Undercover on Embassy Row

This is going to be...

"Everyone I would like you to meet Alex Rider...my boyfriend," I say as Alex and I walk hand in hand into the dining room.

Everyone in the room stilled. It was like I had just dropped a bomb. Noah was the first one to recover and walked over to us.

"Hey I'm Noah," he stuck out his hand. "I'm Grace's best friend."

"Hello. My name is Alex Rider," Alex shook his hand firmly. "I've heard a lot about you."

"I hope it was all good things," Noah smiled politely.

I watched as Jamie slowly got up and walked over to us. He was staring at Alex. He stuck out his hand without taking his eyes off Alex.

Alex didn't miss a beat and clasped his hand with Jamie's. "You must be James. Grace speaks very highly of you." That British accent of his made this sound like a business deal.

"Well this is the first time I hear of you," Jamie says trying to rattle Alex. If only he knew Alex couldn't be rattled at all. I almost laugh out loud.

"Jamie play nice," I say sweetly...like a girl in love.

"You said your name was Alex right?" Jamie looks at Alex.

"Yes," Alex doesn't back down. "Alex Rider."

Jamie looked taken aback when Alex said his full name. "Rider?"

"Yes," Alex replies.

I'd almost forgotten that Jamie was going to military school and that he probably heard of the amazing MI6 agent Alex Rider. "Alex let me introduce you to the others," I say quickly. "This is Rosie, Megan, Lila, and Alexi."

When I say this Rosie, Megan, and Lila rush over to greet Alex. "It's lovely to meet you, Alex," Megan shakes his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Megan," Alex says politely.

"Wow you are really handsome," Rosie says enthusiastically.

Alex chuckles and I follow suit. Calling him handsome is an understatement. "Careful Rosie it might go to his head," I laugh.

"Oh I'm not as bad as you Milady," Alex says. "Who was the one who only wore that pink lipstick for 2 weeks and couldn't stop looking into a mirror to see if it had come off just because Max told you it looked amazing on you?"

"That wasn't- I only wore it because it did look nice on me," I grin.

"Whatever you say Milady," Alex laughs.

It was then that I realized that the others were staring at us. I laugh nervously.

"Don't mind her," Alex winks. "Thank you, Rosie and I most definitely will not take it to my head."

"Hi nice to meet you, Alex," Lila shakes his hand. "From the looks of it, you and Grace seem to get along very well."

"Well, you should see us when the last bag of microwave popcorn is left. It will be hard to say we get along well," Alex jokes.

This brings laughter from Megan, Noah, Rosie, and Lila. "Well, I would love to see that," Lila laughs.

Finally, Alexi steps forward. "You must be Alexi," Alex offers his hand. "It feels so good to finally be meeting you."

Alexi takes his hand and by the looks of it, he grabs it very tightly. They firmly shake hands, "Good to meet you too," Alexi says with a tight smile.

"Well now that the pleasantries are over," I say as I grab Alex's hand. "I'm gonna show Alex around."

"I think I'll join you," Jamie acts all big brotherly.

"James I think Grace should show Alex around," Lila grabs Jamie's arm. "We have things to do. It was nice meeting you Alex and welcome to Adria," Lila says and pulls a protesting Jamie away.

Alex and I head straight for my room. Only once I'm behind the safety of my door do I let out a long sigh. "Well now that that's out of the way we can get back to our mission," I say.

"It was nice meeting your friends Milady," Alex stretches on the bed.

"I haven't been that nervous since we gatecrashed the president's son's birthday party," I say as I check the cameras outside my door on my tablet to make sure no one was coming.

"I don't think Alexi likes me very much," Alex says.

"Like I haven't noticed," I say sarcastically.

My tablet starts to ring and Max's caller id comes up.

"Hey Max," I say and go sit next to Alex.

"Hi Max," Alex says.

"Hey guys," Max greets us. "By the way Alex, nice job with the whole boyfriend role. You railed it."

"I know I think I deserve an Oscar for that performance," Alex jokes.

"Oh most definitely," I mock. "So Max what do you have for us?"

"So I have been following the Prime minister's movements and Zack has been monitoring and from what we have gathered he will be meeting with the organization your clone Grace has been working for," he says business-like. "Apparently a representative from the organization will be dropping something off at the museum tomorrow. Whatever is in that package must be important because the minister in going personally to pick it up."

"So we need to get that package before the minister does," I say already in spy mode.

"Exactly," Max says while he types away on his keyboard. "Since tomorrow is your first day there as an intern and Alex is your pretend boyfriend, Zack will go undercover as the prime minister. Yours and Alex's job is to get the prime minister out of the way while Zack goes to the drop."

"Simple enough," Alex says.

"Tomorrow both of you come here," Max instructs. "I'll give you your gadgets and we'll go over the plan."

"Ok," I agree. "Thank you, Max."

"No problem," Max smiles. "Be careful you two."

Max ends the video call and it's just me and Alex. "Tomorrow is going to be a really hectic day," I say.

"And a very important one," Alex walks over to the windows. "We can't make any mistake.