AN: No excuses. I'm willing to bet most people have forgotten about this story but I'm going to finish it. I promised I would.

2whitie – I was inspired. As someone who spent all of last summer taking care of my neighbor's baby I totally understand the implication of being able to both hold a baby properly and throw a grenade. I haven't thought about using any of the American agents but I'm sure I could find a way to slide them in since one of my best reviewers asked for it.

MonssterUnderYourBed – Your ability to make that single word really live up to its name is incredible. Thanks for taking the time to review.

Guest – Thank you. You are actually the only person who answered that question. For that reason I'm really going to try and find a place to stick Edward Pleasure into this story…and if not this story then maybe the sequel.

Sodai no Ozora – I apologize if I spelled your name wrong. James is greatly inspired by my little brother. Much of what he says makes it into James' dialogue. Don't worry if you're a Sergeant fan though. He's going to get his chance.

Disclaimer: Well, Anthony Horowitz probably wouldn't have taken this long to update.

James Sprintz POV

James Sprintz stopped at the large desk situated at the end of the hall. The young man working at the desk adjusted his glasses but was so engrossed in his work he was oblivious to the man and young boy at the desk. James tapped the desk with his hand impatiently. "Douglas, I have a job for you."

"Yes, sir," Douglas' head snapped up. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"I would like you to send out an email to every news channel, newspaper, and radio station that is stationed in London and have them relay the message that Sprintz Enterprises will pay for information regarding one Alex Rider," James Sprintz said.

Douglas faltered. "Every news channel, newspaper, and radio station?"

"That's what I said," James Sprintz replied.

Douglas frowned. "But sir, that will take forever."

"I imagine you won't send out too many before I have to tell you to stop," James Sprintz said. "But I want to be thorough. They have to get the message."

"They who, sir?" Douglas asked.

"Don't you worry," James Sprintz said. "Just get on that for me."

"Of course, sir, right now," Douglas turned back to the computer and got to work.

Kevin tugged on his dad's suit jacket until the tall man looked down at him. "I don't understand."

James Sprintz grinned. "MI6 crushed a reporter's career when he looked into Alex's past. They'll have a little more trouble crushing me. The best way to find someone is to have them come to you."

"What do we do now?" Kevin asked.

James took his son's hand and together they walked back to his office. "We wait."

Eve POV

"I hate the outdoors," Eve said. They'd been outside for no longer than two hours and already her fair skin had turned a pale shade of pink. It wouldn't be long before she was redder than a lobster and feeling about as cooked as one.

"Come on, it's not that bad. There's fresh air, sunlight, and privacy for miles and miles around," Shark said.

James shook his head. "Don't even bother trying. Mom's a huge fan of air conditioning, chlorine pools, and treadmills."

"I'm a redhead, James," Eve said.

James nodded. "I know, Mom."

"You can't just stick a redhead outside and expect everything to be okay," Eve said. "We get burned very easily. I get used to staying indoors. There are no bugs indoors. There is no pollen indoors."

"There is plenty of complaining out here though," Scorpion said with an arched eyebrow.

Eve hesitated for a moment and then answered, "I know I was supposed to feel bad at that but I refuse."

"Besides, if being outdoors affects your fair skin so much than why not pack some sunscreen?" Shark asked.

Eve stopped in her tracks and started laughing. "Of course! There I was with a tranquilizer dart sticking out of my arm and, silly me, I forgot to grab the sunscreen on my way down when I collapsed."

James sighed. "Man, I told you not to bother trying."

Shark looked like he was going to snap back but apparently thought better about playing mental tennis with a seven year old. "Right."

"Where are we going again?" Eve asked.

"Like I told you before-" Scorpion said.

"And the time before that," Shark muttered under his breath.

Scorpion continued, "We are going to the obstacle course. We are going to test your current skills and see exactly how far we've got to take this."

A leaf drifted down from the skies and landed in Eve's hair. She tugged it out and flicked it away. "And exactly how far away is the obstacle course?"

"We're here," Cheetah said before Shark could interject anything.

James and Eve walked to the front of the group. The examined the course with wide eyes and slack jaws. James cleared his throat and not very subtly asked, "You do realize I'm seven, right?"

Cheetah gave him a sympathetic smile. "This really wasn't my decision."

"Well, that makes me feel much better," James said.

Cheetah and Shark walked James and his mother over to the beginning of the obstacle course. Cheetah put a hand on James shoulder. "Basically, the goal is to make it through the course in a set amount of time."

