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Alex swore silently to himself as he crawled between metal carts full of trash trying to get a better vantage point at the deal going down in the half built warehouse at an abandoned construction site. He had tried to find a spot higher up, but there were only exposed beams above and no cover to hide behind. He had been laying here waiting for his targets to arrive for hours, only to find out that his perfect hiding spot had zero view of the area the two parties were meeting at.
He wondered why he was even bothering with this. He had been sent after a gun smuggling ring, and had successfully infiltrated it weeks ago. It hadn’t been the most exiting infiltration, the work had been exhausting, and he was looking forward to actually getting a full night's sleep. All of the information needed to take them out had been sent to MI6 already and his extraction was tomorrow. MI6 would ‘arrest’ him with all the other kids and he’d be slipped away to debrief and then blessed blessed sleep. But Alex knew from their records they had a bigger backer, and he wanted to know who it was. This was his only chance to find the proof of a larger connection. It would be worth the lost sleep so close to extraction.
Alex crawled as quietly as he could to a cart on the edge of the open area the men were standing in. Someone had turned on a couple of floodlights and the whole area was well lit. Perfect for photographs. As Alex lowered himself down to peer under the cart, he came face to face with moving fuzzballs. He jerked backward, nearly bumping into a cart behind him thinking it was a rat. After a moment he heard soft almost squeaky noises and looked back under.
Under the cart, backlit by the bright lights, were four tiny, fuzzy, bodies huddled together gently peeping. One of the fuzzballs picked up its head and looked at him. The silhouette of a tiny oval with little triangles sticking out the side was unmistakable. Alex was looking at four tiny kittens.
His original mission temporarily on hold Alex reached toward them. His hand met two tiny, shaking, bodies. He could feel the bones through the fur and skin with his fingertips. That fact, and the fact that no mother cat had come to claw his eyes out for approaching her babies told him that she was gone.
Alex was so focused on the kittens he didn’t hear the goon until he was right on top of him. The sound of a heavy boot scraping against the concrete caused him to snatch his hand back and roll away from the shadow suddenly looming above him. He was too slow, and one of the boots landed on his back, pinning him to the ground.
Alex struggled to breath under the weight as the goon reached down and grabbed Alex’s upper arm. In one swift movement the goon took his boot off Alex’s back and hauled him to his feet.
“Sir, I’ve got an intruder over here!” He called. Alex twisted in the man’s grip and tried to find any leverage to get away, but the man’s grip was tight, and he was too heavy for Alex to throw off balance. Alex knew he should stop struggling and conserve his limited energy for a better opportunity to get away. Instead his sleep deprived brain was focused on the kittens. If he left them here they would die and he couldn’t let that happen.
---
Yassen had been having a perfectly boring night. Survey drop spot, set up security, and wait for the contact to arrive. He had been hired as a particularly expensive courier, and so far the job had been bog standard. No megalomaniac billionaires, or unruly teenage agents, just him, a hired team of professionals, and the inanimate cargo.
He was checking the time, five minutes till the contact was due, when he heard the shout that an intruder was found. He prayed it was just someone homeless hiding out in the best available shelter. Then he heard the second shout.
“Let me go! No, you don’t understand, just let me go!”
Yassen sighed. He had heard that voice enough times he didn’t need to see the face of the kid it belonged to. Nevertheless, Garrick hauled the kid over to him. Alex was squirming and protesting but seemed otherwise unharmed.
“Yassen!” Alex gasped, and Yassen was careful to keep the dread off his face. Alex sounded relieved. Which was never a good sign. If Alex thought Yassen was a good thing, that normally meant something worse was after him.
“Alex,” Yassen greeted, he knew there was no need to ask Alex to explain, the kid would do it whether Yassen wanted to know or not.
“You have to let me go!” Yassen nearly rolled his eyes at that it was practically Alex’s favorite line at this point. “There are kittens,” Alex continued. This time Yassen didn’t manage to keep the complete confusion off his face. He waited, but for the first time in his life Alex seemed unwilling to explain.
“Why exactly should the existence of kittens necessitate your release?” Yassen asked eventually.
“They’re over there, under the bin,” Alex said, twisting in Garrick’s hold to point back where he had come from. “I found them just before your goon grabbed me,” he continued, turning back to Yassen. “I think their mother is dead, and they’re so tiny! We have to help them!”
