Author's Note:
I
do not own any of the Anthony Horowitz characters but I do own Ashley
Curtis and some of the other characters that you might not recognise,
like Ashley Curtis.
I decided to put up two chapters this time round to make up for taking forever to put up the other chapter. It might seem like this is going nowhere but this is where it actually starts to piece together and start answering some of your questions.
Constructive criticism is welcome as are praises so PLEASE review PLEASE.
Thanks to all my reviewers and readers so far, you rock!
Chapter Four: Friday the thirteenth:
Friday had come around quickly for the newly employed spy and Ashley and all the way through school they both had growing concerns; concerns which unfortunately could not be shared with each other. Ashley had growing concerns over the two week training that she was about to endure and Alex was concerned over the two week mission that he had been given. He himself felt that the mission wasn't imminently dangerous, but he had thought that of some of his previous missions, all of which he nearly died and so he wasn't taking any chances. On top of which, Tom had reminded them that it was Friday the thirteenth. At this they had both growled at Tom, uncannily at the same time, scaring him enough for him to drop the subject.
School was uneventful apart from the maths lesson, where Ashley had managed to cause the teacher to faint. Mrs Walls was a short and genteel woman and was attempting to teach the class fractions. When she had noted that Ashley was still struggling she had compared fractions to a cake but Ashley was confused at this stating simply that she saw no cake and how would the cake be in fractions if she had eaten it. At this the teacher had fainted, causing class to be dismissed early and a medic to be sent to bring her round.
At the end of the school day, Alex went to collect his bike from the bike rack and Ashley remained at the front of the school. When he came round to the front again, Ashley had changed into trainers, putting her shoes into her bag. She climbed onto the spokes of his bike and he shot off home; curving through the traffic on the road. They made their way back to Alex's house for the last time for two weeks together and Ashley went to collect her duffel bag, which wasn't there.
"Jack have you seen my bag?" she called over the steady chopping of vegetables, which was made from the housekeeper, who was making Alex's dinner, Jack turned around and nodded.
"Yes your third cousin took it away earlier today; he said it will make it easier for you to get to Cornwall don't know why?" Jack said and Ashley sighed in relief. Her mind trailed to the various forms of weaponry that she had stored in the bag and for that brief moment she thought Alex had the bag and was looking through it; how would she explain the three Glochs inside?
"Thanks Jack," she said gratefully and she walked out of the kitchen to go and sit in the living room with Alex until she was collected. The two made no noise, the only sounds coming from the coke cans on the table which were quietly fizzing.
The door bell rang and she went to answer it; in the doorway stood a man who looked familiar but she couldn't quite place it. "Ready to go?" the man asked and Ashley nodded indicating to the bag on her back.
"Alex, Jack, I'm off, see you in two weeks," she called and waited for the muffled replies before she walked out of the house. When they reached the bottom of the road, the man peeled of a latex mask to reveal who he really was.
"Wolf isn't it?" Ashley asked and he nodded.
"Yes, that's me, we'll be getting their by motorbike okay," he climbed onto a black Suzuki and started the ignition. Ashley clambered on after him. "If you need to hold on, grab hold of my shoulders," he explained as he took off the bike stand and they started going down the road.
They had been riding for about four hours and Ashley was starting to get tired, she was struggling to keep her head straight and eyes open and about ten minutes later was asleep on the back of the bike, something which was normal to her. About half an hour had passed before Wolf realised that she was asleep, in which he turned his head to check if she was alright.
"Hey Curtis," he shouted and she woke up startled.
"Huh, I'm awake," she opened her eyes and looked past Wolf who was looking at her concerned, her eyes grew in size and she yelled pointing forwards. "LORRY!"
Wolf tried to swerve away from the lorry, which beeped its horn loudly and started to swerve away but ended up losing control of the bike; Ashley was thrown off and skidded, cutting her shoulder blade on a piece of metal that was in the middle of the motorway. Wolf struggled to stop the bike but when he had there was a small gash on his forehead; he put the bike on the stand and ran over to Ashley stirring a short distance away. The traffic around them had stopped so Wolf helped Ashley up and walked her over to far lane which was used for parking uses only. The steady roar or the cars started back up shortly after they had sat down on the road side, none of the cars stopping to see if the two were okay.
"You alright Curtis?" he asked her, genuinely concerned when she had stopped trembling from the shock. She raised her uninjured arm and pulled the helmet of still slightly shaky. Her face was white and pasty and her hair frizzed out of the ponytail that she had it in.
"I think so, my arm hurts though," she whispered almost inaudibly and he turned her around to have a look at her arm. He gave a short and low whistle at the sight. The metal was protruding from the shoulder blade and blood had started to pour, restricted by the obstruction in the shoulder.
"I bet that looks nasty we should get you to a medic," Wolf admitted putting a hand lightly around the wound in an attempt to figure out what to do.
"I just want to get to the camp to be perfectly honest," Ashley admitted with a stronger voice and Wolf nodded to himself.
"Okay, here's what we will do. I need to get rid of that metal so I'm just going to pull it out and then put a makeshift bandage over the wound. Then we can use the bike to get back to the camp," he waited for Ashley's consent and then instructed her to put her hands on her knees so he could pull the metal out. As he put pressure on the metal Ashley whimpered, something which he was expecting but ignored as he yanked it quickly out. Ashley swore slightly more high-pitched than normal but otherwise ignored the fact that Wolf had started to wrap her blood soaked arm in bandages torn from a spare top in his bag. It didn't really do much for the girl but it was the best he could do and he helped her back onto the bike.
"I blame Tom, he jinxed me," Ashley said quietly before they put their helmets back on and Wolf asked her why. "He told me to watch out because it is Friday the thirteenth," with that Wolf put the bike in gear and rode the rest of the way to the camp, making sure at all times that Ashley was awake.
