Mrs. Jones didn’t get much mail at her apartment, but today it seemed she’d hit the jackpot. Several boxes were waiting for her amongst the miscellaneous bills and Christmas cards. One of the boxes was a book order, another was a sixteen gigabyte USB travel drive – that had been a deal – and the last box was her bulk order of Christmas Crackers. She had fond memories of making them as a child, but she didn’t have time for things like that anymore. She just placed an order online every year to a specialty shop and had them delivered. She’d take them to the Children’s Shelter where she volunteered every year on Christmas Day. Spending time with the children, watching the smiles on their faces when their treasures fell out, made missing the smiles of her own children less painful.
The bills she just glanced through, but the return address on one of the Christmas cards caught her eye – Alex Rider.
She hadn’t had a chance to speak privately with him since Jack had left for the States. She’d been too preoccupied with the Yassen thing, then with trying to dissuade Alan Blunt from using Alex again on this latest mission. It was strange, if what Jack had said was correct about Alex wanting to ignore Christmas this year, that Alex would be sending out Christmas cards.
Just as she was about to open the card, her mobile rang – not her personal one but her MI6 issue. Glancing quickly at the calling number, she saw that it was Alan. Even stranger than a card from Alex was a call after-hours from Alan.
Suddenly her thoughts turned to Yassen, and his plan. She quickly answered, hoping that Alan wasn’t calling to say that Yassen had been captured, or worse yet, killed.
“Hello, Alan. Is everything all right?”
“We have a situation, Mrs. Jones,” he said in his usual monotone. Even when Alan was upset, he never sounded upset. “Did you receive a Christmas card from Alex today?”
“Yes, but I haven’t opened it yet. I was just about to,” she replied.
“I also received a card from Alex, except that it’s not really from him. Open your card and tell me what’s inside,” he instructed.
She did so quickly, and gasped. “Oh my god. They’re photographs. Of me. And, a note. How did you…you received one too.”
Quickly reading over the note, it dawned on her what Yassen had done. He’d sent both of them a warning so that it would appear that she was a target also, keeping suspicion off of her.
A shiver crawled up her spine as she looked at the photographs, realizing how close to death she would have actually been, had Yassen had a gun instead. She knew how much he despised her for her part in John’s death. Apparently his concern for Alex outweighed his desire for revenge. It was one of the mysteries of the universe, that a man such as Yassen, who killed without thought or compassion for his victims, was capable of caring for anyone at all!
But she supposed Yassen had been dealt a poor hand at an early age. Who could say what he might have become if he hadn’t been influenced by Scorpia?
“Yes, Mrs. Jones. I received one too,” he said, breaking into her thoughts.
“So what do you plan to do about it?” she queried.
“Well I’m sure there aren’t any doubts that it was Yassen Gregorovich. No one else besides Jack Starbright would care about our using Alex, and it can’t have been her. She’s not capable of doing something like this.”
“Yes, I have to agree. So, what should we do? Are we going to give in to him and stop using Alex?” she asked. She knew this was the moment of truth. Was Alan significantly concerned about Yassen’s threat to put a stop to MI6’s abuse of Alex?
“For now, yes,” he answered, much to her relief. “I have something else in mind with regards to Yassen, but I haven’t worked the details out yet. Call Alex and tell him the mission is off, that he won’t be going anywhere next week as planned. But I also want you to put his house under surveillance. If Yassen feels that strongly about Alex, I wouldn’t be surprised if he attempts to see the boy. And if he does, we have a good chance of apprehending him. But tell our agents to be careful. He devastated our team in Malta fourteen years ago. He’ll be much more dangerous now.”
“All right, Alan. Who do you want to send next week instead of Alex?” she asked.
“Send Parkinson. He looks young. With a little work, he might pass for sixteen. Alex would have been perfect, but next week’s mission is nothing compared to the opportunity to catch Yassen.” Alan was practically gloating.
“That’s the real reason you’re not sending Alex, isn’t it? You’re going to use him as bait,” she accused.
“Alex will be fine,” he said with a sigh. “We’ve been through this before. Alex can take care of himself. And if we corner Yassen and he tries to take Alex with him, we know he won’t hurt Alex.”
“Should I tell Alex?” she asked flatly, already knowing what he’d say.
“No, he might subconsciously change his behavior, and if Yassen is watching him, he’d be tipped off by the change.”
“All right then, Alan. I’ll get things started,” she said in resignation.
As soon as they hung up, Mrs. Jones reached for her private mobile so that she could call Yassen and warn him. She’d never considered that Yassen might try and see Alex, but now that Alan had mentioned it, it was exactly the thing that Yassen would want to do.