Yassen noticed the change to ‘we’ but elected to ignore it. He had never considered himself particularly weak to the pleading of animals, but the look Alex was giving him could only be described as puppy eyes, and Yassen had to admit, he was slightly swayed. Maybe more than slightly.
“You want me to let you go so you can, what? Save the kittens?” He asked
“Yes.” Yassen narrowed his eyes at Alex, the kid was a great actor, but Yassen had learned to see through some of his tricks. He seemed honestly invested in these kittens. Then Yassen was struck with a truly brilliant idea. He might regret it later, okay he would definitely regret it later, but he had something Alex wanted, possibly more than Alex wanted to finish his mission by the looks of it.
“Fine.” Alex’s face lit into a bright smile, as if Yassen was the parent telling his child they could get a dog. In a twisted way Yassen wasn’t entirely sure that wasn’t exactly what was happening here. “You may rescue the kittens, but,” Alex jumped up and whooped, pumping his hand in the air. The sudden movement caused Garrick to lose his hold on the kid, but Alex didn’t run. “You have to let Garrick here check you for weapons and gadgets, and you have to sit in the car, for the whole meeting.”
“Okay,” Alex agreed easily.
“And after you have to stay with me for a few days while I finish this job. I can’t have you running off and tattling,” Yassen said, Alex looked less excited at that.
“The kittens will need supplies,” Alex said. He sounded seriously concerned.
“I will buy you the supplies and you can keep the kittens in the safe house with you. But you have to promise not to try and run.” Yassen knew the exasperation was bleeding into his voice. The contact would be here in two minutes and he did not have time to go on a wild goose chase with Alex and his kittens.
“Check him over then take the kid to get the kittens, and give him whatever he needs. But stay with him,” Yassen said, turning to Garrick.
“Sir, is that a good idea?” Garrick asked, looking between Alex and Yassen.
“Yes,” Yassen said. He had no desire to explain just how much damage Alex could do even restrained and watched. If Alex could be placated with kittens to stay out of the way for one mission Yassen was not going to complain. Though he knew better than to think that meant Alex wouldn’t run at the first chance. Promises or not, the kid took his missions seriously and Yassen doubted a few kittens would stop him from achieving his goals.
“Great! Thanks Yassen!” Alex cheered, looking for all the world like the teenager he was. “I’ll need your coat,” he said to Garrick as the man started the pat down. Six knives, three phones, a mini camera, two pens and a bottle of acne cream later Alex was pronounced clear of items.
Yassen surveyed the items and then looked over at Alex who was bouncing on the balls of his feet then nodded to Garrick. Alex took that as the permission it was and bounded over to the mini trash dumpster and proceeded to lay on the ground next to it. Yassen rolled his eyes and turned away. One minute until the contact was due.
The contact ended up ten minutes late, and for once Yassen was grateful for their tardiness. Alex had taken eight whole minutes to extract the kittens one by one into Garrick’s now forever ruined Carhart and get settled into the back of the car. Yassen hadn’t bothered blindfolding Alex. There were limits to how much the kid’s curiosity could be contained. At least with the headlights facing the contact there was no way they would see him.
The meet went blessedly smoothly. Yassen handed over the cargo of pre-market assault rifles and received confirmation of funds transfer. Then he slid into the driver's seat of the car containing Alex and Garrick and drove off. It was not the planned exit, but the cargo truck remained and Yassen trusted his guards to sort themselves out.
Yassen plugged ‘pet store’ into his GPS and was given directions to a store called ‘PetCo’, a fifteen minute drive from their location that was off the highway they needed to get to the safe house. He decided it would do.
When they pulled in, Yassen almost thought they were at the wrong address. The store looked to be the size of a city block. But this was America, and the surrounding stores were of similar size so there was unlikely to be a mistake.
Yassen got out of the car and Alex and Garrick followed. Yassen saw that Alex was still holding the kittens wrapped in Garrick’s shirt.
“Leave the kittens, you are carrying the supplies,” Yassen said to Alex. The kid pouted, but put the kittens back. “Watch the car,” Yassen ordered Garrick, and the man nodded. As they approached the doors Alex’s brow furrowed.
