InsaneJournal

Alex stood in front of Ian’s grave.  He wished he knew if what Alan Blunt had said was true.  Had Ian ever really loved him, or had he only seen Alex as an agent in training?

It hurt to think that everything he and Ian had done together had been nothing more than preparing him for a future with MI6.  At least when Ian had been alive, Alex had still had the appearance of a normal childhood – if you could count lessons in French, Spanish, German, karate, rock-climbing, mountaineering, and diving normal. 

Now Alex had no protection, no rights, no way of defending himself against Alan Blunt’s demands.  Alex’s only formal training had been two weeks spent with the Special Air Services before going undercover at Sayle Enterprises.  His training before going on an assignment these days consisted of receiving a file outlining the details of his mission and a few gadgets, his repeated requests for weapons training always denied because he was considered too young. Alex would laugh at the irony of that if it weren’t that it was his own life that could be saved if he had a gun, or at least knew how to shoot one properly. He’d learned the hard way that he couldn’t rely on anyone but himself to get through the danger; he’d never forget that when his life had been threatened at the Point Blanc Academy, his call to MI6 for help had been ignored.

Alex was curious as to what had happened to cause the cancellation of the mission at the last moment, although he couldn’t say he was disappointed when he’d received Mrs. Jones’ call.  He just knew Alan Blunt well enough to know that Alan would never give up using him without an ulterior motive.  He just wondered when he would find out what it was.

Suddenly, Alex felt something more than saw it - there was a presence nearby, focused on him. One of the lessons he’d learned from Ian was to always be aware of his surroundings, to notice the smallest of details, no matter how insignificant they might seem at the time.  Alex held perfectly still.  There were the normal sounds of the city: car horns, loud music, train and bus engines. Being Christmas Eve, he even thought he could hear the bells on the harnesses of Santa’s reindeer as they guided Santa on his journey this night.

Underneath it, though, he could make out another sound - the movement of a stiff fabric, most likely leather, probably a jacket.  It was barely audible, but it was there. It had a rhythm to it; Alex guessed it changed whenever the person wearing the jacket took a breath.

Alex turned around slowly, trying to identify where the sound was coming from.  It only took him a moment though, as the person wasn’t even trying to conceal himself.  As soon as the man saw that Alex had spotted him, the man walked over.

“Good evening, Alex. It’s good to see you again.”

“Really?” Alex said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in his voice.  “Does this mean you’ve changed your mind about letting me live?”

“Why would you think that I’ve changed my mind, Alex?” Yassen asked the question as if he were truly surprised that Alex would think that.

Alex had seriously been expecting Yassen to pull out a gun and shoot him this time, that his luck had finally run out. “I can’t see any other reason why you’d be here.  If you’re not here to kill me, then what do you want?” Alex asked.

“I wanted to speak with you about your uncle,” Yassen began. “I’ve noticed that you’ve been coming here the past few days.”

“You’ve been following me here? For…days?” Alex was shocked that he hadn’t noticed Yassen until now.  Then it dawned on him – the only reason he’d noticed Yassen today was because Yassen had wanted him to notice.

“No,” Yassen replied, “I actually came here a few days ago so that I could pay my last respects to Ian, and that’s when I saw you. You seemed…lost.  So I followed you, to be sure you arrived back home safely.”

“You were worried about me?” Alex thought this conversation couldn’t get any stranger.

“Alex, your uncle and I knew each other.  We weren’t exactly best friends, but we weren’t enemies either.  You can’t work in this profession without learning to respect the other guy.”

“If you weren’t Ian’s enemy,” Alex challenged angrily, beginning to feel tears welling up in his eyes, “then why did you kill him?”