SPY LIFE

THE OFFICE

Why was his Dads information kept locked away in an insurance company ? Perhaps the office next door might tell him why. What exactly was Andrew Gunner involved in? And was it the reason why he had been captured and killed? The flag fluttered again and, seeing it, Alan went over to the window.The pole jutted out of the building exactly halfway between rooms 1048, 1049 and 1050. If he could somehow reach it, he should be able to jump onto the ledge that ran along the side of the building outside room 1048. Of course, he was fifteen floors up. If he jumped and missed, there would be a couple of hundred feet to fall. It was a stupid idea. It wasn‟t even worth thinking about. Alan opened the window and climbed out. It was better not to think about it at all. He would just do it. After all, if this was the ground floor, or a jungle or house roofs it would be child‟s play. It was only the sheer brick wall stretching down to the pavement, the cars and buses moving like toys so far below, and the blast of the wind against his face that made it terrifying. Don‟t think about it. Do it.

Alan lowered himself onto the ledge outside Paul‟s office. His hands were behind him, clutching onto the windowsill. He took a deep breath. And jumped. A camera in the office across the road caught Alan as he launched himself into space. Two floors above, Mark Spencer was still sitting in front of the screen. He chuckled. It was a humorless sound. “I told you,” he said. “The boy‟s extraordinary.” “The boy‟s quite mad,”

the woman retorted. “Well, maybe that‟s what we need.”

“You‟re just going to sit here and watch him kill himself?”

“I‟m going to sit here and hope that he survives.” Alan had miscalculated the jump. He had missed the flagpole by an inch and would have plunged down to the pavement if his hands hadn‟t caught hold of the Union Jack itself. He was hanging now with his feet in midair. Slowly, with huge effort, he pulled himself up, his fingers hooking into the material. Somehow he managed to climb back up onto the pole. He still didn‟t look down. He just hoped that no passersby looked up. It was easier after that. He squatted on the pole, then threw himself sideways and across to the ledge outside the office with ANDREW GUNNER written on it. He had to be careful. Too far to the left and he would crash into the side of the building, but too far the other way and he would fall. In fact, he landed perfectly, grabbing hold of the ledge with both hands and then pulling himself up until he was level with the window. It was only now that he wondered if the window would be locked. If so, he‟d just have to go back. It wasn‟t. Alan slid the window open and hoisted him self into the second office, which was in many ways a carbon copy of the first. It had the same furniture, the same carpet, even a similar painting on the wall. He went over to the desk and sat down. The first thing he saw was a photograph of him and his dad, taken the summer before on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, where they had gone diving. There was a second picture tucked into the corner of the frame. Alan aged five or six. He was surprised and a little saddened by the photographs. Alan glanced at his watch. About three minutes had passed since Paul had left the office and he had said he would be back in five. If he was going to find anything here, he had to find it quickly. He pulled open a drawer in the desk. It contained four or five thick files. Alex took them and opened them. He saw at once that they had nothing to do with Insurance. The first was marked: NERVE POISONS. NEW METHODS OF CONCEALMENT AND DISSEMINATION. Alex put it aside and looked at the second. ASSASSINATIONS: FOUR CASE STUDIES. Growing ever more puzzled, he quickly flicked through the rest of the files, which covered counterterrorism, the movement of uranium across Europe, and interrogation techniques. The last file was simply labeled: NINTENTION. Alex was about to read it when the door suddenly opened and two men walked in. One of them was Paul. The other was the driver of Mark Spencer"s driver. Alan knew that there was no point trying to explain what he was doing. He was sitting behind the desk with the Stormbreaker file open in his hands. But at the same time he realized that the two men weren‟t surprised to see him there. From the way they had come into the room, they had expected to find him. “What is this place ? What does my dad have anything to do with you,” Alan said. “Who are you? Was my Dad working for you? Did you kill him?” “So many questions,” Paul muttered. “But I‟m afraid we‟re not authorized to give you the answers.” The second man lifted his hand and Alan saw that he was holding a g*n. He stood up behind the desk, holding the file as if to protect himself. “No…” he began. The man fired. There was no explosion. The g*n shot at Alan and he felt something peirce into his heart. His hand opened and the file tumbled to the ground. Then his legs buckled, the room twisted, and he fell back into nothing.