Finally Free - Alex Rider

Chapter Five

"... So are you gonna tell us or what?"

I looked up as Snake spoke, his Scottish accent laying thick as he forced the words out. It didn't take much to guess what he was talking about... But I asked anyway, "Tell you what?"

He huffed, "Your... THE... Mission. What happened?".

"... I got in, got the file. And got out" I replied simply.

Another huff, "Jaguar... Please. You barely got here two days ago, and then you're suddenly going off on suicide missions, and returning shot yet... Still alive."

"... That generally IS the way I prefer to return" I finally said and Eagle bit down on his hand to stop grinning. But his shoulders still shook from compressed laughter.

"Come on, be serious here for a minute" Snake argued, "Let's break this down. What files did you have to get?".

"Something about government secrets... blaa blaa, I wasn't really listening." I admitted and Snake rolled his eyes.

"Ok. So you were getting government files. And you were getting them where?".

"In an abandoned warehouse."

"... Seriously?" He asked and I nodded

"Yea. Pretty stereotype huh?"

"... You could say that" he muttered, "And, who, exactly, were you getting them from?".

"Arabian terrorists."

"And that's it?" He asked again

"That's it."

"When did you get shot?"

"When I was leaving. They don't take too kindly to SAS kid's" I replied and Eagle suddenly jumped off his bunk, grinning like mad.

"I KNEW IT!".

We all stared at him confused and he laughed again before spinning around to face me, "You're underaged. Too young for this. You're just a kid... And you just admitted it".

I stared at him for a minute before swearing quietly and falling back down on my bed, inwardly kicking myself for letting that fact slip.

I could hear Wolf slowly get off his bunk and walk over, "... Did you just curse... In Russian?".

I sighed, and rolled over onto my back, staring up at them, "... Yeah".

"Why?" He asked confused and I smiled slightly,

"Old habits die hard".

"... Well this has taken on a whole new level of weirdness" Eagle finally said.

"Wait, so you can speak Russian?" Wolf asked, he obviously wasn't going to let this drop.

"Well... Yeah I guess... I can speak it fluently if that's what you're asking" I admitted and he nodded slowly,

"But what... Why... How do you know Russian?".

I paused.

And froze.

My breath catching in my throat.

Memories flashing before my eyes. It haunted me.

Scorpia.

Shaking my head against those rather disturbing memories, I looked back up at the leader, "You know that group... the one I messed with?"

"Well, no, because you never fucking told us their name, but yes. Go on" he grumbled.

"They... Russian... In a way... And I was sort of forced to learn it... While they sorted out, well, my future...".

"Wo- wo- woah... back up a little" Snake said suddenly, also joining the other two next to my bunk, "Did you actually just say that they practically kidnapped you, and forced you to train with them?"