Brooklands offered a politics class for A Levels students. They had offered it for the last three years.

Alex thought that he may as well considering his job.

Tom and James, his last two friends in school, also took the class with him.

Their teacher, Miss Brown, hated Alex because of his repeated absences, which wasn't technically his fault.

"Alright class, settle down. Rider, Harris, sit down before you injure yourselves," Alex and Tom sat down sheepishly.

"Today, we are going to be looking at COBRA meetings. Does anybody know what this is?"

She waited a minute, looked at all of the blank faces and sigheed.

Sometimes, her job sucked.

"For those of you who don't know the term COBRA is often used by news media is the acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A. Usually the topics discussed at this meetings are…"

She was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Hello, ma'am. I'm here to pick up Alex Rider."

The man who said this was a soldier, smartly dressed in uniform, standing at ease within the room of 30 children.

Alex stood up.

"Ben," he exclaimed, "what on earth are you doing here?"

"Hey, Al. Sorry about this. Jones said it was urgent. I know you usually wait until after school but unfortunately, there was no time. A Code 49978 was called thirty minutes ago. Your skills are required in this matter."

Alex slumped.

"Let's go, then."

They were out the door before Miss Brown could object.

Hey guys, I know this is a slightly overused idea but it was the best idea I've had for a while.