“It’s closed,” Alex said. Yassen didn’t roll his eyes but it was a close thing.
“Yes.”
“How are we supposed to get supplies if it’s closed?” Alex said. Yassen didn’t bother to respond, just pulled out a pair of lock picks.
“We can’t steal the supplies!” Alex objected, suddenly stopping. Yassen turned to look at him, suddenly exhausted.
“Where do you expect me to find an open pet store at 3:30am in the middle of Iowa?” Yassen asked. Alex frowned, clearly thinking the situation over.
“Okay, but you have to leave the money on the counter for the supplies.”
“Fine,” Yassen said, at this point willing to do anything to get this little detour over with.
Once they reached the doors Yassen was careful not to look at the security cameras as he fidgeted with the door lock. Alex too kept his face averted. Once they were in, Yassen swiftly dissabled the alarm.
“Get the supplies you need, I’ll handle the security,” Yassen said, already headed toward the back of the store. From inside the place somehow seemed even larger. Rows and rows of fluorescent lights above disappearing into the distance behind towering shelves. Yassen wondered how Alex was going to find anything in this endless expanse of dog food and vegan pet beds.
An eternity later Yassen located the employee lounge and adjacent security office. He quickly deleted all video since the store had closed, and halted any further recording. It was crude, but Yassen knew a smoother solution would draw more attention not less.
When he made his way out he wandered, looking for signs to the cat department. He wondered how a place so uniform could still feel so much like a maze. Eventually he found Alex, standing in front of a selection of cat food, empty trolley beside him.
“Where are the supplies?” Yassen asked. Alex looked over at him looking entirely lost.
“I don’t know what they need,” He said. Yassen pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes trying to contain his frustration. He wished he had just tied Alex up and shoved him in the boot instead of this. It might have been more difficult, and had an almost 100% chance of failure, but what was he supposed to do with a teenager and some number of kittens for a week.
“Have you tried the internet?” Yassen said.
“You took my phone,” Alex replied, “All three of them.”
“Right. Here,” Yassen said, unlocking his phone and shoving the thing at Alex. He knew Alex could very easily use it to contact MI6, but currently he seemed too fixated on the kittens to bother. Alex took it and immediately started typing on the tiny digital keyboard. Yassen wondered how the kid could type so fast. He spared a moment of thought to the old blackberries. He missed keyboards with real keys sometimes.
“This says they are likely three weeks old and I should be feeding them formula, not cat food yet,” Alex said. Then he looked at Yassen and asked, “where’s the formula?”
“Do I look like an employee?” Yassen asked. The plan to just tie Alex up for the week was getting harder and harder to resist.
“Whatever, don’t help then,” Alex said, and wandered off dragging the empty trolley behind him.
Some amount of time later that objectively was thirty minutes, and subjectively was thirty years, Alex professed himself satisfied with the haul and they made their way toward the door, car piled with supplies.
When they got to the register Alex shoved all the items in bags and insisted that Yassen pay for the supplies. Yassen sighed and put a $100 on the till.
“Happy?” he asked.
“Yes.” Alex replied sounding anything but. Alex shoved the final bag into the trolley for easier loading and Yassen counted that as a win.
When they got to the car Garrick was waiting for them, leaning against the bonnet near the open driver side door. When Yassen came around Garrick moved toward the back door where he had been sitting before. Yassen pushed the button to open the boot for Alex and watched as he started unloading the trolley into the car.
“Can I get a little help over here?” Alex said when it became clear neither Yassen nor Garrick were going to assist with the loading.
“Your cats, your problem,” Yassen said.
“I get that you aren’t helping, but at least you could ask your goon,” Alex grumbled looking over at Garrick.
“His name is Garrick,” Yassen said. He wasn’t sure why he bothered. Knowing Alex the kid would call the man whatever he felt like, and honestly goon was one of the nicer words Yassen had heard Alex use toward his guards.
“It would go faster if you helped,” Alex mumbled, but continued his work.
Once everything was loaded and the trolly returned at Alex’s insistence, they were back on their way. Somewhere along the line Garrick’s expression of professional distance had morphed into utter confusion and seemed to have frozen there.
