Finally Free - Alex Rider

Chapter Four

"16 hours Jaguar," the Colonel growled as I sat in next to him, "16 FUCKING hours".

I just smirked and tossed him the bag. He caught it easily and stared at it before slowly taking out the file and flicking through it, "... You actually got it?".

"Mission complete, sir" I replied calmly and he turned to me, going slightly paler when he saw the state I was in. Then his gaze drifted down to my arm, "What's this?"

"I got shot, nothing major" I replied simply and he sighed.

"Shit. You really got to mind yourself kid. Do you knew how stressing it is to wait 9 hours after a solider has been MIA just for him to ring you?"

I grinned, "Did you miss me?"

He shot me a glare, "No. I was just wondering what I'd tell MI6 when they asked why their best agent was dead when he was sent here for protection".

He stared at me for a minute before glancing down at my shoulder again, "How many did you kill?".

"How many did I k- Oh, the Arabs" I realised. Then it sunk in. I has killed more people. Oh.

"Arabs? As in from Saudi Arabia?" He asked and I nodded,

"The terrorists. They're Arab."

"... How on earth did you figure that out?"

"Well, first of all, they looked and dressed from that culture. Secondly, they were speaking in Arabic and had strong accents. And lastly they, they were cursing British weather" I replied smirking and he thought for a minute,

"You speak Arabian?" I nodded, turning to face him. He was staring at me strangely, a mixture of confusion, and awe, "What else do you speak?"

"I've no doubt you already know that" I replied, turning back to the widow, "You have, after all, read my file."

"... I have. But it's all classified. It just says your name, your age, and who you work for. The rest is blocked out" the Colonel admitted and I frowned slightly,

"Makes sense... I can speak French, German, Spanish and Arabian fluently, but I can get by with Italian, Russian and Japanese."

He whistled, "That's a lot of languages for a 19 year old... That's actually quite a lot of languages full stop."

"The more I know, the easier it is to pull of my allies, which in the long term, could save my life" I said quietly, my voice barely a whisper as I stared out at the raindrops slowly rolling down the window pane.

But he still heard it.

"They really messed you up didn't they?" the Colonel asked softly, "MI6, I mean".

I remained silent.

"Why do you do it?" He asked again, "Why do you work for them? It's hardly legal. And you're still a kid, still a teenager. You shouldn't be spending your days working for the British government. So why do it?".

I sort of broke. An urge in me to finally speak about it. "... When I was 14 my uncle died. He was my guardian at the time and he worked for MI6" I drew a shaky breath, "When I found out, they blackmailed me into finishing his mission. That was the first time they used me... Well, 9 missions later, the old head of special operations, Alan Blunt, stepped down and his deputy head, Tulip Jones, got control of MI6. She refused to use me again, so she got me adopted by the parents of this girl I used to know... And... Well... That didn't turn out too good... So by the time I turned 16, I was already voluntarily working for MI6. I'm just treated like a standard agent".

"Minus the fact you're a million times better than 90% of them" he finished and I smiled slightly

"Minus the fact no one asides for Mrs. Jones, Smithers, and Ben knows that I'm just 19".