Chapter One

The Red Alert

0500 March 19th

In London, England, there is a long winding road called Monterrey Crescent. On this street there was an old, deserted funeral home. This funeral home was called the Royal and General. The large white building was crumbling with age, the once grand walls were covered with ivy, and the wooden shutters bent and broken. It blended perfectly into the old, scenic landscape of the county side. This was kind of place people see, but never remember.

Despite its appearance, this house was anything but old and worn.

This house was the pinnacle of high technology. It was impossible to enter without being checked at least a dozen times by the security cameras, the elite guards, and invisible scanners. All this was not paranoia; it was a necessity. Every bit of it was necessary for the protection of the people located in the building. These people were there because they had received a signal. The signal of a Red Alert.

The heads of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world were present. Those unavailable sent there most trusted representatives. The information in this meeting was secret, and could not be trusted to be transferred electronically. No matter how high security there was, there was always the risk of infiltration. If there is a signal, it is possible to follow. And it was a risk they, as intelligence agencies, could not take. Not if the survival of all the people in the world were depending on this information.

The various heads of intelligence agencies did not fidget, for it was unprofessional to show emotion, but a kind of impatience was coursing through the room. They all knew that if someone had managed to get through the extensive securities placed around the building, and managed to set a bomb in that room, most of the countries in the world would collapse. This made all the men and the three women in the room, understandingly, uncomfortable. Therefore they wanted this to be as swift as possible. Some, like the head of the CIA had flown across the Atlantic for this meeting at about 2 O'clock at night, and was understandably, irritable.

A person cleared his throat and if possible, the nervous energy intensified in the room. The head of MI6, a man by the name of Alan Blunt, stepped up to the podium, and cleared his throat again. 36 heads swivelled around to look at him, giving him their undivided attention. It was a bit chilling. One of the men did not have an eye. Blunt, if he noticed, he ignored it, and said,

"Thank you everyone for coming today. As you are no doubt aware, a Red Alert was called as of 0700 yesterday on a matter of great importance. A Red Alert is called whenever something becomes known to a specific intelligence agency that could do potential harm to all of the intelligence agencies in the world. The last Red Alert was called 32 years ago, on a matter of great importance. Today, I bring you all here to show a threat that has come to our whole society."

He paused for a moment for dramatic effect.

"A threat, that needs to be eliminated immediately- if uncooperative. If the threat is used against us, it would do us a considerable amount of harm."

A Chinese man in the middle row raised his hand, then thought better of it, and nodded for Blunt to continue on.

Blunt continued as if nothing had happened.

"This highly dangerous threat was once used by us, that is to say MI6, as a weapon. It was used on several missions which have all been more successful than we had originally anticipated."

Brows on the room furrowed.

"In just the course of one year, this now threat," Blunt continued, "has been behind the fall of Herod Sayle and his stormbreaker, which would have killed a large amount of people,"

"The fall of Dr. Grief who was the headmaster of Point Blanc Academy and tried to take over the world by cloning himself in the shape of several sons of the most influential people in the world,"

"The fall of Alexei Sarov, who wanted to blow up the radioactive submarines in Russia, which no doubt would be disastrous,"

"The fall of Damien Cray, who was going to launch 25 nuclear missiles into various points on this planet,"

"The fall of the Ark Angle space station, and prevented it from killing numerous civilians,"

"The fall of great terrorist organization known as SCORPIA, and their operation Invisible Sword, which if successful, would have killed all the children in England,"

"And stopping a major Snakehead in southern Asia, from starting a tidal wave big enough to devastate Australia and Asia."

At this, an African man cleared his throat. Blunt nodded, and the man spoke, "Am I to believe all this was accomplished within the time-frame of one year, by one weapon? This is...beyond what is expected..."

The man's voice drifted away as he considered how great this accomplishment truly was. This weapon must have saved the world over 7 times...

Blunt nodded. "It was, like I said, unexpe-"

A large German man interrupted. "What kind of weapon is this? Is this a new type of gadget? If something so powerful was found, why have you not shared this with us?"

Blunt replied, "This is not some gadget. It is- was one of our top agents. And we have not kept him selfishly for ourselves. This agent has not only worked for us, but with the CIA and the ASIS. Please try to hold your questions until after the briefing."

"This agent has an outstanding 100% success rate, and was given level 13 clearance. Only people with that clearance knew about him. Even the Prime Minister did not know about him initially."

At this, there were several startled looks, (which were the equivalent of a normal person jumping up and down screaming,) exchanged around the room. These were trained professionals who did not show emotion lightly.

"As I said," Blunt continued, seemingly oblivious to the bombshell he had just dropped, "he, that is the threat, was one of our top agents, but our relationship is somewhat complicated. From the start, he did not wish to work for us. We persuaded him to, but there was an understanding that that was the first and only mission the agent would perform."

He stopped and took a deep breath. "As you know, this was not upheld. I must admit we used him, and so did the CIA and the ASIS. We expected him to be a great agent, and yet did not give him the benefits of any. He worked for us on all those missions, yet had no salary, no benefits, and no care."

"Needless to say, he grew tired of our controlling ways, and wanted out. But we could not let him. He knew way too much and was too big of an asset to let go. This feeling was magnified when his only family died, and he blames us. If we had not made him go on all these missions in the first place, he feels this would never have happened. There was also a misunderstanding about the cause of his guardian's death. We had guards at his house, but he escaped. The moment I knew, I called a Red Alert."

He paused for the other people in the room to absorb this information. It was a lot to take in.

"In what ways is this agent of yours most dangerous to us, that is to say, the Intelligence society?" Asked a Japanese man, cool disdain showing on his face, "I do not think, no matter how good this agent is, that he, a single person, could pose a threat to all the law forces in the world."

"Contrary to your belief," Stated Blunt calmly, "this agent poses a huge threat to us- if left unchecked. As I said, he was given level 13 clearance - the highest there is. Only the prime minister and the heads of MI6 had the same information access as he did. He knows a lot of our top agents from working with them. If he were to whisper a few of those names to a select few terrorist organizations, our entire society in one place could entirely collapse."

This was met with a shocked silence.

"What I propose we do," said Blunt, "is immediately send searches to keep an eye out for him. Files about him will be passed around to everyone at the end of this meeting. He must be detained, so our enemies cannot use him, and if uncooperative, must be killed."

At this, a woman the back of the room raised her hand. "Who is this incredible agent?"

A look of weariness crossed Blunts features, the first emotion he had shown in many years. This flash was quickly replaced with his normal mask of indifference. But the various heads also caught it. This agent was not only one of the most successful in spy history, he made Blunt show emotion. Who was this agent?

"His name is Alex Rider..." A slight hesitation, then, "And he is fourteen years old."

Please review? I'm writing (as far as I can tell) an original story, non-cannon, so any feedback is extremely appreciated. Thoughts? Comments? Constructive Criticism? Haikus?