"What's our time?" Eve asked.

"Don't worry about it," Scorpion interjected.

Cheetah looked at his fellow SAS soldier confused. "What?"

Scorpion took the paper from Cheetah and ripped it into pieces that he dropped onto the ground. "I was wrong, Cheetah. It's harder than I thought it'd be."

Shark glared at Scorpion. "What are you doing?"

"The right thing," Scorpion said. He gave Eve a pointed look. "I've never questioned orders ma'am. I'm a good soldier with a good team. This isn't right. Cheetah, get them started on the obstacle course but don't push it. I want to see what we have to work with."

"I thought you were doing the right thing?" Shark asked sarcastically.

Scorpion nodded. "I'm going to make these two jump through hoops at MI6 command but they do need to protect themselves, from MI6 if necessary. We're going to do this the right way, the way we were taught at SAS. The people around here need to stop acting like MI6's personal army and start remembering the pride we had as rookies at SAS."

Cheetah nodded as well. "Sure thing boss."

"I need to go talk to a few people," Scorpion said. "Panther and Shark are with me."

They left which left Cheetah alone with his two new charges. "Well, that was unexpected. Scorpion was ready to make this pretty miserable for you."

"What changed his mind?" Eve asked.

"Maybe just meeting you and realizing you're real humans or hearing some of your story maybe. Scorpion is a lot like the poisonous insect he's named after when you're on the wrong side of him but, what MI6 is doing to you isn't right," Cheetah replied. He shrugged. "Even Scorpion can see that."

"Got any tips?" James asked motioning to the obstacle course before them.

"Try different things. I'll be running next to the course in case of emergencies but take risks. The goal is to get through the obstacle course as fast as you can but you'll have plenty of chances to do that," Cheetah said.

"Great, something to look forward to," Eve said.

Alex POV

"When do we get jobs?" Wolf asked impatiently.

"You are really excited to start working for the bad guys," Eagle said.

Wolf shrugged. "I'm just excited to work at all. There's nothing to do just sitting here in this cabin."

Alex had been lying on his back on his cot for the hours since running the obstacle course. "Just relax. We'll have plenty to do in due time."

"Shouldn't you be looking for information or something?" Eagle asked.

Alex snorted. "We're new around here. They'll be watching for disloyalty. Give some time for us to make nice and then I'll go risk our necks looking for information."

"Well, when you put it like that," Wolf said.

"Do you feel out of practice, like Tom said?" Snake asked.

"Not at all," Alex said sarcastically. "It's like riding a bike."

Snake frowned. "That bad, huh?"

Alex sat up and shrugged. "I'm good at it but it's certainly no easier than it was when I was doing it at fourteen."

Eagle's stomach grumbled loudly. He blushed faintly. "Can we go find something to eat?"

Alex smirked. "Yeah, let's get out of here before Wolf gets cabin fever and Eagle starves to death."

"I thought you said we should stay put," Snake said.

"I never said that," Alex said. "I just said we shouldn't go snooping."

"So we sat in here and did nothing for no reason at all?" Wolf asked.

Alex gave him a smile that reminded them all very much of the fourteen year old boy from Brecon Beacons. "Well, I wouldn't say that. I got a pretty decent rest."

Wolf nearly growled at him. "Let's go."

It wasn't like Patrick had given them a map with the mess hall clearly labeled. Alex saw two options: run around and hope they stumbled on it or ask for directions. "Let's go find someone to ask for directions."

Wolf snorted. "You are not a real man."

"Excuse me?" Alex asked.

"Real men don't ask for directions. We can find food on our own," Wolf said.

"Well, you real men can wander around in search for lunch then. I'll go ask for directions," Alex said, rolling his eyes. He spotted a young man and was pointed in the direction of a big brown building. "Thanks."

Alex headed in the direction of the building and before long the rest of his team was behind him. He chuckled. "Decided to follow directions?"

Eagle's stomach grumbled again. "We've learned to pick our battles."

"Glad to hear it," Alex said as he walked into the mess hall. Like every other cafeteria he'd ever been in this one was crowded, loud, and complete with smells that shouldn't be associated with food. The men grabbed food and took a seat at an empty table.

Snake coughed and muttered under his breath. "Just like school."

Alex arched an eyebrow. "And what exactly was school like for you Snake?"

"You know, sitting alone. Cliques and junk like that," Snake said.

"Were you unpopular, mate?" Eagle asked.

Snake snorted. "I was a science and maths buff. Of course I was unpopular. What about you?"

