i dont own any rights to the Alex Rider stories or this story, it belongs to TheUlmuri
Part IV: Fragility
Two hours and forty minutes later the meeting of COBRA had finally come to an end and Alex was 30,000 feet in the air aboard the Prime Minister's private jet along with the Minister and Alan Blunt. He had found his way into many private jets over the course of his career- including Air Force One and the Russian president's Lear Jet, and this one was no different. It was comfortable and extravagant, possessing none of the down falls of commercial airliners, But Alex couldn't focus on the luxurious leather seats and excessive legroom; his barely contained rage bubbled as strong as ever and for the first time, since there were much fewer witnesses, he allowed his control to slip slightly and the emotion leak through.
"You said she was safe Blunt," he ground out, not trusting himself to be able to speak normally. "This is the second major Scorpia related security breach in seven months!"
"I'm sorry Alex, but-"
"Spare me the bullshit, Blunt. I know you well enough to know you're about as sorry as I am harmless. You had both the CIA and MI6 watching her and Scorpia still managed to get through!"
"Really Alex, you need to calm down. You can't-"
"I don't want to hear your excuses," Alex growled dangerously. "Just find your damn mole, Blunt, because I'm tired of cleaning up your messes."
"Are you insinuating-"
"Yes."
Alex returned to a state of angry brooding, choosing to ignore the others on the plane after he had finished saying his piece. The Prime Minister had remained silent throughout the exchange, taken aback by the force of Alex's outburst. He had met the teenage spy on several occasions and every time he had been calm and collected, his face carefully schooled into an emotionless mask. The young man's display of emotion was exceptionally rare, which only served to unnerve the minister more. He decided to find out more about the girl that was bringing out such a strong emotional reaction from his country's best agent.
"How do you know her?" he asked quietly, careful not to incite the wrath that was still noticeably bubbling just under the surface.
Alex slowly moved his gaze from the floor to the Minister; his eyes still black with suppressed rage. The Minister could tell that even though the spy was looking in his direction, he wasn't really seeing him.
"We met at Wimbledon, shortly before the whole mess with Sarov," Alex replied. "She was one of the most genuine people I had ever met. We just clicked."
"Was she your girlfriend?" the Minister asked tentatively, hoping that he wasn't crossing any lines.
"God, no," Alex laughed, though the sound was angry. "She likes playing the field too much for that. We're close though, even if we don't talk much any more. She's one of the few people that knew the truth almost from the beginning about where I disappear to all of the time." Alex shot Blunt a dark glare as he spoke; knowing that it was because of poor leadership that his occupational secrets had been somewhat compromised to a-admittedly miniscule- portion of the general public. "She means a lot to me. She's one of the few people I've ever really let in."
Alex quickly lapsed back into silence and the Minister knew that he would be leaning nothing more from the tortured agent.
Seven hours later the jet touched down in Washington, DC where the leaders of the major western powers were meeting for an emergency security summit in order to determine which plan of action would be used to counter act the threat posed by the infant N-USSR. Due to the heightened security risks they were transported from the airport to an "undisclosed location" that happened to be the presidents emergency security bunker. It was built deep underground, six hours outside of the capital and in the middle of a no-fly zone.
