopping until he reached the park. He collapsed on a bench and had another cycle of coldness and rigor. Then he fainted.

 

   

Chapter 8

 

When the taxi stopped in front of St. Dominics, Ian hurriedly got inside.

 

"Chaney Walk, Chelsea."

 

Just as the driver started, Ian's cell phone rang. He looked at it; it was MI6. No. Way. He had something much more urgent to do. He answered it.

 

"Hello?"

 

"Ian," Mrs. Jones's voice almost sounded pleasant just from hearing him. "About your last mission, Silhouette's remaining employees are deciding to leave back home earlier than they were expected to. They want—

 

“I can’t do it.” Ian cut in flatly. “I have much more important matters at hand.”

 

Jones was temporarily stunned; she hadn’t expected Ian to say that. “What do you mean?”

 

“I mean exactly what I said.” Ian said firmly, and then he hung up. He didn’t have the time to deal with MI6. They were way too pushy, it was better just tell them off quickly and forget about them when the try to pester you. But he knew MI6 wouldn’t give up right then, they were sure they could persuade him to come in anyway, as they had done many times when he didn’t want to. But not this time, he had to find Alex first, and find out his condition, and make sure he was safe once again. And then they had to wait until Jack got back, before he would take any more missions from them. Because that was how this had happened. He’d been taking chances, and he wasn’t going to make it any worse by trying to take more chances anytime in the near future.   

 

The taxi driver pulled up in front of Ian’s house. Ian paid him and got out. Before he unlocked the front door he gazed at the knob and thought. He was sure that when the police had come here to search, their fingerprints had gotten all over the knob, which meant that the fingerprints of whoever had kidnapped Alex were probably covered. And now he couldn’t dust it to find the damn son of a bitch.

 

He went through the back door so he dust the front doorknob anyway. First thing he did was run up to his office and grab the powder. Then he went to his room and got his laptop to check his email.

 

When he logged on it was there; that little window. YOU HAVE MAIL. Ian almost didn’t dare to open it. If it wasn’t from wasn’t from a kidnapper, he didn’t know what he was going to do. And if it was, he thought that he’d have a hard time following Snake’s instructions from earlier that morning.

 

Instead he moved from the laptop back downstairs, and opened the front door and then dusted the outside knob and both sides of the window sill.

 

After that he took the fingerprint samples he grabbed his laptop and headed for his office on Liverpool St. There, he could test the fingerprints on his high tech PC and be almost sure to come up with someone. And hopefully he could avoid the MI6 Special Ops Deputy Head.

 

……………………………………………..

 

Of course, no such luck. Mrs. Jones spotted him on his way to his office; he acted like he didn’t notice her.

 

“Ian? I thought you said you couldn’t come in?”

 

“I’m only here for resources in my office.” He said decisively while unlocking his office and stepping inside; she followed him.

 

“What is it that’s so important?” She asked, not out of concern, but to find if she could get rid of it so Ian would do what she wanted.

 

“Alex has been kidnapped.” I hope. He added as a thought.

 

Jones still hadn’t said anything. As Ian sat in his seat in front of the computer, he glanced back over his should at her.

 

She was popping one of those infinite peppermints into her mouth. “Ian,” She started slowly, as if she expected a negative response from him from what she was about to say. “I’m sure you’re worried about Alex but the death of thousands is more important without doubt. I’m afraid Silhouette might be angry about their leaders being killed in our country. There’s no telling what they might do.”

 

Was this woman seriously trying to tell him to forget about Alex and go on a mission? While Alex could be in the clutches of some—No she was not. That’s not what Ian said, instead he said, “No, I have to find Alex first. I mean that.”

 

She was visibly unhappy. But Ian couldn’t care less, He had to find Alex, and that was all.

 

He had placed the fingerprint samples on the scanner. He hoped that the enemy turned out to be one of the people they could track. A file turned up that matched the print. Ian clicked it, his heart racing at wondering what would see.

 

Lester Jonas Harl

 

Age : 25

 

But Ian saw no more. Harl wasn’t a kidnapper, he was a contract killer. Ian’s hands were almost shaking, but he couldn’t give up yet. There was one good thing, he could track Harl motorcycle. Of course that wouldn’t be of much use if he wasn’t using it. He grabbed with GPS receiver out of a drawer and punched in the identification for the motorbike. It showed up, moving along roads like a rat. Ian was on his feet and out the door with the GPS in his hand. He had to catch up with Harl and find out what he’d done with his little boy and who employed him to do it.

 

 

Alex woke suddenly to the sound of screeching tires. He popped up shivering crazily and looking around frantically. He didn’t know where the screeching tires were coming from, but they had awakened him.

 

The park wasn’t deserted anymore; kids were there trying to play in the little snow that was trying to accumulate. None of them seemed to notice the kid sitting on bench with no shirt on, shivering madly, and with a sprained ankle. He called to them, for someone to take him home, but there were no adults there and when he called to them they walked off. Probably thinking he was just some homeless child. Alex brought his knees up to chest, trying to conserve warmth.