Wolf grinned. "Eagle was the wimpy kid that got his head shoved into the toilets every Monday."

"I'll have you know I was one of the biggest kids in my class and I was never bullied in school," Eagle replied. "I'll bet you were the bully."

Wolf grinned in a way that made it clear that Wolf was the right nickname for him. "And proud of it."

"What about you Alex? You're smart and Tom said you played football. Bet you did pretty well for yourself in school," Wolf said.

Alex gave them half a grin that covered up a lot of bad memories. "Actually, not so much. I mean, I was fine at first but since I was out of school so often that kind of all went away. By the time I moved to America I was pretty much an outcast. People thought I was a druggie or a gang member."

"Wow," Eagle said and then he slammed his fist down into the cafeteria table. "And that's exactly what's wrong with our education system in this country. I mean, we educate students so that they can't put two and two together and get four. What kind of student goes from super-athlete and good student to druggie and gang member? That's not logical."

Snake shook his head as he ate his plate of spaghetti. "Children aren't known for their logic."

"Neither is Eagle," Wolf replied.

A group of men dressed in fatigues sat down at the table beside Alex and K-Unit. "Look, it's the new rookies."

"By definition, aren't rookies new?" Eagle asked under his breath. Alex smiled.

Wolf cleared his throat. "I haven't been a rookie in a long time, mate."

"Ah, well, you're a rookie to the Purity Fighters," the man replied. "The name's Neil."

"Wolf," he replied in turn.

Neil frowned. "What kind of name is Wolf?"

"The kind you get in the SAS," said a snarky Eagle.

"My name is David," the second of three men with Neil. "The short one is Ryan and the one with the horrible facial hair is Peter."

"It's a goatee, David. Lots of people have goatees," Peter said.

David himself was tall and fairly handsome with a white scar running down his right cheek. "If you say so. Anyways, it's nice to meet the new SAS recruits. We had a poll going as to when Patrick was finally going to pull some of you guys in. Guess I lost. I had it pegged for two months from now."

Neil grinned. "That's okay. Your loss is my gain."

Ryan, the shortest one but not necessarily short at about five foot and ten inches, finally added something to the conversation. "So which of you is the MI6 recruit?"

"That'd be me," Alex said. "Alex Rider."

"You're shitting me, right?" Peter said.

"No," Alex said only slightly uncomfortably.

Peter grinned. "No fucking way. That's awesome."

Neil frowned. "Would you care to share with the rest of the class?"

"Oh, come on. Don't you remember those stories from Catterick?" Peter asked.

David adopted a look of concentration on his face. "I guess it sounds kind of familiar."

"You remember some of the stupidest things," Ryan said.

"Alex Rider, the superspy," Peter said with a laugh. "Good times."

Alex gave the man an uneasy smile. "The stories are mostly exaggerated."

"Have you really gone to outer space?" Peter replied.

Alex paused and then replied, "Well, that one's true."

Hugo sauntered over and glared at Neil and his men. "Back to work."

"Sure thing, Hugo," Neil gave him a lazy salute. "It was a pleasure to meet you men."

"Thanks, you too," Snake replied.

"Nice to meet you, Agent Rider," Peter said before he left.

Alex dropped his head into his hands. "I really wish people would stop doing that."

"What?" Eagle asked.

"Calling me Agent Rider," Alex explained as he lifted his head back up.

Wolf shook his head. "If that's your biggest concern right now you have some serious issues, okay?"

Richard Crawley POV

Richard Crawley worked for a government agency that needed to keep secrets. In fact, his job description could be boiled down to a very simply put sentence like: protects the nation's secrets. Sure, the spies and administrators and tech guys who all worked at MI6 were in the secrets business but none as much as Richard Crawley. No, he'd followed his father's footsteps and taken a job of keeping MI6's secrets safe and sometimes that meant going and threatening people who'd chosen to do the stupid thing and draw attention to MI6. Not too long back he'd had to protect a very specific MI6 secret, Alex Rider. Now he was going to have to do it again. This time would require more finesse. In the previous situation he'd been scaring a diving instructor that poked his nose where it didn't belong. Scaring the head of a multi-billion dollar company wasn't going to be quite as easy.

"I need to speak with Mr. Sprintz," Crawley said.

The receptionist nodded. "Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but please tell him that it has to do with the emails he sent out this morning," Crawley said.

"Please have a seat and I'll see if Mr. Sprintz has time to see you this morning," she replied.

