An obnoxiously short Prolugue

Alex never believed in his luck of a devil until …

CH1

The rain pounded down in sleets upon a cheap plastic hoodie that offered no resistance, his trainers continued to smack the ground methodically despite the heavy pounding of his heart and the straining of his scar. Alex Rider wanted to be free, free from all the guilt and stress of the spy world, free from the horrors that he had seen and endured, and most of all free from the death that had always plagued him and his surrounding. Jack's bloody and multilated body haunts him every time he ever closes his eyes.

"Jack, I'm home ! Did you know ..." Alex trailed off as he heard no enthusiatist reply nor

…

CH2

The receptionist at Sunshine family home gave Alex a hard stare as she saw the policeman huddling him in.. She had seen enough of those cases, those street kids brought into the home by the law. Yet this one seemed special. Curious, she peered closer at the blond haired boy, wondering what it is that caught her attention. He seemed so natural standing beside that policeman, as if he had been in this situation before. "Name and age," she snapped out, wanting to see how he will react. .

"Alex, no last name, 13 years old. That was all I managed to get out of him. Just another blasted street kid I suppose."

James was getting horribly fustrated, it had been 2 months living in Sunshine family home, the food was horrendous and the facilities are a far stretch from those on Cherub campus. His mood was only slightly improved when the old slob of a roommate moved out, he feverently hoped that the new one would at least not be a great slob and of mediocre intelligence.

"Meet your new roommate, Alex, and please show him around, I have to run, thank you deary …"

"Hi," James mumbled. Alex gave him a curt nod and thought "Oh shit, now a children's home, at least I could play the street kid act … just have to hope that they don't ransack my bag. Guess I have to escape tonight. At least the nightmares are good for somethings, lik an alarm clock."

James observed his new roommate, "Blond hair, brown eyes, round 1m70, relatively musculaire, might be intelligent enough to get me out of this hell hole," he thought. "I am definitely desperate right now, didn't even talk to him and making decisions, but oh well, enough is enough!"

The tour around the orphanage was oppressively silent as both James and Alex are inversed in their own thoughts.

…

CH3

The moonlight streamed through the creaking window shining a bare patch of wall and two beds. Alex Rider is wide awake thanks to the many torture seesions that he had been through coupled with the murder of Jack. He slinked silently through the shadows. Placing a hand on the peeling white paint, he lept onto the sill. Lady luck did not shine upon him as plaster crumbled under his feet dropping him on the old floorboard creat a harmony of creaks that woke James despite the light snores that escaped his mouth.

"Where on earth are you going, you will be caught and put on washing duty," exclaimed James. "Don't tell me I didn't warn you !"

A series of unmentionable swear words escaped Alex's mouth, ones that he learnt from the SAS and the SEALs. "Where I am going is none of your F******* business and I won't be caught!"

James remembering that the ticket to get himself out of recruitement duty is escaping rasied a hand to stop him not knowing that Alex is one grade dan belt higher than him in both karate and judo and two grades higher than him in juijitsu, plus what reflexes all his spying taught him.

Alex's elbow snapped out knocking James's offending arm aside and his hips twisted lashing out with his heel. Almost as if seeing the mouvement in slow motion, James was dazed by the fact that he actually met someone who is better than him in martial arts that others in Cherub. Unable to completely avoid the blow, he was knocked to ground with a heavy thud. Unable to think rationally he activated his watch with the knockout dart that was reserved for emergencies. Alex groggily fell to the ground.

James in his moment clarity realised what he had done. And its consequences, there will be no way this matter would be swept under the rug. The fast acting drug could only last up to 6 hours and when he finally wakes up, he will go looking for me … Oh dear. He had better call Zara and face the music.

"So you think that it might be best if we bring Alex into Cherub for a recruitement test," Zara's voice seemed deceptively calm.

"Eh…yes, I suppose so, I do think that he will make a good recruit even though he is already 13, " James tried to reason.

"As to that we'll see but when this whole mess is over, YOU will be seeing ME and have a talk face to face, IS THAT CLEAR ! " James's body involutarily shivered. He was in for it big time.