 

Suddenly someone crashed into the evergreen woods behind him. Alex looked behind him without even thinking of who could running in behind him. Then the person crashed out right behind the bench he was sitting on.

 

It was a man, or maybe a young adult, he looked about nineteen. He was a lanky guy and had severely tousled blond hair and sharp blue-green eyes. He was glancing around the park frantically, looking for a place to hide. Then his eyes fell on Alex. A curious young boy sitting in the middle of a snowy park without a shirt on. All of his exposed skin save him face was covered in red bumps. And he was continually itching. All frantic-ness was replaced with surprise.

 

“What are you doing here?” He asked Alex.

 

Alex shrugged sadly. “Trying to get home.” He said hoarsely. His voice was almost a whisper.

 

The man’s traveled down to his sprained ankle. He stepped around in front of Alex and lifted him up easily. “Where’s your home? I hope it’s far from here. I need every excuse for a place to go to that’s far from here.”

 

Alex’s face was very close to his. And he gave him a happy but weird look. “On Chaney Walk.” He said in a hoarse whisper.

 

“C’mon.” The man whispered. He carried him to a black Eclipse and placed him in a backseat. After he got in the front, he produced a bottle of water. “Here.”

 

Alex took it gratefully and began downing it when again; he felt coldness and then rigor. He began coughing and coughing, the shaking continually. The man slipped out of the backseat and was about to come beside Alex and help him, but something he saw out the back window made him freeze and then instantly get back in the front seat and start the car driving so fast he was probably breaking the speed limit, but he had to get out of here fast. 

 

He was driving so recklessly that Alex was sure that whoever was chasing him or whatever he was trying to get away from would always be able to zone in on him because he was the only driver who was driving like that. Alex had never seen anyone drive like that before. And he being inside the car only made it worse because now he really felt nauseous but he couldn’t vomit in the car.

 

Finally they made it to a crowded street at a red light and he stopped. He glanced back at Alex “Keep your head down.” He instructed. So Alex lay down in the backseats.

 

After 5 more minutes of reckless driving and continuous glancing behind him, they reached Alex’s neighborhood, and the man stopped driving so crazy and seemed to calm down overall.

 

Finally, they were driving smoothly, or at least as smoothly as it seemed he could drive, not as calmly as Ian or Jack.

 

“What’s your name?” He asked Alex.

 

“Alex.” He answered weakly.

 

“Alex, what?”

 

Alex was about to answer, but then he thought better of it and decided that maybe, since he had been kidnapped, he shouldn’t tell completely random people what his last name was, since apparently his uncle had enemies.

 

“I can’t tell you.”  He answered. “That’s my house.” He pointed out his uncle house.

 

“Okay. But why can’t you tell me your last name? ”The man said and stopped the car.

 

“Because…I just can’t. What’s your name?” Alex asked.

 

‘I’ve got no secrets,” He said. “up until now apparently though….” he added in a mumble “Jake Alston.”

 

Alex stared at him, bewildered; then he smiled. “Are you a soldier?”

 

The man got out the car and raised an eyebrow at him. “How would you know that?”

 

Alex began to slide out the car too, but before his feet touched the ground, Jake lifted him out. Alex looked at him in annoyance. “I can walk, you know.”

 

Jake smiled wryly at him. “Sure...No you can’t your ankle is sprained.” 

 

“I can hop.” Alex insisted.

 

Jake walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. “But that wouldn’t be nice now would it? You’d have to go really slow. Now, is your family home? Can I leave you here? Doesn’t seem so.” He talked fast and, mumbled to himself often.

 

 “Okay, seems like nobody home. Look, kid, you gotta tell me what your last name is, else I can’t help you. And how did you know I was soldier?”

 

Alex didn’t answer any of his questions. Instead he told him Ian’s mobile phone number and asked him to call him.

 

 

 

Lester Harl wasn’t just on his motorcycle, he was chasing down someone. Another one of his helpless victims. Ian had no idea whether or not the person was innocent, but they were helpless all the same. However, they wouldn’t be soon if Ian could get this shot…

 

Ian pulled his gun from a compartment in the car. He had to conceal it while making this shot. It was fitted with a silencer already, all he had to do was blow that tire. He waited until there was no one close to Harl. He let his elbow rest out the car window keeping the gun hidden under the window. The street was mostly deserted; now was the time to make his shot.

 

He pulled his arm back in and cocked the gun. Then he ever so briefly put the gun out the window and blew Harl’s back tire and then instantly dropped it on the car floor and stopped the car, pulling it up to the sidewalk.

 

Harl was unhurt. Even his motorcycle wasn’t too badly busted. When his tire blew, he had fallen off in surprise. Then he rolled over to the sidewalk and jumped to his feet. He actually probably would have been hurt, if he hadn’t been wearing helmet. That was a nice coincidence for him, because he never wore helmets.

 

The Eclipse that he had been following escaped. Good. Ian had no idea that the ill child he would spend the rest of day was in that car.

