Pyotr Anatolievich or Peter Anatol as he was known to his american counterparts, was a tall man in his early forties with dyed dark hair, dark eyes and a dark secret. Peter was playing chess; he was very good at it. Consequently, it was his favourite game. It was also his favourite game because it was very useful. Peter found that you could tell the personality of your opponent through chess. You could find out if they were reckless and a risk taker or if they were careful and methodical. You could also tell whether they were scared of him. Peter liked to interview his potential employees over a game of chess. He found it relaxing and so far, no one had beaten him.

Peter Anatol was a russian diplomat; he was currently stationed near Miami. Peter did not like his job. He found the people, the weather and the alcohol tedious. He did however enjoy the food. The american's love of fried anything and growing fast-food culture was something Peter would hate to leave behind; Blinis and Ponchiki doughnuts weren't quite the same as churros and big macs. Though Peter didn't have any plans to leave just yet. He still had work to do here.

Peter moved his queen to E5 and took out one of his opponents Pawns. It had been too easy. He studied the man in front of him. Slender, dark haired and blue eyed with a fresh face, he looked like he was just out of school. Peter took out another pawn. A knight. A bishop.

"You're very good at this." stated the young man.

Peter raised an eyebrow at him, he didn't like people brown-nosing him. He folded his arms over his chest and sat back in his wicker chair. The pair were sat on the balcony of the house russian government had bought for Peter to reside in. It was a nice house on the coast of Florida, it overlooked the sea and the westerly breeze was adding to the already suffocating June heat. Peter did not like the sun, it made him look pasty. The youth across from him seemed to be enjoying it, however.

"Where did you say you were from?" he asked politely.

The youth looked puzzled, then he said hesitantly, "Portland."

Peter nodded and reached for his Kvass, sipping it thoughtfully. He took out a castle. The young man looked slightly apprehensive but returned the favour by removing Peter's knight from the board.

"What did you say your name was again?"

The youth answered a little too quickly, "Eli."

"Are you enjoying the weather, Eli?" he asked, taking out another pawn.

"Very much."

Peter nodded again, deep in thought, he stood from the table on the balcony and went inside, pulling the chain which rang the bell floors below them. Eli watched him; he seemed nervous. Peter returned to the table, smiling.

"Your turn."

Eli seemed distracted and took out black pawn nearest to him; Peter smiled triumphantly. The door of the room which contained the balcony opened and a woman with square shoulders and a square jaw appeared. She was carrying a gun; she pointed it at Eli.

"Now now, Amaliya there's no need for that." Peter childed.

Amaliya lowered the gun but didn't put it away. Eli was looking scared, rising half out of his seat. Peter turned to him.

"I'm sorry about this, I really am." he said honestly, "I would have very much liked to keep you." he reached out and grasped Eli's jaw before the other man could move, and stroked his cheek with his thumb. "But I'm afraid I can't have a spy working for me."

Eli's eyes widened comically, "I'm not-" he began but Peter laughed across him

"Don't worry, it'll be a painless death," Eli's pulse was thundering under his fingers, "unless you resist of course, in which case it will be most painful, for you and for me."

Eli wrenched his face out of Peter's hand and charged at Amaliya. It was almost cartoon like, how different they were, how quick it all was. She stopped him easily, as if he were a small child and pushed him back toward the balcony. He was useless against her.

Peter moved away from the railings and looked away. Eli's screams were loud, echoing around the quarry he had just been thrown down. They stopped abruptly and Peter closed his eyes. He nodded once at Amaliya and made his way back over the chess board.

He moved his queen two spaces.

"Checkmate."

3000 miles away in Presidio Heights, San Francisco Alex Rider was abseiling with his adoptive father, Edward Pleasure. Edward's wife, Liz had been seeing a family counselor for the past few weeks and he had suggested that to create an inclusive environment, and to help Alex fit in better with the family, they should try new experiences together and bond. Alex did not like the word 'bond' for two reasons:

One, it was always associated a very famous international spy, a character Alex had come to despise and resent and two: it suggested that he was breaking the ties between Sabina's family and they needed to change so that he could fit in. He didn't want to destroy their family even more than he already had.

Liz had suggested at Alex saw the counselor too, but he hadn't much liked Doctor Thomas Eddington on the few occasions he had met him. Tall, broad, tanned and ruggedly handsome, he was everything Alex wasn't. Sabina seemed to fancy Thomas a lot. Not that Alex was jealous of this, he'd lost interest in Sabina romantically for a while now. He'd lost interest in everything recently. Alex also had the excuse, that even if he were to tell Dr Eddington about his missions and the trauma of the past year, he'd probably be referred to an asylum within two minutes.

Alex adjusted the slack on his rope. He'd abseiled plenty of times before. He looked up to see Edward several metres above him, clutching onto his rope for dear life. He called up to him.

"Mr Pleasure!"

"Call me Edward!"

"Just loosen your grip and walk backwards. It's perfectly safe"

Edward Pleasure slipped down the rock wall, only the harness stopping him from falling. Alex closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in despair. Mr Pleasure slid down the wall further so he was level with Alex.

"Put your feet against the wall" Alex instructed, gesturing to his own, "like this."

