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"Freddy! You better not be planning anything too crazy, you know. I gave your mum my word that we wouldn't stay out more than two hours."
Alex was gripping the waist of the boy driving the motorcycle, trying to get a sense of where they might be heading as they zoomed along the Paris streets. It didn't help that Freddy had insisted on blindfolding Alex to make it a true surprise.
It was Christmas Eve, and Freddy had wanted to give Alex a special gift for their first proper Christmas together. The Greys had invited Alex to accompany them on their winter holiday -- their first family holiday with Freddy since that fateful trip to Instow when he was five. Alex and Freddy had spent a delightful week exploring the City of Light together -- visiting cathedrals and attending carol services, indulging themselves by buying far too many treats at the Christmas markets, and even taking a luxury cruise on the Seine. Alex loved helping re-introduce Freddy to the real world, and every delighted smile Freddy flashed him was a precious gift in itself.
Alex felt the motorcycle slow down and come to a halt. "Okay, we're here," said Freddy, dismounting and helping Alex off. "Just come with me this way." He took Alex's hand and pulled him along.
"Are you sure about this?" Alex asked. Although it had been a whole year since Freddy had been out of Nightshade, Alex knew how much Freddy craved excitement and hoped he wouldn't do anything too reckless.
"Don't you trust me, after all we've been through together?" Freddy teased, pulling Alex close and giving him a playful punch. "We're coming to some stairs now, just climb down slowly. I've got you."
After climbing some more stairs and walking along what seemed to Alex to be dimly-lit passages, they arrived at their final destination. Freddy started untying Alex's blindfold. "You can look now."
Alex opened his eyes and gasped sharply. They were standing in the deserted Cour Marly of the Louvre, surrounded by grand, spectacular French sculptures on all sides. They had visited the Louvre during normal opening hours only a few days ago and had come to this very place, but it had been noisy and bustling with tourists then.
"How in the world--" Alex began to ask.
"Oh it was nothing," said Freddy, a bit shyly. "When we were here the other day, I managed to scan a security guard's ID with my phone when he wasn't paying attention and made a copy of it at the hotel. Then I just had to hack into the Louvre's security systems remotely and selectively de-activate the alarms and sensors along the route we took to get in here. It was actually a lot easier than hacking into the Met Museum in New York. Sofia and I did that a couple years ago. There were a lot more layers of security, but -- "
He stopped at the look on Alex's face. "Oh Alex, you're not mad at me, are you? I know I'm not supposed to break rules like this anymore but I just couldn't resist doing it once for you. I remember how much you liked looking at the sculptures here and how reluctant you were to leave. I wanted to get us more time to enjoy this place, just you and me."
But Alex wasn't mad. He was grinning ear to ear. "Freddy, you're brilliant!" He enfolded the other boy in a hug, burying his face in the crook of Freddy's neck and resting there awhile, relaxing in the tranquility and majesty of their surroundings and in the warmth of his dear friend's touch.
They strolled along the statues, taking their time to pause at each and admire the craftsmanship. Then they started taking pictures of each other imitating the poses of the statues, in the process bursting into peals of laughter which echoed in the vast gallery.
Suddenly, Freddy stopped Alex sharply with a hand on his arm. "Listen!" His tone had changed from one of unrestrained mirth to keen urgency.
"What?" Alex whispered back.
Freddy pulled him into a corner and crouched low. He pressed some buttons on his phone and the lights went out. "I'm sure I heard someone not too far away. Maybe across the hall. I fed the security cameras a loop of ordinary night footage for this room so the guards can't be after us. That means we're not alone here tonight, Alex."
The boys remained motionless for several minutes, straining their ears for the slightest disturbance. And then, suddenly they heard footsteps passing right outside the Cour Marly.
"Come on!" Freddy took hold of Alex's hand and pulled. "We need to see what's happening."
They followed the sound of the footsteps into the Galerie Richelieu. "Wait a second, I didn't de-activate the alarms for this room!" Freddy exclaimed in hushed tones. "So someone else has definitely been messing around."
Alex looked round, and saw a dark figure crouched over a display case at the back of the small gallery. The current exhibition featured fine jewellery and precious ornaments from the Near East. Alex's heart raced. Could they have stumbled onto a heist? The two boys squeezed behind a banner at the side of the gallery, peering out cautiously.
Suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass The figure was grabbing small items from the case and putting them into a pouch at his waist. Alex drew a sharp breath and looked at Freddy, wondering if Freddy was thinking what he was thinking. There were two of them, and only one thief. But what if he had a gun? What if he had accomplices waiting in the wings? Freddy could re-activate the alarms, but that would bring the museum security guards down at once and they would surely arrest Freddy and Alex too. Neither of them could bear the thought of how Sir Christopher and Lady Grey and Jack Starbright would feel when they found out that Alex and Freddy had been so reckless and broken into a museum just for fun and got arrested. But neither of them could also bear the thought of letting a criminal escape right under their noses.