 

By the time Harl had taken off his helmet, Ian was leaning against his car, staring at him in pure hatred. When he saw Ian he was surprised.

 

Then he smiled, remembering the sorry state Ian had been in the last time he’d seen him. “Didn’t we leave you in the hospital?” He asked gloatingly.

 

“Not for long.” Ian said and leaned off his car and took a step toward Harl. “You know what I’m here for, Harl. What did you do to him and who employed to do it?”

 

Harl’s arrogant smile became more conceited and taunted Ian to literally rip it off his face. “Don’t play fool, Ian. You know I’m not going to tell you either of those things, though you can easily guess the first. I’m a killer you should know what that means. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” Harl began replacing his helmet. But Ian wasn’t going to let him.

 

In two swift steps he closed the gap between them and grabbed Harl’s wrist. Harl paused even though the grip Ian had on his wrist would allow him to continue, and looked up at Ian.

 

“Let me go. You’re not seriously going to interrogate me on the street are you?” He asked. He was still smirking. Ian wanted to punch his arrogant lights out, but he couldn’t.

 

“No, not on the street. I’m—“ Ian stopped when he saw Harl’s lightning reflexes reach for his gun. But Ian was too close to him. As soon as he drew it, Ian grabbed the wrist and twisted it all they way around until he heard a sickening crack and Harl dropped the gun. Ian kicked it into a gutter. 

 

Ian was prepared for Harl; still holding him by his broken arm, he spun him around and kicked in his back while still holding his arm. His shoulder dislocated and he suppressed a scream. Then Ian let him go and he fell on his knees.

 

“Now you’re going to follow me, or else!” Ian hissed in his ear.

 

Harl stood and tuned back to Ian. “Oh, I’ll follow you alright.” His inhuman hazel eyes were narrowed. Ian knew he had a second gun somewhere, probably in his boot.

 

Ian pointed into an alleyway. Harl walked into the narrow, abandoned, filthy space easily. With Ian behind him. He knew Ian wasn’t going to do anything to him. Doesn’t he know I have a gun and I hate his guts?

 

Harl abruptly turned around with a roundhouse kick that slammed into Ian’s chin with brutal force. Ian flew and hit the wall to his left. Something in his pocket was smashed. The headache he had had for days returned with a new intensity. But he still managed to roll out of the way of a skull-breaking stamp following the kick.

 

Ian jumped back to his feet, ready to continue the fight. He had the upper hand; one of Harl’s arms was completely useless. And he was much stronger than him. Harl was very fast and light, but Ian was stronger. Though, he remembered, he might not be right now because he’d just left the hospital. 

 

Ian lunged at him and faked a punch to his gut and then tried to sweep his legs out from under him. Harl jumped over and landed behind him and then used his heel to kick Ian in the back of his knee. Ian faltered but then caught himself and grabbed Harl’s arm—his right and broken arm—and flipped him over his shoulder. He landed on the jagged, rocky, asphalt with a sickening thud and he let out a loud scream, his face twisted into a mask of pain.

 

After Ian let him go he still didn’t move or open his eyes. That was weird. Harl always recovered quickly.

 

Ian squatted beside him and rolled him over, while grabbing his left arm and twisting it enough that if Harl made a wrong move, he could break it too. Then he noticed the puddle of dark red blood on the ground and growing puddle on the back of Harl’s head. The puddle on the ground wasn’t just on the ground; it was on a rock on the ground.

 

He looked from the puddle back to Harl’s head, and saw that his eyes were open. Good. All he needed was for him to be conscious.

 

“Where is he, Harl?” He demanded. “Who employed you to do it?”

 

Even in the state that he was in, Harl could still give an arrogant smile. Just because he knew that he had information that Ian desperately needed. And he didn’t answer.

 

Ian twisted his arm harder. “Do you want to lose this arm too?” He growled.

 

“Why should I care if I have two broken arms, Ian? It’s not like you gave the guts to kill me. But I have the guts…the guts to…the guts to kill a nine-year-old boy.” His speech was beginning to get softer and unsteady. Ian twisted his arm harder and heard a pop. Harl let out another scream.

 

All Ian’s mercy had been replaced with slightly uncertain anger. But if Harl had killed Alex, the uncertainty would be gone and he would have left him there to die, regardless of how much pain he was in.

 

 Harl began breathing more shallow and his eyes began to close.

 

But Ian couldn’t let him go, because he still hadn’t said he’d killed Alex. He knew how tricky the man was.

 

Ian let go of his arm and rolled him onto his back so he could look him in those uncanny hazel eyes. “Did you kill him?” He hissed, frustrated. “Or did you kidnap him?”

 

The puddle of blood beneath his head was only getting larger and larger. Harl’s lips moved but he made no sound. Ian to lean toward him to hear what he was trying to say. These last words before he fell unconscious had better be an answer. “I am not…I am not a kidnapper.” Then his eyes rolled back but didn’t close.