Crawley took a seat in comfortable chairs in the waiting room. He observed the receptionist picking up the phone and placing the call. She made a note or two on a paper on her desk and then after a moment she motioned for Crawley to rejoin her at the desk. "Mr. Sprintz will be happy to see you at this time. Please take the elevator over there to the top floor and the receptionist up there will direct you further."

Crawley rode the elevator and hummed casually to the music playing from the speakers. Upon exiting the elevator he was directed by the receptionist as promised to a solid oak door with Mr. James Sprintz on a plaque next to it. He knocked twice and then entered without waiting for an invitation. He was greeted with a smile by the tall blonde haired man behind the desk. Mr. Sprintz didn't bother to stand up but simply motioned for Crawley to take a seat across from him. "Have a seat, sir. Would you like a drink?"

"No thank you, I'm working," Crawley replied.

"How unfortunate, I find that negotiating with the intoxicated is much easier than those of clear wit," Mr. Sprintz said. "But you made a good choice for yourself."

"I get the feeling you know why I'm here," Crawley said. In fact, Crawley got the feeling that Sprintz had known what sending out all those emails was going to cause. Crawley felt uninformed. It was not a good feeling.

"Well, I think you made that very clear when you asked my receptionist to notify me that this meeting was about the emails," Sprintz said. "But maybe that's not what you meant."

"Those emails were about a certain someone that wished to remain anonymous," Crawley said.

"He must not have wanted to remain too anonymous if he didn't change his name," Sprintz said. "But don't worry; my goal is not to blast Mr. Rider's personal information all over the local news tonight."

"Is that so?" Crawley asked. "It certainly didn't appear that way with the thousands of emails that flooded London this morning. You nearly broke our computer techs as they tried to prevent it."

"Oh, you stopped them from reaching the businesses? That's wonderful news. Now I won't have to tell my assistant that he has to send out another set of emails cancelling the request," Sprintz said complete with a sigh of relief. "He might have quit right then and there and good workers are so hard to find nowadays."

"Mr. Sprintz-" Crawley started.

"Call me James," Sprintz interrupted.

Crawley took a deep breath and started again. "Mr. Sprintz, I do not believe you understand the grave mistake you made this morning by attaching the name of a very private individual to several very public businesses."

"Oh no, good sir, I'm understand what I did perfectly. Why, I garnered the attention of one of MI6's finest watchdogs. I tossed a pebble into the water and the fish started moving." For the first time since Crawley had walked into the room Sprintz lost the boyish grin he wore. "I turned on the lights and the cockroaches scattered."

Sprintz continued. "You see, I've discovered some very interesting information. Alex Rider, the man whose privacy you seem so concerned about, has disappeared. He's gone missing. I find that pretty strange, you see, as he went missing from England about seventeen years ago pretty unexpectedly and then only just reappeared here two years ago. I'd hate for our dear friend, Alex Rider, to just end up disappeared for fifteen years again."

"Mr. Rider is a grown man. He can choose to take trips and holidays as he pleases," Crawley replied.

"How about his seven year old son who just didn't show up to school today or his lovely wife who is missing a very important court case? Are they on vacations as well?" Sprintz asked.

Crawley lost composure for only a moment. "They are members of his family."

James Sprintz caught the dropped guard forever. "Did you not know they were gone?"

"It's none of my business," Crawley replied.

James Sprintz laughed softly. "For someone in the intelligence business, I'll bet you feel pretty stupid right about now."

Crawley stood. "You said you had no wish to splash Rider's name anywhere?"

"That's true," Sprintz replied with the smug smile still on his face.

"Keep it that way," Crawley stood. "I don't want to make another trip out here."

"I'll just bet you don't," Sprintz replied.

Once Crawley had left Sprintz called his son out from hiding. "Did you hear everything?"

"Yes, but I don't understand. We didn't learn anything," Kevin replied.

Sprintz laughed. "We learned plenty."

"Like what?" Kevin asked.

Sprintz explained, "The spying world is a lot like the business world. Power can change hands so quietly that no one knows what's happened until it's too late."

"So what?" Kevin asked.

"So, that man didn't have all the information. Someone is making decisions that they don't want everyone to know about," Sprintz said. "And if that's true, Alex Rider might not be aware of the danger he and his family are in."

"What are we going to do about it?" Kevin asked.

"Good question, son. Good questions," Sprintz said.

AN: Well, there's that. This is the last chapter where things are just waiting to happen. You'll be happy to know that the action is going to start to kick in next chapter. I would love to hear what you thought about the chapter!