Alex and Freddy fingered their pockets. Between them, they had two Swiss army knives, pepper spray, and various odds and ends that would be of little use against an assailant. "I'll distract him from the front. You attack and knock him out from the back," whispered Alex to Freddy. "On the count of three, ready?"
"One...two...THREE." Alex shot out from their hiding place and charged at the thief. The figure was taken by surprise and tumbled to the ground with Alex on top. But the thief was quicker than him and immediately whipped out a pistol.
"Come on Freddy..." Alex thought desperately. But just then his would-be assassin's hood fell back and he was looking into a pair of dark brown eyes that met his with a look of sheer astonishment. The hand holding the pistol dropped a little. It was not a man, but a woman, and suddenly Alex realised that his past would perhaps never truly let him go.
"You?" the woman rasped in a mix of disbelief and anger. "Amanda!" the word escaped Alex's lips before he could help it. He could not believe he was face-to-face again with one of his fellow students from Scorpia's Malagosto "school". Amanda was a tough former Israeli soldier who had actually been quite close to Alex during his time at Malagosto. Alex remembered her looking after him as though he were her little brother -- but then she had probably been doing so under Julia Rothman's instructions from the start, trying to find out if he was really up to something.
Freddy Grey had been poised to strike, having darted out right after Alex and positioned himself perfectly as Alex and Amanda fell to the ground. But he was shocked to hear the recognition in Alex's voice. Was this a friend or foe? Should he strike or wait? Should he show himself? He shrank back, crouching low and tensely watching the situation unfold.
"Alex..." said Amanda. Her voice betrayed the conflicting emotions inside her mind. Could it be that she had truly cared for Alex after all, and that was what stopped her from shooting him? Or would her anger soon prevail, making her finish off the unarmed teenager who had been the cause of Scorpia's demise, and of her own dashed hopes of becoming a top assassin?
"Put the things back, Amanda." Alex sounded more confident than he felt. Amanda hadn't lowered the gun all the way, and Freddy was nowhere to be seen.
"No! This is what I was paid to do. You get out of here and let me do my work. You tell no one that you saw me, all right? I won't send anyone after you if you don't get in my way." Amanda stood up as Alex did the same.
"I can't let that happen," said Alex. "And I'm not here on anyone's orders either."
Amanda raised the gun again. "Then I'll set off the alarms and get out of here. But you, my friend, will be found by the guards -- what explanation will you give them, if you are in any position to explain in the first place?"
Alex faltered. But before he could answer, he saw a shape emerge behind Amanda, and felt instantly better. "Fine," he said, putting up his hands. "I'm leaving now. Is that door safe?" He pointed at a door at the other end of the room, opposite to the one he and Freddy had entered through.
In that brief moment of distraction as Amanda glanced at the door, Freddy pounced. His fist pummelled into the back of Amanda's head, and she spun around, dropping the gun in pain. Alex seized it as Freddy followed up with another blow, knocking her out flat. The boys looked at each other.
"She'll be out cold for a while at least," said Freddy. "Let's go back the way we came."
He and Alex raced back through the Cour Marly and back along the way they had come. It was much faster this time with Alex not being blindfolded. They hopped onto the motorcycle and Freddy put his foot down on the accelerator. They rode along the Seine for a few minutes and crossed the Austerlitz Bridge. Alex looked around quickly and flung the gun, which he had still been carrying, into the river. Freddy re-activated the Louvre alarms on his phone before they drove off again towards their hotel. It wouldn't be long before the guards rushed down to the Galerie Richelieu and found an unconscious woman with half the contents of a display case on her.
"Well that was quite the Christmas surprise! When are you going to tell me about all your secret acquaintances, Alex?" Freddy said when they were back in their room, a note of incriminatory teasing in his voice. "When you recognised each other, it caught me off guard and I didn't know if I should still attack her."
"She was part of Scorpia, Freddy. One of the students, I mean."
Alex saw the look on Freddy's face change suddenly. "No, no, she wasn't like you at all -- you know Scorpia wasn't Nightshade, Freddy. Those students at Malagosto, they chose to be there. They were adults who deliberately left their old lives behind to work for Scorpia -- they weren't forced into it like you and Sofia and William and all the others were!"
He saw Freddy's face relax and gave him an affectionate squeeze. What would he have done without Freddy tonight? Alex had single-handedly taken on so many bad guys in the past -- from Herod Sayle to the Scorpia ringleaders to the Nightshade Teachers -- but why had he faltered as he faced Amanda just now? Where had all his quick thinking and improvisation skills gone? Was he, Alex Rider, becoming less competent at getting out of danger, now that Mrs Jones no longer needed him and he was allowed to live a normal life at last? No it wasn't that. Alex was human, after all, and had to admit that even though solo adventures were great, having a partner like Freddy to share them with was better.
The next morning, Freddy and Alex both woke up very late. Lady Grey came in with their breakfast trays and a newspaper. "Merry Christmas my darlings!" she greeted them. "Did you have fun on your little excursion last night? You didn't go near the Louvre by any chance, did you? There seems to have been a rather strange burglary attempt there last night."
The boys looked at the newspaper and exchanged glances. For now, it could remain their Christmas secret.