 

Ian wanted to land a punch in his face that would ensure that those would be his last words for good. But he knew that wouldn’t do any good. In case he needed him again; just incase the e-mail wasn’t what he wanted.

 

He glared down at the young man. The puddle of blood beneath his head was steadily growing larger. There must be a hole in his head or something. He had every right to leave him here to die; he himself was a killer, he had taken lives, why shouldn’t he die?

 

But there was something Harl hated much more than death: Prison or solitary confinement in a very, very small room. It literally drove him crazy. And once he took him to the hospital, after he’d been treated, they’d throw him in prison.

 

Ian smiled at the thought of driving Harl mad. Because if he couldn’t find out whether or not Alex was dead soon he was going to mad. That was if Jack didn’t kill him first.

 

Ian lifted the limp body of the man. And began to walk move him deeper into the alley. When he called the ambulance he was going to leave and Harl being deeper in the alley would better convince them that he’d been mugged.   

 

“I knew you didn’t have the guts to kill me.”

 

It was more out of anger than surprise why Ian dropped him. But he dropped him all the same and he hit the ground again.

 

Ian glared down at his pained face mercilessly.

 

“And you are not…….taking…me to the hospital. I’ll kill myself.” Harl breathed.

 

“Where is he Harl?  And I’m taking you to the hospital no matter what.” Ian said back to him.

 

“I’m…I’m not…I’m not…telling…you.”

 

Ian was sure he’d never came across a more spiteful and infuriating living organism in his life. Blast this man! He knew Ian. He knew he wasn’t going kill him, as much as he deserved it. One, it was possible that he still his only lead way, and two, he just couldn’t kill him in cold blood using simple brute force..

 

“If I leave you here you’re going to die. If I call the ambulance you’re going to kill yourself in prison. Why can’t you just answer the friggin’ question?” Ian was beginning to raise his voice. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket to call the ambulance and then leave, but it was smashed.

 

________________________________________________________________________          

 

              

“Oh well, we’ll just have to break into my own house.” Alex suggested from his perch the hood of Jake’s car, with Jake’s jacket wrapped around his shoulders. But Jake hadn’t heard him. He slid off the car onto his one good foot and hopped to the front window. He fished the screwdriver out of his pocket and smashed the window.

 

When he turned back to Jake, he was staring at him with a bewildered expression.

 

Alex shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “It’s open.”

 

Jake raised an eyebrow at him and nodded. Then he walked over the window, grabbed on to the sill, and leaped through the jagged entrance. He turned back around and lifted Alex through, making sure his swollen ankle avoided the broken, jagged glass.

 

He carried him to the sofa and set him down. “Okay I’ve gotta bandaged that ankle of yours and—Alex really, you need to tell me what your last name is; I might be able to help you more.”

 

“I can’t.” Alex insisted.

 

Jake sat beside him on the sofa. “Well, can you tell me what you know about me?”

 

Alex cleared his throat. “My kidnappers gave a man directions to kill you, and—um, I have a paper.” He pulled the profile paper and the map out of his pocket. “Here, this is how found that out about you.”

 

Jake took them both and looked through them with a puzzled and indifferent look on his face.

 

“Uhhh…Jake?” Alex began itching his arms again.

 

“Eh?” He looked up from the papers.

 

“I’m really hungry and tired and my ankle hurts and I’m still really cold, plus I want to get bath and go to sleep so—“

 

“Okay, okay, okay, okay, sorry. I’ll help you. Let me get the bandages.” He rose from beside Alex and began to walk away for the bandages.

 

“So if you still can’t get to my uncle, please can you take me to your house because I don’t want them to come back here where they can find me again?” Alex finished.

 

Jake was looking at him somewhat sadly. “Listen,” He started while walking back to Alex and kneeling in front of him. “I’m not going to let anyone get near you, but I can’t take you to my house because, they, whoever ‘they’ are, know my address too. Oh yeah, but I do have another house…” When he had finished he was half mumbling to himself again, but Alex had still heard him.

 

“You have two houses?” Alex repeated still scratching his arms. “The window is broken so they can get us really easily. You can take me to your other address. There’s only one address on that paper.”

 

“No Alex,” Jake said impatiently. “we can’t leave because you broke the window. It would make more sense to stay here until your uncle gets back because you’ll be right here. He won’t have to worry about you anymore. Besides,” He added. “why’d you break in here if you didn’t want to stay?”

 

“’Cause I thought we’d be safer here cause the man who wants to kill you has the address of your house, but I didn’t know you had two houses. We can go to the one that they don’t have the address of.”

 

“Sorry Alex,” Jake said firmly. “but I’m not going to sit here and argue with you. The smart thing to do is stay here. If you’re here with me you’re not going to get kidnapped again. Besides, apparently whoever was tailing me to kill me has ties with your kidnapper, and if we get back on the road, he might catch us, and then we’ll both be caught when we could have just stayed here, safe.

 

“But we’re not safe here!” Alex said adamantly. “They know this address and they know I ran away. They’ll just come back here and get me.

