Alex Rider training with SAS

Chapter 5

 Alex was sitting up in bed waiting for K-unit. When they finally busted through the door Alex was bombarded with question. "Where were you?" "What happened to you" "What did they do to you?" "Why did they chose you?" and other variations along the same line came flying at him simultaneously. "Hold on slow down I can't hear any of you one at a time please" Alex cried out with a small smile. He was glad to know they were worried about him. "What happened to you Cub" Wolf asked being the quickest of the four. "Well I just remember waking up in an interrogation room and being well interrogated." Alex said truthfully although it wasn't the full truth and they knew it. "Why choose you to interrogate, why not any one of us" Snake asked thoughtfully. "I don't know why they chose me", Lie "probably thought I would be the easier to break" Alex stated simply. Finally after many subsequent questions and part truths K-unit was showed out of the infirmary by Bear.

 On the way back to Cabin K K-unit talked about their visit to Alex in the infirmary. "Man I hope Cub gets better soon" Eagle said. "I know we all want Cub back on his feet. He was looking ok today" Snake added. "Yeh but did you get the feeling he was hiding something from us." Fox questioned. "Yeh whenever we asked about who took him he got all defensive and did you see his eyes?" Wolf added. "What what about Cub's eyes" Eagle asked. "Clueless as always Eagle. Cub got this hard look in his eyes it was really creepy it made you feel... I don't know but there was something definitely wrong about them" Snake said. K-unit made the rest of the track back to their cabin in silence thinking about their injured friend. Their suspicion about Alex was growing by the minute.

 In 2 days time much to K-unit's surprise Alex was back in action training with them. Alex knew he didn't have time to fully recover like Bear wanted him to do, MI6 would be sending him back to Scorpia soon. It was only a week later when MI6 called him once again to Sergeant's office. His mission, to destroy a Scorpia base from the inside. Alex left the Sergeant's office to gather up the necessities for the mission. On his way to Cabin K Alex noticed a large gathering of soldiers around the flagpole. Curiosity overtook him and he made his way over to the group.  What Alex saw laying at the foot of the flag pole made his blood boil with anger. Laying on the ground propped up against the flag pole was a dead and bloodied Bear. Carved in to Bear's unmoving chest was the letter S. Along with the carving there was Bear's cause of death a knife sticking out of his stomach. The knife was elegant long and black with a silver scorpion engraved onto the handle. Attached to the body via the the knife was a note. It read Scorpia never forgives and never forgets. Also attached to the note was a black flash drive with a silver scorpion. Alex paled when he saw the flash drive, he knew what was on it and for the first time in a long time Alex was scarred. Scarred of reliving the memories, scared of people finding out about him and his past. Alex was closing off, his eyes hardened and turned cold, his face became an emotionless mask, and his body tensed up.

 K-unit was in the lecture hall when a sudden commotion outside drew their attention. Suddenly a soldier burst through door. "It's Bear" was all he said before running out leaving the door swinging in the wind. In a flash every soldier including the instructor was out the door and running to the ever growing group of soldiers. When Snake saw the body his stomach clenched. He was used to seeing bloody wounds but seeing Bear's body was something else. The rest of K-unit had similar reactions, Eagle even dry heaved. Snake saw Cub running towards the group from Sergeant's office and Snake moved to protect his unit's youngest member from the gruesome sight. Snake knew that Bear had been close to Alex one of the first Cub started to talk too. But Cub pushed through to see what the commotion was about and abruptly stopped when he saw the body. Snake saw Cub pale considerably and visibly tense. He knows something, Snake thought but was prevented from confronting Cub by Sergeant. Sergeant  had come to yell at his soldiers for crowding around but stopped short at the sight of the body. The rest was chaos to Snake. Sergeant yelled at his soldiers to get back to work but asked B-unit to help with their leader's body. The last thing Snake heard before returning to the lecture hall was Sergeant calling out for Cub to stay behind.

 Alex was mentally scolding himself. How could I be so stupid, of course they would kill Bear. He was the first one to accept me at BB. I told myself I wouldn't make connections, but I lied. Everyone around me gets hurt. Alex made his was for the second time that day to Sergeant's office. Inside Sergeant was practically fuming. "WHO IN THE HELL COULD HAVE KILLED ONE OF MY SOLDIERS ON MY BASE!!!" Sergeant demanded. "Scorpia" was Alex's calm response. "Are you certain?" Sergeant asked scared quiet by Alex's response. "Yeh the S carved into Bear's body was pretty clear, the scorpion carved into the dagger, that and note read 'Scorpia never forgives and never forgets'." Alex bit back coldly yet sarcastically. "What's that all about anyway, Scorpia never forgives whom and never forgets what?" Sergeant continues to asked Alex. "Classified" Alex replied immediately without thinking. Sergeant continued to press Alex for information but received nothing. The warm friendly persona Alex exhibited as Cub when at BB was slipping away. He was hardening into the international hardened experienced veteran Agent Alex Rider. Finally Sergeant realizing Alex wasn't going to give him anything, he dismissed Alex to go on his mission. Alex left BB with a cold heart. He was distracted by his rage, sorrow, and self loathing. So much so that he failed to notice the four shadows following him along the tree line.