Alex was settled back in his seat with the kittens in his lap and Garrick on his right in the back of the car while Yassen drove. Yassen had drawn the line at Alex feeding the kittens in the car and Alex had at least conceded that. Yassen tried not to think about how much leeway he was giving the kid over the stupid kittens.
---
Alex jolted awake at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder. He expected to be on one of the bare mattresses in the back room with the other warehouse workers. He was disoriented to find himself sitting up. Blearily he opened his eyes, finding kittens in his lap as the world slowly reoriented around him and he remembered where he was. Yassen’s goon had shaken him awake.
“Get up, we’re here,” Yassen said from the driver’s seat, exiting the car. Alex stared down at the kittens, contemplating the logistics of that. Suddenly his door was yanked open and Yassen was there staring down at him. Alex gathered the coat containing the kittens in his arms and clambered out of the car on unsteady feet.
As soon as he was upright Yassen grabbed his upper arm and started toward the farm house in front of them. Alex stumbled after him struggling to keep the kittens in his arms and keep up with Yassen. Yassen towed him up through the house too fast for Alex to get much impression beyond the wooden stairs and a bare hallway.
Yassen shoved him into a bathroom, coming in behind him and closing the door. Alex whirled around as he heard the latch click and backed toward the shower at the other end of the room.
“You all need a shower, you are covered in dust and guano and who knows what else,” Yassen said. Alex blinked at him, still breathing hard from adrenaline. Yassen just sighed and came toward him.
“Guano?” Alex asked. His brain still offline.
“Bird shit. Now put the kittens down, you can take a shower and then wash them. I will find you some clothes and have Garrick unload the supplies.”
“Right. Okay,” Alex said when Yassen still didn’t move.
At his response Yassen nodded and exited the bathroom. Alex stared around the large room, and put the coat with the kittens down on the counter. He checked on them, and they were all still breathing. They pushed into his hand as he petted them and some of them made soft mewls. Alex shushed them gently.
He turned on the water, stripped and climbed into the shower. He sighed loudly at the feeling of warm water. After a month and a half of nothing but ice cold showers this felt like heaven. He took his time washing several times, but knew the kittens needed attention soon and Yassen would be returning at some point as well. Reluctantly he turned off the water and climbed out of the shower.
He had just wrapped the towel around his waist when there was a knock on the door and then it swung inward. Yassen came in and deposited a bundle of clothes and some of the kitten supplies. He left without saying anything.
Alex pulled on the provided clothes. They were too big, but the belt held the pants up well enough. At least they were clean. He couldn’t help but notice he hadn’t been given shoes.
Yassen had brought the delicing and fleaing shampoo as well as the little pet bed. Alex carefully read the directions on the shampoo then approached the kittens again. Very carefully he lifted the first one up and set to work as gently as he could.
The cats were filthy and Alex tried not to think about what he was washing off. They screamed through the whole process, though they were too uncoordinated to scratch him. He took the screaming as a good sign.
When he was done he placed the kittens in the little bed he’d bought for them. He picked it up and opened the bathroom door. The other side was a large bedroom dominated by the king bed in the middle. There was a TV mounted on the wall opposite the bed, and the kitten supplies were piled on the floor at the foot. There was noone else in the room, Alex had been expecting Yassen or at least Garrick to be waiting for him.
He set the kittens on the bed and dug the formula out of the pile. Reading the directions he realized he needed to heat it, which meant he needed a kitchen. He filled four bottles with enough formula for each kitten and cautiously opened the bedroom door.
The hallway was empty. Alex took that as a sign he was allowed to wander and headed downstairs. When he reached the bottom he headed deeper into the house in search of the kitchen. The sound of voices through a closed door reached him and he paused.
“-Just explain why you’re humoring him.” Garrick’s voice carried through the wood, he sounded angry.
“You are suggesting I kill him?” Yassen’s voice was soft, and his tone sounded almost reasonable. Alex flinched in automatic fear. That was how Yassen sounded when he was beyond angry. When it was directed at Alex it usually meant he was about to get hurt. When it was directed at others it usually meant they were about to die.
“No!” Garrick said vehemently as Alex burst through the door.
“Don’t kill him!” Alex shouted.