 

Jake was silent; taking a deep breath to will himself to stay reasonable. The kid was afraid, that’s why he wasn’t listening.

 

“I said I wouldn’t—“

 

“You can’t stop them! They have guns!” Alex cut him off.  

 

“We’re staying, Alex. That’s the smart thing to do.”

 

Jake watched Alex drop his head in defeat.  

 

“Now tell me where your bedroom is and so I can set you some warm water for a bath.”

 

Alex nodded solemnly and stood, but Jake stooped in front of him. “Get on my back.”

 

Alex sighed. “I’m not a baby.”

 

“I don’t want your ankle to get any worse. Now come on.” Alex climbed onto his back.

 

…………….

 

Alex was now sitting on the edge of his bed dressed in a pine green hoodie and black sweats. He had pulled both of his arms in from the sleeves of his hoodie so he could itch his torso, waiting for Jake to come back to up to wrap his ankle.

 

He was so tired. All of a sudden it seemed like Jake had been taking so long. Alex lay down and curled up, and moments he was falling asleep…and it was only moments later when he woke up to a sharp excruciating pain in his ankle that brought tears to his eyes. “Ow.” He moaned as he woke up.

 

“Sorry.” Jake said softly. “But I’ve got to wrap it…”

 

Another shoot of pain coursed through Alex when Jake did the first wrap of the bandage tightly. “Ow!” he cried. Tears began to spill down his cheeks as Jake continued to wrap it tighter. At first they were silent tears; then he cried out again and pulled his ankle away miserably. Jake looked up at him and then rose from his kneeling position at the bed and sat beside his curled up, shaking figure.

 

“Hey…let me bandage it and then you can go to sleep. I won’t wake you again, just let me…come on, please?” Alex stayed in tightly curled ball.

 

“Come on?” Jake pleaded. He didn’t want Alex to think he was being forceful.

 

“No.” He moaned miserably. “I’m so hungry…and sleepy.”

 

Jake put his arms around him and pulled him back up to a sitting position. Then he held his damaged leg and continued wrapping the bandage. Alex half-heartedly tried to squirm away from away him. Jake finished wrapping it as quickly as he could.

 

“There! I’m all done!” Jake lifted Alex off the bed. This time Alex didn’t even care. He just instantly put his head on his shoulder and closed his eyes.

 

Alex’s body was hot to touch and Jake could tell that he only did it because he was very feverish and ill, probably very hungry too, but Jake liked the feel Alex’s head on his shoulder. It gave him a sense of appreciation.

 

He left the room and went downstairs. “Alex, do you still want something to eat? Or do you just want to rest?”       

 

“I’m hungry.” Was the mumble from beside him.

 

“Okay, you want some sandwiches and cookies?”

 

Before Alex could answer, they both heard voices outside. Alex’s head popped up. “That’s them!” He whispered. “That’s them! Downstairs, quick! The cellar!”

 

Jake ran to kitchen and down the basement stairs quietly. Mentally thanking Alex for not saying ‘I told you.’

 

“To the back room, quick! There’s a window in there and we can get out.”

 

The back room was a laundry room and there was a small window right up at ceiling leading out to the snow crusted grass outside.

 

Jake hoisted Alex up to it and he opened it and climbed out as they heard two people moving around upstairs.

 

“I told you he couldn’t be here!” A voice Alex recognized as Joanne’s shouted.

 

“Go on, Alex!” Jake hissed.

 

Alex pulled himself up through the window and onto the cold grass outside. He instantly got up and began to hop toward Jake’s car.  A few seconds later Jake had lifted himself out too and ran to the car and opened it quickly.

 

As soon as Alex was properly seated, Jake took off as recklessly as he had been earlier.

 

“I told you so.” Alex said proudly.

 

 

_______________________________________________________________________

  

 

His mobile was smashed, so he came out of the alley to find a payphone. Across the street was one, he walked across and called the ambulance, being as brief as he could and then hanging up on them.

 

He walked back across the street and looked down at Harl one last time.

 

He really was unconscious now and he wasn’t breathing.  Ian left and hoped the ambulance showed up in time.

 

He was headed for MI6. He had to get to his laptop and read the mail. If Harl wouldn’t give him answers the e-mail was his only other lead way. And if the e-mail wasn’t from a kidnapper, well, he’d just have to come back for Harl.  

 

 

 

 

After Jake parked the car, he glanced over his shoulder at Alex sleeping in the backseat. He opened the door and got out, and then he lifted Alex out of the backseat. Fortunately, he didn’t wake up.

 

Once he had got Alex inside his safe house, he was much more comfortable. He rushed to the kitchen and quickly made roast beef sandwiches with Oreo cookies and milkshake. He hoped that would satisfy him, and he was pretty sure it would.

 

He set the rather small table in his eat-in-kitchen. Then he woke up Alex who was sleeping in his single bedroom on his queen-sized bed.

 

He reached for the boy’s shoulder to shake him slightly, but then he started shaking again. “Alex?” He called softly. “Alex? Yeah, wake up. I made you a sandwich with cookies and milkshake.”

