Alex Rider pays a visit to Brecon Beacons...

New arrivals

"Listen up!" Viper's shout went relatively unnoticed amongst the noisy crowd."SHUT UP!" This time almost everyone actually shut up. All except one tall man who was staring in disgust at the soldiers while talking to his considerably shorter friend. His freind was looking towards Viper with fear etched into his eyes. The scared man slowly tugged on the other man's sleeve, drawing his attention to Viper."You. Stay behind when I send everyone off. Anyway,when I say something, I expect you to listen carefully to me. Any questions so far?"

"Yes, I have a question." The man who had only just been told very sternly to shut up had spoken up. "Why do we have a kid telling us what to do? It's not like you know it's like to be a spy, is it?" The nan then snickered, drawing similar sounds by a few others.

"To answer the question, I'm not a kid, and you don't need to know my age. And I do know what it's like to be a spy. I am one."

"How come your teaching us then? The youngest of us is Kathryn and she's twenty four!" One of the girls in the front row nodded. Viper assumed she was Kathryn.

"Long story short, I completed my training six years ago and now I'm in the SAS anyway, so it doesn't matter. Onto... meal times! Breakfast is at five thirty and before that we will take you for a run. Lessons continue until noon, for lunch. There's more lessons after that, until six for dinner. You have half an hour for each meal. After dinner, you have two hours of free time before lights out. There are toilets in your barracks so no going outside after half eight.

I am Viper, and I'm in charge of you for the month. This is Fox, he is my second in command. We're in K-unit, who include us as well as Eagle, Snake and Wolf. Wolf is my unit leader, so he is essentially third in command. We also have D-unit here to help us, so meet Hyena, Bear and Hawk. Hyena is D-unit leader. You will call us all sir and will listen to us. Any questions?"

It was the girl Alex presumed was Kathryn who spoke next, her soft voice calming Alex slightly."umm...are we going to be split into male and female?"Viper hadn't though of that. Then he realised why there were two large cabins rather than one huge one. He looked over at Fox and both men nodded.

"Yes, we will split you. Now, follow me." Alex didn't really know where the cabins were but still led the way towards the rows of spare barracks. Find ally he spotted number 391 and 1396."ok, boys in 391, girls in 1396. He stood back and watched as the spys filtered into the cabins. One man stepped slowly towards the group of soldiers and approached Viper.

"You wanted to see me?" The man asked. Now they were face to face, Alex saw that the man looked slightly Asian, with olive skin and dark hair.

"Yes, I do. When I speak to you, I expect you to listen to me and also to be quiet. I am your superior in almost every way. I'm in charge of you, I'm more experienced as a soldier and as a spy than you, I have seen more things than you, I've completed more missions than you. The list goes on. The only advantage you have is your age, which doesn't matter any way. So don't mess with me. What's your name? Full please." Viper's face had gotten redder as the list went on and it suddenly returned to its natural colour at the end of his lecture.

"M-m-my name is Andrew Sam Smith. I'm twenty seven." Andrew was Cleary frightened so Alex released him and told him not to do it again. When Andrew left, Alex smacked himself in charge he face. God, I feel like a teacher said his conscience.

"Listen up!" This time they all listened (after a second of quieting down) "it's half five now so you can settle in for half an hour. We will be back then. Don't leave your barracks." With that, Viper turned away, stomping off down the track, leaving twenty-four stunned faces in his wake. After a minute everyone scrambled into their barracks to gossip about the soldiers they had just met.

In k-units barracks, everyone shouted out (everyone meaning Snake,Wolf and Eagle)"why did you train here six years ago?!"

"Woah, one at a time! Do you really want to know?" Three nods met this question and Viper continued." Ok, you guys remember cub, right? Because he was sent here six years ago for training, and umm... I'm the same person as him like, the guy who was cub is also viper." Three gaping mouths was the only reply Alex got.

Suddenly the silence was cut out by Fox quietly saying,"I knew. All the time. I knew he was cub the moment I saw him. But Viper told me not to tell you. I promised him. I wanted to though."

Viper suddenly cut in by mumbling," I'm going for a walk."

Why me? Why? This same question kept running through Viper's mind like a broken record. As he sat down on the top branch of the oak tree he had just climbed, he checked the time. 5:56. Only four minutes before he had to face his friends and those brats who had invaded camp. Alex stood in the tree, cursing his life. He then began jumping from tree to tree, heading steadily towards the spys. On the last tree before he would have to jump down, Alex observed the others trying to explain where he was. When one the brats shouted "where the hell is he?"

Alex replied by shouting,"Just look up idiot!". This caught everyone attention and soon they were all craning their necks to see him. Alex braced his legs and leaped off the top of the tall ash tree. He reached the floor in a puff of dust and a loud bang!"Right, let's get going to the mess hall for dinner. If you don't like the food, you still need to eat it or your gonna be exhausted for tomorrow. This way."

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Authors note
Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise from the Alex rider books.
Another chapter! You lucky people! Three chapters in one day! I probably won't publish a fourth chapter today but last chapter there was a pun. K is the 11th letter and then U is the 21st letter, hence wolf's time, 11:21. The barracks numbers also reflect that as C=3 I=9 A=1 so CIA is 391 and also M=13 I=9 6=6 so you get MI6=1396. Bye!