Protection- Alex Rider fanfic

Chapter 4

In his room, lying on his bed later that day, Alex had suddenly a strong feeling that something was wrong. His spy instincts told him to get off the bed and Alex had long ago learnt to trust them. He had lost count of how much those instints had saved him in the field.

Just as Alex's feet touched the floor, a bullet broke the window and embedded itself in the bed where Alex had been, not minute ago. Bits of glasses embedded themselves in Alex's skin, but the latter could not bring himself to care. He could see the sniper next to his house walking in the opposite direction.

The sniper thought the bullet had reached its target. Ethan Graig had never failed before. He never thought his reputation would be spoiled because of a teenager. A bad surprise waited for him back at SCORPIA's headquarters.

The sound of breaking glasses was quite loud and within seconds through the door barged k-unit, guns, ready to fire, in hands." Get away from the window," wolf ordered. Even if he knew the threat was already gone, Alex did not dare oppose Wolf's order. The latter was only doing his work. Walking across the room, trying to avoid as much broken glasses as he could with his bare feet proved to be more difficult than he thought. K-unit approached the window cautiously, scanning the roof next to the house. Realising the threat was gone, Wolf ordered," Snake, check Alex's wounds. Shark and Eagle, patrol the area. I will report the incident." The other three soldiers nodded and moved to do as commandered.

Alex was waiting for Snake in the living room. When the latter arrived, first aid kit in hand, he proceeded to remove the pieces of glasses from Alex's skin. The bigger pieces were easy to remove while the smaller pieces were more difficult.

"Do you like spying?" Snake started, distracting Alex from the pain while he removed the small pieces.

"I don't know. At first, I did not really like it. All I wanted was to get out of espionage. But when I got out, the lack of adrenaline rush made me accept that I can't get back to normal life," Alex explained.

"You're the youngest spy I've met and yet, MI6 said you are their best." By then, Snake was stitching the quite big cuts. "Being young has its advantages. People don't expect me to cause them trouble. Either that or they just underestimate me." Alex remembered how much time his age and physical appearance had saved his life. Even when he became a well- known spy among the criminals, he was still being underestimated. And to facilitate his task in some cases, Alex replaced his normally emotionless mask by a fake scared teenager's one." Well, be careful with this one," Snake said, referring to the biggest cut. Alex nodded.
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It was about 11:00 p.m and Alex and k-unit were sleeping in the living room. They had fallen asleep while watching a movie. The window in Alex's room has been replaced already.

Alex woke up at the sound of a door closing. The sound was not loud, but Alex had learnt to hear the tiniest sound. He quietly stood up and took Snake's gun which was under the man's hand. Seeing Snake waking up, Alex quickly put a hand on the man's mouth. Snake panicked for a moment before realising it was only Alex. The latter gestured to the corridor from where there was the sound of a quiet pair of footsteps echoing. Snake nodded to Alex and proceeded to wake up his teammates. Meanwhile, Alex moved forward, raising Snake's gun.

When all members of k-unit were fully awake, they went in the corridor to find Alex pointing his gun at someone in the shadows.

"You're back early," Alex said to the man. It was not a question. It was a statement. Behind Alex, the soldiers' cold faces became confused." Yeah. My...target...was assassinated. I'm no more needed," a familiar voice explained.

" Fair enough. What's your name?"

" BD00723031976," Ben replied. Alex smiled, lowered the gun and pulled Ben into a hug. K-unit looked at each other before lowering their guns, but more confused than ever. Alex and Ben pulled back, and Ben looked at k-unit.

"Fox?" Snake managed to say in his shocked state. He, Wolf and Eagle had lost contact with him when he had left the SAS and they hadn't think they would see Fox again. And certainly not there of all places.

" Long time, no see," Ben grinned, " happy to see you too, Snake." The three soldiers smiled. They moved forward and each hugged Fox. They were more than happy to see their ex-teammate." What are you doing here?" Eagle asked." I'm Alex's guardian," Ben replied and he noticed Snake frown." Guardian? That means he is not eighteen yet. How old is he?" Snake asked.

" You don't know? I understand you didn't recognise him. He changed a lot. But he did not tell you?"

" Wow! I'm improving my skills. Even in plain view, I'm not being noticed," Alex said loudly so that his presence is acknowledged. All heads turned to Alex. Ben then turned back to his old unit," You can as well figure out who he is, then," ha said. He turned to Shark who had been silent throughout the exchange," I'm Ben aka Fox." Ben extended his hand and Shark shook it, "Shark."

Meanwhile, Wolf, Eagle and Snake had turned to Alex." Who are you?" Wolf asked." A hint: we've met about 3 years ago," was Alex's reply.

Suddenly, Eagle smiled, excited." I know. I know who he is," he kept repeating. He was practically jumping up and down. Ben grinned, "he figured it out, then."

" Who is he?" Wolf growled. Eagle immediately stopped and, still smiling, he said, "It's cub".