 

Alex sat up completely and looked at Jake with sleepy eyes. “You made the food?”

 

“Yep.”

 

Alex slid off bed, avoiding pressure on his right foot. Jake didn’t bother picking him up but instead held his right arm and helped him along.

 

“Did you find my uncle?”

 

“No, I wasn’t looking for him.”

 

“I really want to see him. When I was kidnapped he was in the hospital. I wonder if he’s okay…” Alex slid into the place at the table that Jake had indicated for him.

 

“Well, Alex, I told you already, I can’t help you out if—you do like roast beef, right?”

 

Alex nodded and began on his sandwich.

 

“Yeah, as I was saying, I can’t help you if you won’t tell me what your last name is.”

 

Alex mulled over it as he ate his sandwich. He could tell Jake was getting impatient, since he was in his house now, and he hadn’t shown any reasons for distrust he told him.

 

“My last name is, Rider.”

 

“Alex Rider.” Jake muttered. Then he made a clicking sound with his tongue. “Rider…Rider, where did I here that name?”

 

“You know my uncle?!” Alex exclaimed.

 

“Ian Rider?” He suggested.

 

Alex nodded.

 

“Well, I don’t know him, but I know two guys who do know him.”

 

Alex continued to wolf down his sandwich and cookies and then downed his milkshake.

 

“Maybe if I call Ry, he could get through to Ian. Hmm…”

 

“Uh, Jake?”

 

“Eh?”

 

“Please can I have some more?”

 

Jake glanced down at him. “Sure.” He took Alex’s plate and went into the kitchen. When he returned with more food for Alex, he was about to tell him something, but Alex firsted him to it.

 

“Jake, you don’t have to worry about getting me home right now, because I like it here and Ian probably isn’t going to get home until tomorrow morning.”

 

“Why?” Jake asked quizzically.

 

“Why, what?” Alex returned, puzzled.

 

“Why, everything?” He said impatiently.

 

“Well…”Alex glanced up at him and then Jake sat. “I don’t mind it here because you’re being nice to me and I don’t want to get into your car again be ‘cause I keep feeling nauseous. And Ian isn’t going to get until tomorrow morning because he’s probably looking for me.”

 

“Then don’t you want us get through to him so he stop looking for you now? Besides, I thought you said he was in the hospital?”

 

“Well then he’s probably still in the hospital then.” Alex said it as a final for the conversation.

 

“Which hospital was he at?” Jake asked.

 

Alex was silent for a long, long time, trying to remember, but he couldn’t. “I forgot.” He finally said unhappily.

 

“More milkshake?” Jake offered.

 

Alex shook his head.

 

“Well, are you going to tell me what happened to you?” He suddenly said.

 

“What do you mean?” Alex yawned.

 

“What did the kidnappers do to you?”

 

“Oh…okay then.” Alex started from the beginning when he left the hospital when he wasn’t supposed to and that was what had started the whole thing. To when they had heard told ‘the man called Harl’ how to kill him, to when they put him with mosquitoes.  When he finished, he had finished the rest of Oreo cookies with Jake and he had had three more cycles of coldness and rigor, that’s why he stopped.

 

Jake rose and came around the table to Alex’s side. “You wanna go to bed now?”

 

Alex nodded slightly as Jake helped him rise from the table. This time he didn’t care when Jake lifted him up, he laid his head against Jake’s chest sleepily. He was aware of Jake staring at him while he carried him to his bedroom.

 

“In the morning I’m going to call your uncle and then I’m taking you to the hospital.” Jake announced.

 

“Why?” Alex questioned drowsily.

 

“Because you’re very sick, and it isn’t just fever. “

 

“I hate hospitals.” Alex said.

 

After Jake set him down on the bed, he watched him go through drawers until he produced an oversized black T-shirt.

 

“Here, you can sleep in this.” Jake handed it to him.

 

As Alex was changing into the T-shirt he kept stopping to itch miserably. At one point when he was dressed only in his underwear, Jake walked over to examine the bites on his back where there were now also rashes and a few bloody cuts from Alex itching them so hard. 

 

“Jeez, Alex, how long did they leave you in there for?”

 

Alex rolled onto his back and sat up. “Two hours I think.”

 

Jake shook his head in disapprovingly and unbelieving. “Don’t put on the T-shirt yet, I’m going to fix up those few cuts on your back.” 

 

Jake returned from the bathroom with a first aid kit. First he took Alex’s temperature which was 102. 97° F.

 

“If your temperature passes 103° F before tonight is out, I’m not going to wait until sunup to take you to the hospital.” Alex accepted that and lay down on his stomach so he could dress the cuts.

 

“Alex,” Jake suddenly said inquisitively. “how old are you?”

 

“Nine.”

 

“And do you know what your uncle does for a job?”

 

“No. Is he a spy?”

 

Jake was silent for a moment. “Did he tell you that?”

 

“No, my kidnappers did.”