Shakily, Mr Pleasure extended his legs until he was perpendicular to the wall. Alex smiled encouragingly, "Very good. Now, do as I do,"

Alex let the rope feed slowly through his hand and stepped backward with his left foot. Mr Pleasure did the same. Ten minutes and three more stops later, they'd reached the bottom where Sabina and Mrs Pleasure were waiting. They divested themselves of the gear and headed over to the women.

"How'd it go?" asked Mrs Pleasure, who had evidently not being watching her husband's descent at all.

"Oh, fine, fine." said Mr Pleasure who was taking in big gulps of air, "Not too hard."

Sabina nugged Alex in the ribs, pointing to a man sat at the food tables a couple of metres away and whispered,

"I think he's found it hard, don't you?"

Alex looked over to see that the man she was pointing at was sitting with his legs crossed tightly, a very obvious problem in the front of his jeans. Alex snorted loudly and Mr and Mrs Pleasure looked up at him, he coughed lamely to cover it up.

"Well, it's about time we headed back home," said Liz "wagon's roll."

They filed out of the climbing centre, the two adults in front discussing the next little family bonding activity, Alex and Sabina following more slowly. Once they'd reached the door Sabina looked at him slyly. Sabina was about the same height as Alex now, maybe even a couple of centimetres taller. Alex had put this down to her being a year older. She grinned sidewardly at him, blue eyes sparkling.

"You know that guy in there? The one at the food court?" she asked

"You mean the one with the boner?"

She nodded and leaned closer to him, saying quietly "He got that looking at you."

Alex turned her, confused "You mean-"

"Yup, when you were on the rockwall."

"Oh," said Alex simply. "That's…" he searched for the right word "nice?"

Sabina giggled at him and Alex felt a little foolish. "Oh Alex, if only I had your innocence."

He looked at her incredulously.

"Oh you know what I mean." she said quickly "Honestly, Alex if that guy had gotten a boner looking at me, I'm not sure I'd have even waited for everyone else to leave before-"

"Jesus- Sabina. I do not want to know."

She giggled again and then looked up to see his face which he was sure was going red. Evidently, he did bear more than a passing resemblance to a tomato, for she laughed even harder. They reached the car and Sabina controlled herself enough to whisper something to her mother who cackled loudly as she slid into the front of the car.

Alex shared a look with Edward. He looked as incredulous and he felt. They shrugged at each other and said in unison, the same tone of despair in their voices:

"Women."

Joe Byrne and Alan Blunt faced each other over the conference table. Of course, there were others in the room, but the tension in the air between those two was palpable.

"I'm not doing it, I'm not."

It was Byrne who had said this, his words had a finality about them which most men would have stepped back from. But not Alan Blunt.

"My dear chap," he began, though Joe knew that no one on earth was dear to the man across from him, especially himself.

"I know you don't like the idea and I commend you for it, but the fact of the matter is that it has to be done."

Joe looked up at Blunt, meeting his pale gaze. Alex was right, Joe thought, this man was grey. Grey hair, eyes, skin, clothes, personality. Joe allowed himself a small smile. He suppressed it and argued back.

"This mission endangers the life and well-being of a child. He'd be directly in harm's way."

Blunt raised a grey eyebrow. "You had no problem with this at Skeleton Key. Or on Project Ark Angel. Both times you knew the risks, you knew the danger-"

"That was different, Alex was part of a cover for my other two agents. What you're suggesting now is-"

Blunt cut across him, "dangerous?"

"barbaric!"

There was silence in the room. The head of NATO turned to look at him and Byrne felt unnerved. He'd never liked that man. He always got the feeling he was being sized up as an opponent whenever he looked at him.

The head of NATO spoke.

"Mr Byrne, it seems to me that you have a problem, one which this boy may be able to solve. Personally Blunt, I have little faith in your operative but I'm willing to put him into the field if it means we can avoid dragging my organisation into this mess."

Joe Byrne was shocked. He'd thought the man a bully and a coward, but condoning this! It was a whole new side to his peers he'd never seen. He had to say something.

"The fact remains that Alex- that is, Agent Rider is fifteen; a child. He doesn't even want to work for us, how can you do this to him?" His voice cracked at the end and he looked into the eyes of others around the table. Surely at least one of them had to have a heart.

"If I may say something Joe,"

He turned to see Mrs Jones, Blunt's right hand woman standing from her seat at the side of the room. He nodded but she'd already begun.

"Alex is a child, he is young and vulnerable"

Joe breathed a sigh of relief, at least she was on his side.

"but that is exactly why we need him." Joe's blood suddenly felt cold. "He'll be able to go places our other agents can't. He is too young, I'll agree with you there. But so are those in danger, some are even younger than Alex and they're suffering. We need to send him in, Joe. I don't like it anymore than you do but you have to admit, the best chance we've got. It's logical."

Heads around the table were all nodding in agreement and Byrne had to see the reasoning behind the theory. But he didn't like it. He tried one last time.

"You can't just send a completely innocent young boy into that world, Tulip. You can't just send Alex to suffer in their place."

Mrs Jones looked at him sadly, but it was Alan Blunt who spoke. His voice was snaplish and cold.

"But he isn't innocent, is he? He's done things that those children haven't. Seen things they haven't. And we didn't ask him to do a lot of those things."

There was silence and Joe nodded, signing away a boy's happiness with one single action. He set his jaw.

"Very well. We send Alex in."