A familiar fuzziness was felt in Alex mind, slowly that fog cleared. Almost instinctually, he checked for restraints and strained his ears to pick out all the indications of time and space. Realising that he was in a moving vehicule with no bonds placed his odds at escaping better than most other experiences.

Cracking open an eyelid, he saw the hideous mug of James curiously examining him as if he is an circus animal, giving him a echo of his treatement at Point Blanc. "What ! so MI6 is not the only organisation making children to do the dirty work, maybe MI5, those bastards sure have the same mindsets!" Feeling particulary uncharitable, he opened his eyes defiantely and gave James a withered cold glare.

"Amy, he's awake," James reported.

"So, our unfortunate victim of James's stupidness is finally awake, I am Amy. And you are Alex, I heard that you wanted to escape the orphange during the night … Anyway, you are out of there and we'll be heading back to our campus and I will let Zara explain everything to you. Are you feeling woozy, that drug is rather strong, but we can always get you checked out at the Campus clinic …" She trailed off

Alex listened to her chirping with mounting annoyance. She annoyed him almost as much as Mrs Jones permenant peppermint sweet.

"What are you," Alex snapped curtly, "I give you one minute or I am out of the car…"

"Tut … Tut, don't need to be so antagonistic, and this car is moving at 70 miles per hour, so I would advice you to listen to me and if you don't like our destination you will be free to go … "

"30 seconds"

"Ok, Ok impatient prick, we are super spies by the name of Cherub, I am retired agent, James here is a navy shirt, second rank agent. Cherub uses kids as spies as they are less suspicious. Happy now!" Amy was fed up at Alex's impatient and cold attitude

"Wh…at" Alex spluttered, "Not bloody MI6 I hope" he mutteres under his breath. "Explain more" he demanded. "Fuck my luck," Alex thought

"Cherub is started during the second wolrd war and we have exsisted since then … Either way we have arrived so I will let Zara explain everything to you."

Feeling that it would be useless for him to protest against anything and the promise of letting him go after he have heard the options was curiously tempting, Alex followed James and Amy onto the campus. As he passed through the secruity check he felt extremely thankful to Smithers that made most of his gadget rather inconspicious other than the ceramic knife hidden on the under side of his thigh. Thank god they only used a metal detector.

"Would you please put on this orange T-shirt and discard your old sweatshirt here, there are themostat regulation inside, I don't think you would need it."

"Shit, that my only nano-carbon sweat left, guess I have to play the sentimental act …"Alex thought. "I am sorry, please can I keep it with me, I still have sentimental value attached to it", "it did save my life more than a few time …"

"Ok, but you have to keep your bag and material in here," the guardsman shown him a clear plastic bag, "if you chose to accept, these would be sent to your room, or if you do not, you will collect them when you get out."

"Thank God for the ceramic knife … If not…" Alex thought

As he entered Zara's office with Amy, he eyes scanned the room automatically looking for exits and automatically comparted it with Mrs Jones room. It seems much warmer than the Peppermint sucker, decorated with lounge chairs and photo frames. And the obvious was that he was not trying to kill her nor was there a bulletproof glass between them.

"Ok Alex, please sit down, I am Zara Mcaffertry, chairwoman of Cherub, so Cherub is …." Alex puporsefully tuned her out, all he needed to know was salary and living accomodation and secrecy.

"So, each Cherub who have passed basic training will have a room each with a salary of 2000 pounds per month plus 3000 pounds for each mission sucsessfully completed. You will have the choice to refuse or accept a mission, but Cherubs have rarely turned down a mission…" With this information Alex's eyes widened imperceptably, noticed only by Amy who was regarding him curiously to see how he will react to Zara and more generally an higher authority.

"Strange, I could swear that he felt angry when Zara told him of the salary, weird, normally people would be happy … maybe he is just spoiled." She thought satisfied with her conclusion.