 

Jake said nothing else as he finished dressing the cuts. Alex rolled over and sat up, looking Jake in the eye. “Is he really, Jake?”

 

“Yeah, from what I know. Which is not much; never even seen him.”

 

Alex slipped the T-shirt over his head and put it on. Then he turned back to Jake and looked at him, his serious brown eyes practically trying see through Jake’s blue-green ones. “Does he kill people?”

 

“I don’t know. If he’s a spy he most likely would have to end up doing so.”

 

It never occurred to Jake that he didn’t necessarily have to be as truthful and sure with children as with he regularly would with adults. It was his nature to simply be frank and truthful. “But maybe he doesn’t, I mean, if he’s good at spying, maybe he can avoid it.” He added when he saw the disappointed look on Alex’s face. But Alex’s expression didn’t change at all.

 

“I’m going to ask him when I get back home.” Alex decided.

 

 

 

Chapter 9

 

Ian was in his BMW, rapping his fingers on top of the dashboard. He was at a complete loss. Never before in his life had he been more disappointed to see Jack’s name. The e-mail was from Jack. No kidnapers in the picture whatsoever. Which left Ian to accept the worse…

 

The only reason for him not to is because Harl never said he had killed him. But he couldn’t make him talk right now because the hospital wasn’t allowing him to have any visitors besides family. Again, all he could do was wait; wait until he could get to Harl and find some way to make him talk, seeing that he couldn’t physically threaten him in the hospital.

 

Ian started the car and went home, wishing he hadn’t let this happen. He was the one they wanted, but they used Alex. Why couldn’t they just stick with him? Of course, because they knew he could take it. He could take everything they did to him. But Alex…he couldn’t take what they did to Alex. Alex was who he wanted to stay out of his spying life. Alex was who he wanted to come home to when he completed a mission. He was supposed to stay out of the spying mess and only be a part of his home life. But that wouldn’t be so as long as his enemies knew about Alex.

 

When Ian’s car stopped outside of his house, Ian could hardly believe his eyes.

 

His house had been ransacked. The front room window was shattered, the front door was thrown wide open, all the lights were on and he could see into the front room were everything was thrown around broken.

 

Ian got out the car and went inside. He actually hoped that the people who had done this were still here, so he could do something to them, but he searched the house; whoever they were had already gone. And he also discovered that Alex’s bedroom and his office had been most ransacked.

 

His office was a complete mess, but nothing seemed to be gone. His files were strewn all over the floor, but he was too agitated to sit here and make sure all his files were still there. Instead he had gone to his bedroom and Jack’s bedroom. Those two were also wrecked terribly. The beds were overturned, and all the clothes in the closet were taken out thrown on the floor.

 

Ian went to the stop of the stairs and sat down with his head in his hands. For all he knew this could have nothing linked with Alex’s disappearance. But of course, he had no idea of who had done it. He went back to Alex’s bedroom, which is where had been most wrecked.

 

Maybe he could find clues. He went to Alex’s bathroom and glanced around. Now here were some clues, some very blissful clues.

 

There were dirty clothes from Alex strewn on the bathroom floor. And, if Ian could remember correctly, it was what he had been wearing that Wednesday evening when this had all started. And this meant he wasn’t dead.

 

Ian touched the inside of the bathtub, and it was still wet. That was very good. He was sure that Alex had been here not too long ago. But how long ago? And where was he now?

 

Ian searched the house again, this time for Alex, he shouted his name continuously and searched everywhere for him, but he couldn’t find him. Damn it. He thought. Alex had been here, he was sure of it. But now he was gone.

 

Again, now what?

 

He’d spent half of the day in the hospital, and the other half looking for Alex, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was tiring from it. His head was pounding and his chest desperately needed rest. But he just had to find Alex.

 

 

 

           

 

Jake rolled over in the bed and automatically turned the lamp on when he heard Alex get out of the bed. It was in the middle of night. Alex’s shaking figure was unsteadily hopping away from the bed.

 

“Alex, where are going?” Jake asked him groggily.

 

“Water…water…I need water.” His voice was hoarse and quiet and he was panting.

 

Jake threw back the covers and slid out the bed to Alex’s side as he fell backwards.

 

After he caught he looked at him uncertainly. The kid’s face glistened with sweat but he was cold and he was hyperventilating while shaking.

 

“Okay,” Jake said as he laid Alex down on the bed. “I’ll get it.”

 

Jake sped to the water cooler next his bedroom door and quickly filled a paper cup with cold water. He moved back to the bed and helped Alex drink it. After he finished he asked for more, which Jake gave to him. When he finished that he let himself fall back wards onto the bed.

 

“You okay now?” Jake asked.

 

“Yah…I jus needed some—“ He paused to yawn. “needed some water.” He rolled over onto his side and went straight back to sleep.

 

Jake got the thermometer from the night table, and put it in Alex’s mouth. He had to turn on the overhead light bulb to read it because the light from the lamp was too dim.

