Every time I think I've read a chapter that can't be topped, you blow me away again. Shout out to 'Alex had missed kindness' for making me feel like I'd been punched in the heart.

I, for one, am hoping Sir Christopher is one of the government Higher ups that finds out just how horrifically Alex has been abused and comes out swinging for him, but I know that's not very likely. I just want Chloe and Alex and everyone except Blunt and Jones and Morozov to be alright :(

Hi, hello, this whole fic has been just *chef's kiss* but this chapter? THIS CHAPTER? A fucking Masterpiece. 'It was better for Alex to be beaten, for Alex to be hurt by their insane captor, because Alex wasn't real the way other kids were real.' TEAR MY HEART OUT OF MY CHEST WHY DONT YOU. And don't get me started about the other kids defending Alex FROM HIMSELF because they can see what he can't, or at least face what he can't: he's not a spy, not really. He doesn't work for MI6. He's being abused by MI6, by men and women who should've protected him like they'd been protected, it shouldn't have ever gotten to this point. You absolutely killed it.

Love this story! You’ve done such an incredible job with every part of it. I hope you update, I’d love to read the end!

Hi! I love this story.
I don’t want to be annoying, sorry, but when will we get the next chapter? It’s been a while and I’m missing reading new chapters!

All the best
Eva

Reading this again because I love it so much :) hope you continue it. I’m glad to see Alex get out. Very well done.

I can't wait for the next chapter! When do you think it'll be out?

This is really good. Really good. You capture the characters, the drills and Alex very very well. I love the other code names too. I'd almost believe this was written by Horowitz. Only thing is the first chapter or so about the assassination attempts. That feels forced because they were really bad attempts and gave up easily and Mi6 would do a lot more the first time it happened. I think you should cut out all attempts but one and make it that that takes them to the beacons

Thank you for writing this story. I read for the third time now, because you updated again and I really like it. There are passages which made me cry and some that made me laugh. I like the passage where Gilda discovers that motherly feelings don’t come exclusively with giving birth. And I really like Richard Manning and his relationship to Alex. Great work!

THANK YOU! I remember being in elementary school when I first started reading this fic and now I've graduated college. I'm so glad this fic is still goin and you haven't abondended it.

Glad to see Alex is getting along so well with the doctors. The last time I read this I distinctly remember the Zipline scene, now I'm not sure what scene stands out as the defining moment.

Thank you for keeping this going, this story is amazing and I can't wait for the next installment! : )

Every time I think I've reached my height of hating-Andrei, he gives me a lovely new reason to want him dead with extreme prejudice. Excellent writing!

Shouldn't have reread it because I need the next chapter even more now

Woah. I came on right when the epilogue is about to come out. I thought the story was finished, the way the chapter count came on. Anyway.

I wish I had parents like Gilda and Richard. But I guess that's part of the dream of fiction, isn't it? A lot of aspects of this story feel like that kind of dream. The soldiers and the adults. It's a really interesting interplay between the actual relationship between adults and children and the balancing act of being a child but also having real responsibilities in a difficult situation. I do feel that the adults are idealized. That's – not a bad thing. It's just a different kind of perspective. In a way, it's kind of beautiful to see how things should be. And it's also true, that Alex would have needed no less in order to accept this situation and really overcome it.

Gilda is a remarkably smart woman. I'd hope to be as smart and keen as her one day.

I just don't know if in real life people would care all that much. Eagle, Unit-K, then suddenly every unit in SAS. Manning, the hardass doctor, became the warm father. I understand it, but... We all have our nastinesses inside us. Manning still had the perfect responses, even when he was angry; his anger in that case was the perfect response. Here it was just a miscommunication that could be cleared up when they each figured out what was wrong and could vocalize it. Miscommunication is the root of a lot of problems irl – but for example I also think irl maybe someone like Manning in that position might not have had this "perfect response", might have cared a lot but also got very detached and clinical in the moment. He was exactly what Alex wanted and needed, if hidden temporarily, but I think in real life it's just not like that. That's what I mean by everyone being a little too perfect, particularly the "good" adults.

So ultimately, I feel that this story is not necessarily one to reflect all of reality, but instead to teach.

I found it very insightful.

I liked Gilda's thoughts on Alex's self-consciousness of his capability of manipulating other people.

The thing with the cupboard cutout as an escape route, and the whole dentist facade was very clever. I really especially liked the plot once we got out of the SAS camp and things started happening. It was no longer let's-beat-up-Alex but instead, oh Alex was actually beat up for a reason – not a good one, but a reason – and now we're going to blow up that f'ing reason in it's face and save the kid, long-term not just short-term. I liked that. And I really liked Chloe. I hope Alex gets to talk with her again and meet her in earnest. But it's true. Being in that area again... well, hell's bells, I don't know what's good for him and what's not.

Anyway, I look forward to that epilogue. I really hope Chloe is in it, since she needs a damn good send-off. You probably don't need any more praise after 4000 review, I'm just jotting down the content of my thoughts here, but I thought you were a really good writer too with a lot of smooth and clever transitions, and well thought-out ideas. I believe a lot of research has been put into this story. It fits together rather well and... huh, you know what, nevermind. I just liked it. I had a lot of thoughts and feelings. Kept reading, it was a lot longer than I thought it'd be but here I am at the end. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to that epilogue.

"There was even a little card tucked inside, on which Smithers had created an astonishingly close forgery of Ian's handwriting, reading 'to Alex, with love from Ian'" - very clever.

They aren't even fucking paying him? That's a detail I didn't remember from the books. When I was reading through this, I even had the thought "at least he's probably loaded from his work and won't have to get a job later on if he doesn't want to". Then I realized zip, nada, zilch. He got nothing. Damn.

100% exploitation of labor. I think I will be rereading the books in an entirely different light now.

The training probably also had another purpose than to just show Alex how useless his classmates are. It was probably also for this, as a last-ditch effort to make any potential hostages more useful to him too.