Alex bristled when he heard the information, he was cheated of at least 30 000 or more pounds during his working period with MI6. "I am definitely accepting if only to spite MI6 " He thought

"… Now do you have any questions and would you accpet to undergo the test ?" Zara patiently asked the quiet boy with the emotionless mask.

"Ah. yes, What is your relationship personally to that of the head of MI6, do they know everything you know or do you have your own secrets ?"

Zara nodded at the question finding it rather bizzare, but replied, "I would like to know your reasons for asking this question."

"Oh just plain curiosity, we always hear about MI6 and MI5, I would love to know their differences and how they interact. Novels often say that they hate each but I wonder if there is a grain of truth in that fiction." Alex pulled off the the innocent act with full marks if he say so himself seeing how many times he were in that situation.

"Ok, to satisfy your curiosity. I, the head of Cherub have a Level one clearance in MI5, but not in MI6. those people guard their secret very well. Only the head and his secetary have level one clearance to MI6 information. I communicate very rarely with them only in meeting and I can say that MI6 does not know the existence of Cherub."

"Yes I think this chance is too well to pass up on," Alex gave a samll shy smile that he had spent hospital time practising.

"Very well, I think you may start the Scholarstic test now and the physicals this afternoon. Amy will bring you first to do your IQ test, then your language test."

"You have two hours and you may begin NOW."

The IQ test felt strange to Alex, not used to such weirdly phrase questions and choices. But with a quarter of an hour left, he had finished and moved on to another classroom. " This is our language instructor, Mr Smith, he is fluent in 12 languages, including English, Spainsh, Mandarin with one dialect, Arabic with two dialecs, Portugese, Italian, French, German, Latin, Russian and Japanese, he will interviewing you on your known languages." Amy introduced

"Ok, hello, please tell me all the languages you have had contact with no matter how minute and I will determine your level in each."

"English, espanol, francais, Deutch and pu tong hua."

"Alors, tu parles tous ces langues la, vraiment ?" the instructor asked unbelievably.

"Si, senor, hablo todos los lingustas." The smile on the instructor's face widen as he firedof a rapid string of chinese only to be replied fuently in German. "Well, I think that you can definitely help me with others in class, maybe you can enroll in Japanese and Russian."

A genuine smile spread across Alex's face, he might have normal classes, oh he would indeed enjoy learning, Jack is always getting on his case to get his coursework done … no was. The thought of Jack quickly sombered him up, he will take his revenge, he vowed as they took theirs.

" First up is a basic hand to hand fight, you will begin when Sensei Takada blows her whistle."

"Bruce Lee." The black haired kid clad in typical judo uniform with a black belt and two stripes offered his hand.

Alex cocked an eyesbrow as he accepted, "Alex"

"Ｐshhhh" a fist shot like an arrow straight towards his gut, Alex nimble jumped out of the way with his arms behind his back as he waited for the next blow. Dodging like a slippery fish in water, he would get out of the way of each blow. This continued for 5 minutes and Bruce was getting fustrated, he will take down this Alex, there is no way that he, Bruce Lee would be taken down by a new kid. 6 minutes had passed and Bruce is getting winded and Alex had enough fun. With a deft twisted of his body, his fist shot out, curled light towards his solar pexus. As Bruce tried to dodge, his other hand snaked towards Bruce's neck and with a well practised move too fast for the naked eye he jabbed a pressue point and the once undeafeted Bruce Lee fell towards the ground.

Bowing to Instructor Takada, he whispered, "Judo 4th Dan, Karate 5th Dan with 3rd Dan in Juijitsu."

"The next course will be an assault course, which you will try to cross in the least time possible. Begin on the count of 3. 3, 2,1"

Alex stood still for a second or two examining the whole course, picking out the various obstacles and comparing these with those of SAS. There was obvious similarities and differences. Taking a deapeath he sprinted towards the first obstacle, Alex fling himself onto the grass as he moved rapidly under the net. Moving gracefully and without hesitation, Alex Rider looked like his was born into such a course. Jumping off the high platform in the trees, he glanced at his watch. 5 minutes and 25 seconds. Fast, but could do better, Alex mused to himself. As Amy's finger pushed the start and stop trigger the second time in 6 minutes, she felt her jaw dropping, her own personal record was 5 minutes 12 seconds. And this was after she achieved her black shirt. Oh My.

