(no subject)
Pg 69 Skeleton Key
*Alex is staying with Sabina and her family in cornwall*
Why couldn't he have had a family like this? Alex felt an old familiar sadness creep up on him. His parents had died before he was even a few weeks old. The uncle who had brought him up and who taught him so much had still been, in many ways, a stranger to him. He had no brothers or sisters. Sometimes he felt as isolated as the plane he had seen from the veranda, making its long journey across the night sky, unnoticed and alone.
Alex pulled the pillows up around his head, annoyed with himself. He had friends. He enjoyed his life. He'd managed to catch up with his work at school and he was having a great holiday. And with a bit of luck, with the wimbledon business behind him, MI6 would leave him alone. So why was he letting himself slip into this mood?
The door opened. Somebody has come into his room, It was Sabina. She was leaning over him. He felt her hair fall against his cheek and smelled her faint perfume; flowers and white musk. Her lips brushed gently against his.
"You're much cuter than James Bond," she said.
And then she was gone. The door closed behind her.
Pg 18 of Eagle Strike
*Alex is on Holiday with Sabina in France and spots Yassen Gregorovich*
"Alex?" What are you looking at?" Sabina murmured, and Alex had to force himself to turn round, to remember she was there.
"I'm..." The words wouldn't come. He didn't know what to say.
"Do you think you could rub a little more suncream into my back? I'm overheating..."
That was Sabina. Slim, dark-haired, and sometimes much older than her fifteen years. But then she was the sort of girl who had probably swapped toys for boys before she hit eleven. Although she was using factor 25, she seemed to need more suncream rubbed in every fifteen minutes, and somehow it was always Alex who had to do it for her. He glanced quickly at her back, which was in fact perfectly bronzed. She was wearing a bikini made out of so little material that it hadn't bothered with a pattern. Her eyes were covered by a pair of fake Dior sunglasses (which she had bought for a tenth of the price of the real thing) and she had her head buried in The Lord of the Rings, at the same time waving the suncream.
Alex looked back at the yacht, Yassen was shaking hands with the bald man. The deckhand was standing near by, waiting. Even at this distance Alex could see that Yassen was very much in charge; that when he spoke, the two men listened. Alex had once seen Yassen shoot a man dead just for dropping a package. There was still an extraordinary coldness about him that seemed to neutralise even the Mediterranean sun. The strange thing was that there were very few people in the world who would have been able to recognise the Russian. Alex was one of them. Could Yassen being here have something to do with him.
"Alex...?" Sabina said.
The three men moved away from the boat, heading into the town. Suddenly Alex was on his feet.
"I'll be right back," he said.
"Where are you going."
"I need a drink."
"I've got water."
"No, I want a Coke."
Even as he swept up his T-shirt and pulled it over his head, Alex knew that this was not a good idea.
Pg 28
Alex had loved it from the start. His bedroom overlooked the river, and every evening he and Sabina had spent hours sprawled over an old wicker sofa, talking quietly and watching the water ripple past.
Pg 29
"Alex?"
He realised Sabina had been talking to him, and looked round. She was gazing across the table with a look of concern. "What are you thinking about?" she asked. "You were miles away."
"Nothing."
"You haven't been yourself all afternoon. Did something happen this morning? Where did you disappear to on the beach?"
"I told you. I just needed a drink." He hated having to lie to her but he couldn't tell her the truth.
"I was just saying we ought to get going. I promise we'd be home by five. Oh my God! Look at that one!" She pointed out another teenage walking past. "Four out of twenty. Aren't there any good-looking boys in France?" She glanced at Alex. "Apart from you, I mean."
"So how many do I get out of twenty?" Alex asked.
Sabina considered. "Twelve and a half," she said at last. "But don't worry, Alex. Another ten years and you'll be perfect."
Pg 80
*Alex tells Sabina about being a spy*
At last Sabina spoke again. "I'm sorry, Alex," she said. "I have never heard so much crap in all my life."
"Sab, I told you-"
"I know you said I wouldn't believe it. But just because you said that, it doesn't make it true!" She shook her head. "How can you expect anyone to believe a story like that? Why can't you tell me the truth?"
"It is the truth, Sab."
Suddenly he knew what he had to do.
*Alex takes Sabina to the Royal and General Building but they aren't able to get past the bank facade and she insists they leave*
"Listen-" he began.
"No. You listen! I don't know what's going on inside your head. Maybe it's because you don't have parents. You have to draw attention to yourself by creating ... fantasy! But just listen to yourself, Alex! I mean, it's pretty sick. School boy spies and Russian assassins and all the rest of it . . ."
"It's got nothing to do with my parents," Alex said, feeling anger will up inside of him.
"But it's got everything to do with mine. My dad gets hurt in an accident-"
"It wasn't an accident, Sab." He couldn't stop himself. "Are you really so stupid that you think I'd make all this up?"
"Stupid? Are you calling me stupid?"
"I'm just saying I thought we were friends. I thought you knew me..."
"Yes! I thought I knew you. But now I see I was wrong. I'll tell you what's stupid. Listening to you in the first place. Coming to see you was stupid. Ever getting to know you ... that was the most stupid thing of all."
She turned and walked away in the direction of the station. In seconds she had gone, disappearing into the crowd.
pg328
*Sabina knows Alex was telling the truth after being kidnapped by Damian Cray, She comes to tell Alex her family is moving to America*
"I'll miss you, Sabina."
"But we'll see each other again. You can come to California. And I'll let you know if I'm ever in London. . ."
"That's good."
She was lying. Somehow Alex knew that this was more than goodbye, that the two of them would never see each other again. There was no reason for it. That was just the way it was going to be.
She put her arms around him and kissed him.
"Goodbye, Alex." she said.
He watched her walk out of his life. Then he turned and followed the river, past the swans and off into the countryside. He didn't stop. Nor did he look back.