He found himself in the kitchen. Yassen and Garrick were standing in front of the stove, Yassen was heating something on the stove that smelled heavenly. They both looked over at him, Garrick in surprise, Yassen with resignation.
“Alex I told you to take a shower,” Yassen said.
“I did!” Alex protested. Garrick looked between them baffled.
“This is what I’m talking about, why are you cooking him dinner and treating him like an unruly teenager.”
“Because he is an unruly teenager,” Yassen said.
“You’re cooking for me?” Alex asked, completely sidetracked. The food smelled heavenly and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a hot meal.
“Why are you down here,” Yassen said, addressing Alex this time. Alex stared at him for a second then looked down at the bottles he was still cltuching in his arms.
“The formula for the kittens needs to be warm,” He said. Yassen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Put the bottles down. Garrick take Alex up to his room. And this time Alex, stay there. Unless the building is on fire you are to stay in that room,” Yassen said, looking Alex in the eye. “And that is not an invitation to set anything on fire. Understood?” Alex met his gaze evenly. He debated arguing, then glanced at the food again. He knew Yassen could choose not to feed him, he had used food as leverage before.
“Understood.” Alex put the bottles on the table and turned to leave.
A few feet outside of the kitchen Garrick caught up to him. The hallway was too narrow for them to walk side by side, but the man followed Alex all the way into the bedroom where he loomed at the door. While Alex went over to sit next to the kittens. Alex reached out and gently stroked one of the tiny bodies as the silence stretched on.
“Mr. Gregorovitch will not explain how you know each other,” the man said eventually.
“He probably won’t. And he’s probably not going to tell you why letting me leave isn’t a good idea either,” Alex said, still focused on the kittens.
“He seems to think you are dangerous and yet he’s buying you kitten supplies and cooking you soup.”
“The kittens are a bribe. I know as much as you do about why he’s making me dinner.” Garrick sighed in resignation. He stayed by the door but didn’t ask any more questions. He probably realized he wasn’t getting anything out of Alex.
---
Yassen stood in the kitchen stirring the pot of canned soup while waiting for a second pot of water to warm for the formula. As he watched the bubbles slowly form and pop on the soup he questioned his life choices. He knew he should just throw a couple of cliff bars at the kid and lock him in the basement but he couldn’t bring himself to.
He had seen Alex in a variety of states over the last few years. This was by far the worst the kid had ever looked. Even covered in cuts and bruises the kid had showed more life. He was skinnier than Yassen had ever seen him. In the kitchen light he had looked gaunt. Then there was the fact that Alex had never voluntarily slept in his presence before. The kid knew better than to hand weakness to the enemy. Alex trusted Yassen not to kill him, but otherwise the kid treated him with a wary respect. Alex falling asleep in the car in front of both himself and Garrick suggested a level of exhaustion beyond ordinary mission fatigue.
Rotely Yassen finished preparing the soup and formula. He silently seethed at MI6 for putting Alex in this position. If he thought for a moment that a new head of MI6 would stop he would have already taken Blunt out. He knew his anger at Garrick had been misplaced. He knew his actions made no sense, the right thing was to let the kid go, and the smart thing was to shoot him. Yassen couldn’t do the first without risking the job, and he could never bring himself to do the second.
Yassen dug around for a plastic spoon before loading everything onto a tray and heading up the stairs. He opened the door to find Garrick on the other side staring silently at Alex as he pet the kittens. Yassen unceremoniously set the tray next to the teen.
Now that he was looking for it he could see that Alex looked exhausted. There were bags under his eyes, and he had lost significant muscle mass since Yassen had last seen him.
“Thanks Yassen,” Alex said, eyeing the soup. Yassen suppressed a sigh when he pulled a kitten into his lap and reached for a bottle of formula instead of eating the soup.
“Eat the soup before it gets cold,” Yassen said, then turned and walked out. Garrick followed him.
“Do you want me to watch the door?” Garrick asked.
“No. If he actually tries to escape he won’t bother with the door anyway. You can go rest. We will debrief the rest of the deliveries in the morning.”
“Yes sir,” Garrick said, and headed down the stairs.
Yassen stood in the hallway wondering what the hell he was supposed to do with a teenaged spy and four kittens for a week while managing three more deliveries of stolen American weapons.