"Ah, we'll see …" Amy who had been following Alex all around could only stare in muted surprise at Alex. He seemed to be a factory made spy. She did not know how close she had been to the truth. The next test would be swimming, her departement. It seems with all that Alex had been doing, her station seemed the easiest. Rescuing a brick, how pathetic. Maybe I should just steep up the challenge just for him. Ah, all little paintball gun and a dummy to rescue should be fun … she almost giggled maniaclly thinking of her new and improvised set-up.

"Alex, the next station would be mine, do you know how to swim ?"

He nodded. "Very well ?"

"Passable"

"Fine, you will have to rescue the dummy at the end of the pool and get the brick in the middle."

"Will that be all ?" the raisede eyebrow told Amy that all the challenges so far seemed way too easy. Fine, then she won't go easy on him.

"Oh, no, I will be paintballing so try not be get a vital area hit, on either the dummy or yourself… on 3, 3,2,1, GO." Amy rushed to get the gun mounted and up the stairs as Alex dived in. With a strong breast stroke he arrived in the middle and dived for the brick. As he surfaced, he tucked the brick in his waistband. Moving towards the dummy he sneaked a look at Amy. With a life save stroke, he moved towards the shallow end zigzagging and avoiding bullets. When he finally arrived paintless, Amy look exasperated, and asked "Are you factory made just for Cherub ? we had never had such a good recruit before." She eyed him suspiciously.

With a wry smile and a cynical chuckle way too old for his young body, he said, "Be careful of what knowledge you desire, you might never want know the truth."

"Fine, anyway, we have one last test before sending you to the doctors."

"Kill this chicken." The trainer handed him a small knife.

"Why ?"

"Because I ask you to."

"Then no, I won't kill the chicken."

"What about if I give you five bucks," the trainer peeled of a fiver from his wallet."

"No, I'ma no bloody assasin." "even if I had been trained by the fucking Scorpia" he muttered under his breath.

"Fine, but chickens are killed everyday, we eat chicken during our meals, what difference will this make ?"

"Well Mister, still no. You might want to attend Logic 101," Alex curtly snapped. Even if it is a chicken's blood, he don't want another mark on his hands.

The trainer was stumped, most carnivores agree with this logic, maybe he will try another tactic.

"Let's make it simple, if you kill the chicken, you might pass the test, if don't you might fail the test."

"Oh really, then I will afford to fail this test." His eyesbrow arched at his comment.

"Fine, get on with your tests then."

The young and pretty nurse looked him over, as he removed his shirt. "Oh dear, where did you get this monstousity, how much it is on your head, hun ?"

"Not much just two or three million, how much are you willing to pay eh?" His flirtatious smile made what he said seemingly joking despite the verity. The medical checkup rated him at perfect health other than the hideous bullet scar with way too many previous fractures and breaks of bones that healed perfectly fine. To Amy's question on where he got those nasty injuries, his only answer was vague, "I'ma gutter kid, whatcha y'r expecting"

With the whole series of test and trials finished, Amy and Alex reported back to Zara Asker's room. As she observed Alex through the cameras set up around the campus, she felt like she was looking at an old agent redoing all those test, with all the right answers, yet she was sure that Alex never set foot on Cherub Campus. Sending those small nibbling fellings towards the rear of her mind, she spun around just in time to respond to the knock on her door.

CH4

"How well did you think you did ? Do you think that you'll pass ?" she asked with a friendly smile.

" I think I will be prepared to do your basic training if it is at the same level with the tests." Alex kept his face neutral instead of betraying the slight disgust that surfaced. "How could the cherubs survive such little training." He mused.

