Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz Read Free Book Online

Alex. Two more huts, painted a different color, stood side by side. One of these was a kitchen and mess hall. The other contained toilets, sinks, and showerswith not a single hot faucet in sight.
    On his first day there, Alex had been introduced to his training officer, an incredibly fit black sergeant. He was the sort of man who thought he'd seen everything. Until he saw Alex. And he had examined the new arrival for a long minute before he had spoken.
    “It's not my job to ask questions,” he had said. “But if it was, I'd want to know what they're thinking of, sending me children. Do you have any idea where you are, boy? This isn't a holiday camp. This isn't Disneyland.” He cut the word into its three syllables and spat them out. “I have you for twelve days and they expect me to give you the sort of training that should take fourteen weeks. That's not just mad. That's suicidal.”
    “I didn't ask to be here,” Alex said.
    Suddenly the sergeant was furious. “You don't speak to me unless I give you permission,” he shouted. “And when you speak to me, you address me as 'sir.' Do you understand?”
    “Yes, sir.” Alex had already decided that the man was even worse than his geography teacher.
    “There are five units operational here at the moment,” the officer went on. “You'll join K Unit. We don't use names. I have no name. You have no name. If anyone asks you what you're doing, you tell them nothing. Some of the men may be hard on you. Some of them may resent you being here. That's too bad. You'll just have to live with it. And there's something else you need to know. I can make allowances for you. You're a boy, not a man. But if you complain, you'll be binned. If you cry, you'll be binned. If you can't keep up, you'll be binned. Between you and me, boy, this is a mistake and I want to bin you.”
    After that, Alex joined K Unit. As the sergeant had predicted, they weren't exactly overjoyed to see him.
    There were four of them. As Alex was soon to discover, the Special Operations Division of M16 sent its agents to the same training center used by the Special Air Service-the SAS. Much of the training was based on SAS methods and this included the numbers and makeup of each team. So there were four men, each with their own special skills. And one boy, seemingly with none.
    They were all in their mid-twenties, spread out over the bunks in companionable silence. Two of them were smoking. One was dismantling and reassembling his guna 9mm Browning High Power pistol. Each. of them had been given a code name: Wolf, Fox, Eagle, and Snake. From now on, Alex would be known as Cub. The leader, Wolf, was the one with the gun. He was short and muscular with square shoulders and black, close-cropped hair. He had a handsome face, made slightly uneven by his nose, which had been broken at some time in the past.
    He was the first to speak. Putting the gun down, he examined Alex with cold dark brown eyes. “ So who the hell do you think you are?” he demanded.
    “Cub,” Alex replied.
    “A bloody schoolboy!” Wolf spoke with a strange, slightly foreign accent. “I don't believe it. Are you with Special Operations?”
    “I'm not allowed to tell you that.” Alex went over to his bunk and sat down. The mattress felt as solid as the frame. Despite the cold, there was only one blanket.
    Wolf shook his head and smiled humorlessly. “Look what they've sent us,” he muttered. “Double 0 Seven? Double 0 Nothing's more like it.”
    After that, the name stuck. Double 0 Nothing was what they called him.
    In the days that followed, Alex shadowed the group, not quite part of it but never far away. Almost everything they did, he did. He learned map reading, radio communication, and first aid. He took part in an unarmed combat class and was knocked to the ground so often that it took all his nerve to persuade himself to get up again.
    And then there was the assault course. Five times he was shouted and bullied across the