A/N: written for the comment_fic prompt: Alex Rider, Alex, His last mission is over. The Bank no longer acts as his guardian and Jack has been deported. What now? The title is inspired by Stargate SG-1's Jack O'Neill character.

His last mission is over. The Bank no longer acts as his guardian and Jack has been deported willingly after finishing her university degree. Alex sits in a flat of his own and wonders, what now? His own schooling is over, he has a cushy job with a steady paycheck thanks to his MI6 connections, and there's no international crises requiring his attention. He props his feet on a rather nice footstool and sips a cold beer.

Normal life is rather… boring.

Alex tests out a Turkish recipe he'd found online for dinner, listening to a language tape as he does. Then, using the verb conjugations he's learned that day, he drafts an e-mail to Jack about his week in Turkish, and translates it back into English. He sends both copies, surfs around on the internet until deciding that Jack must not be at her computer to respond, and flops down on his sofa. He turns on the TV and flips through the channels with a giant yawn.

Nothing… nothing… nothing…

Alex finally lands on a local news station. The newscaster is staring at the camera with a calculatedly concerned face. "The question is, how can the local police stop it? In the last six months, drug-related hospitalizations skyrocketed a staggering twenty percent." Drugs, huh? Alex watches the entire news segment. Probably some sort of organization creeping into previously unincorporated neighborhoods. But if it were a new operation, it would only take an unprofitable snag or two, perhaps the incarceration of a few top men, to topple the whole thing. Wouldn't take more than a week or two of his abundant vacation time.

Alex taps the remote on the armrest thoughtfully.