"Well, I suppose you are right, I am happy to say you passed all our tests with flying colours. Bravo … For your IQ and languages test you passed amazingly well …" droned on about his test results, Alex was thinking of having a much smoother life ahead with no dangerous missions and lovely accomodations. Little did he realise that his luck of a devil will always play up the the most optune moment, unfortunately that is.

"You said basic training starts every three months, when will I be starting ?" Alex questioned when she finished.

"I was afraid that you might have to wait till september but I think that you may join basic training that will start the day after. Here is your basic training T-shirt," Zara handed him a grey T-shirt with the cherub logo. "I will have Amy show you your room, here is your room key, I hope you will enjoy your time here."

Opening the door to his room, he got a fright. There was a nice sized laptop sitting on the desk with a single bed and joint bathroom. The TV is a nice flat screen with a special Cherub agent phone on his side desk. Still way of bugs, he took out the special made game boy and switched it on scanning the room for bugs. To his immense surprise, there were no bugs planted anywhere in his room.

Feeling completely relaxed for a long time since the start of his uncle's death, Alex collapsed upon the mattress. He thought back on why he had accepted. The reason was somewhat childish and a little illogical. The main reason was Amy's fiery red hair, that reminded him so much of Jack. He sat up from his recumbering position to shake out his new T-shirt. He felt that he might just have the hope to belong to something, to a group and to have someone to rely on. At long last.

CH5

Basic training was tough. Tough for Alex to conceal his abilities, tough for him to look like the training is all new to him. Tough to conceal all his battle scars. The shooting range put his oscar winning talent into hard test. That was the problem with guns. Either you know how to shoot, either you don't. You cannot hide the fact that your shooting was taught by the best. Assasins. Alex can't hide his secret if he shoots. So neither can isntructor Brooks. He was an assasin. No matter hoe well he tried to keep his secret. It was glaringly obvious. Despite trying to keep to the SAS standard shooting, he shows his true colours.

Instructor Brooks was having suspicions about the new kid. A weird tingling feeling that he was hiding something. That boy's eyes seemed to pierce his heart and know his darkest secret. He always shied away from him, trying to not meet his eyes, turning away each time he tried to search his face. Brooks never saw him shoot, yet he know that his shooting style was different from others, and so are his result. His accuracy is about 72%, relatively above average for a new recruit. However, what made him gasp was the type of result when he was going through their shooting cards to writing a report to Zara.

Looking at the first card, he saw a hole right in the middle of the small black dot. 100% so far. Next card, another 100%, then the third one which had the same perpect score. Finally, one would expect a perfect score for the next two. Yet, there was no hole in the square piece of paper. Going through all the results of Alex, Brooks realised that he seemed to be missing on purpose. But why ? he decided to go to Zara to have his questions answered.

Alex like Brooks have his suspicions. To have his suspicions comfirmed, he went to his computer and typed out : Scorpia never forgets, Scorpia never forgives. After he added a silver sorpion , he licked the envelope shut, he went to look for Instructor Brooks with a story in mind

"So, you think that the boy imight be a talented shooter but he misses on purpose, not wanting to show his real skill. Also, his shooting technique is not standard." Zara mused. "Maybe he just doesn't want the extra attention you know. We do not have this boy's back groud other than the fact that he is a street kid with both of his parents dead."

"Knock, …Knock …" "Come in," Zara called

"Good afternoon Zara and Instructor," Alex greeted. He hadn't thought that the task would be so easy. "This letter is left on my windsill, addressed to Instructor Brooks, there was no name of the sender and I thought I might pass it to you." With that he closed the door. Sliiping to a shadowed corner, he placed his Ipod against the wall and plugged in his ear plugs.

"… it doesn't seem dangerous, why don't you open it. …"

The instructor took the letter opner from Zara and ripped the paper open. Pulling out the folded sheet and seeing the sliver scopion, he hand started to temble. "No, it is not possible, he muttered without convincing himself, he opned the letter. Seeing the words, Instructor Brooks promptly fainted. "Oh dear Alex,"thought. He had not expected such a reaction. Zara was stunned and quickly took the slip of paper away from Brooks hand and read.