 

His temperature was now 103.00. Jake gathered the materials and gave him a sponge bath. Then he glanced at the clock; it was 2:16. Four hours shouldn’t be too long. In the morning he would phone Ian on their home phone and hopefully get through to him and then he would take Alex to the hospital.

 

Jake got back into the bed and went back to sleep also.                                                                                                                               

 

 

………………………………………..

 

 

Alex woke to hearing his uncle’s name being called.

 

“Boy, am I glad to hear from you!” Jake was talking on the phone.

 

Ale rolled over in the bed and slid his legs out. “Let me talk to him, Jake! Let me talk to him! Come on!” He instantly began to exclaim.

 

Jake gestured for him to wait. “My name is Jake Alston. Do you know Ryand--or Wolf?”

 

“Good, well I’m a friend of his. I’m calling to tell you that I have your nephew with me. He’s—“ Alex had stood up and snatched the phone from Jake quickly.

 

“Ian?! Ian?!” He cried happily into the phone. After a small silence, “I’m at Jake’s house. Ian come get me, I want to see you.”

 

Another small silence.

 

“But Ian—okay.” Alex sadly handed the phone back Jake and sat back down on the bed.

 

Alex sat and listened to the one-sided conversation until Jake hung up.

 

He looked up at Jake “Now what?”

 

“He’s going to meet us outside the hospital.” Jake told him. “Now come on and get some clothes on.”

 

“Okay.” Alex said, hopping off the bed. “Who’s Ryand?” He asked curiously.

 

“A friend I met at army camp.” Jake while sitting down on the bed as he waited for Alex to get ready. “Your uncle knows him too.”

 

“How come?” Alex asked as he slipped into the black sweats he had put the previous day.

 

“He worked with him, I assume. But now it’s my turn to ask a question. Why do you call your uncle by his first name?”

 

Alex came over to Jake fully dressed and pulling the hood of his hoodie over his head. “He doesn’t like ‘uncle’. He says he just doesn’t like the word. So I call him ‘Ian’.”    

 

“Alright we’re, ready to leave.” Jake said while standing. He lifted Alex went to the car, where they both exchanged questions and laughs until they reached Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Where, sure enough, Ian was outside of it pacing, agitated.

 

When Jake got out of the car, Ian couldn’t have recognized him, but when he pulled Alex out too, and Alex squirmed in his arms then he recognized him and waited silently until they approached him; the remains of an argument on Alex’s lips.

 

“Yes I can!”

 

“No you can’t and that’s final.” Jake was saying playfully.

 

“Here, Ian.” Jake laughed. “Your package, weighs about 90 pounds and very alive.”

 

Alex jumped onto Ian as soon as he was in range. “Ian! Oh, Ian! I should have never left you at the hospital.”

 

Ian kissed his forehead affectionately. “Alex I’m so glad you’re okay, feverish, but okay.” He said as he hugged him tightly. “Now what are you talking about?” He gestured for Jake to follow them up the stairs to the hospital.

 

“At the hospital Ian, when I was talking to you, after I came from Amalia’s house, y’know?”

 

“Alex, you never saw me after Amalia’s house.” Ian said to him. But Alex wasn’t listening.

 

“Ian, are you a spy?”

 

Ian stopped dead in his tracks. “Who told you that, Alex?” He demanded.

 

“Jake.” Alex said happily.

 

Ian sighed and glanced back at Jake who was acting as though he hadn’t he heard a thing. “Yes, Alex, I am.” He said as he began walking again.

 

“Do you kill people?”

 

Ian stopped again. “No, Alex. Did Jake tell you that too?”

 

“Kind of.” Alex admitted. “He said he doesn’t know, but that’s only ‘cause I asked him. But if you don’t kill people, then—“ Alex stopped when he realized that Ian wasn’t listening to him, he was talking to Jake.

 

“So Jake, tell me, when did you find him?”

 

Jake thought. “Some time close to 1:00 p.m. yesterday in a park on Rover. Rd shivering.”

 

“And why didn’t you call me as soon as you found him?”

 

“I couldn’t. I was being hunted down, so I just got him into my car and drove off. I didn’t really know where I was going actually, but there was guy on a motorcycle chasing me down so I drove until he came to your neighborhood and he pointed out his house to me.”

 

Ian was silent for a while piecing it together…apparently it had all been connected. He glanced back at Jake’s car, it was the same Eclipse.  “I can’t believe it…” He said.

 

“Can’t believe what?” Jake asked as they both stopped walking.

 

“This was all connected.” Ian told him. “I stopped the guy from chasing you down because I had tracked him to being the person who kidnapped Alex.”

 

Jake looked at him wide-eyed. ‘Well, I did know that Alex’s kidnappers and the guy chasing me down had some sort of connection but…”

 

“So Alex,” Ian said turned to look down at him. “ if Jake only found you yesterday, where had you been all these days?”

 

Alex didn’t answer. “Uncle Ian,” He said. “do you get to do really cool things like…

 

Ian glanced at Jake and then back down at Alex.

 

Ian smiled. His curious little boy was back.