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It was nearly half an hour later before Oscar found an excuse to leave the gang. Finally, he managed it, and immediately sprinted back to the place he expected Rose to be lying. Then he saw that she wasn't there any more. Trying to convince himself that everything was going to be fine, that a shopkeeper or kid had seen Rose and called Miss Moscow, he nevertheless raked the area with his eyes for clues that she had been kidnapped. He was an MI9 teenage spy, after all. Training kicked in - panicking would be counterproductive.

Then he saw a piece of paper lying on the road. Turning it over quickly, Oscar saw that it was covered in notes on the English class they had had the previous day – in Rose's handwriting.

His mind working furiously, Oscar realised that standing here wasn't going to do anything. Quickly searching the rest of the area for clues, he didn't find anything else – and the lone sheet of paper didn't prove anything. It could easily have fallen out of her folder when Connor chucked her bag on the floor. The only thing he could do was return to the orphanage and try to contact Frank.

Oscar's mind was working in overdrive as he sprinted back up the street. He burst into Penhallows, leaving the gate clanging open behind him, before taking the stairs two at a time as he ran up to his and Rose's room. As he burst through the door, Oscar half expected to see a small figure crunched up on the bunk bed, as she had been the first time he went into the small room.

But there was nobody there.

All of her books were stacked neatly under her desk, her clothes were all still in the wardrobe, everything was exactly the same as it had been when he left that morning.

Trying to calm himself down, Oscar reasoned with himself that she was probably with Miss Moscow, as after all she did have a broken leg. Spinning around, he left the room and sprinted to Miss Moscow's – a daring feat by anyone's standards. The lady answered her door after he knocked. "Oscar! Is everything all right?" she asked, and Oscar thanked his lucky stars that his cover was so likeable – if Max had come up here, he would have been in deep trouble.

"Miss, I was wondering if you knew where Rose was? Rose Patel? We lost her in town – she just disappeared – and we were wondering if you had seen her?"

"As a matter of fact, Oscar, I haven't, but I do know where she is. Miss Franklin found her in town, she had fallen over quite badly and Miss Franklin took her to the hospital. I'm glad Rose has such a conscientious roommate – many wouldn't have given her not being there a second thought, she is such a quiet scrap. Hard to get a word out of her, seems to have built a wall around herself so that nobody can get in, if you see what I mean. Anyway, if you want more information, I'm afraid you'd have to find Miss Franklin – all I know is that she is in hospital."

"Thank you very much, Miss. I just wanted to know that someone had found her alright."

"You are very sweet, Oscar. I'm sure Rose will be fine."

"Yes Miss. Thank you again." Oscar walked down the corridor, looking for Miss Franklin's room. He was wondering if it was a coincidence – their only suspect of SKUL activity being the only person who seemed to know anything about Rose's disapearance. Reaching the door with a plaque reading "Miss H. Franklin – Science", Oscar knocked and waited for a reply.

When Miss Franklin opened the door, she looked shocked to see Oscar there. In truth, he had never seemed very engaged in her lessons, and students rarely visited the teacher's floor anyway. "Well, hello, Oscar. How can I help you?" she asked, obviously slightly flustered at his unexpected appearance.

"Miss Franklin, I was wondering how Rose was? Miss Moscow said that you had to take her to hospital because she fell in the village. You see she was meant to be with me, but she disappeared – you know how quiet she is – and suddenly I realised she wasn't there. I feel really bad, like it's my fault she had to go to hospital – I was meant to be looking after her." Miss Franklin looked at him as if assessing him, taking a while to think before answering .

"Yes, Oscar, Rose is perfectly alright. She will have to spend around a week in hospital, though, as her leg is broken and needs looking at – it seems quite a nasty break, the bone has slipped completely out of place. The doctors say that breaking a leg like that merely by tripping is very hard to do – she was unconscious for a good half and hour and has a plethora of other bruises and cuts all over her arms and legs – her stomach and back too, I believe, although she won't let us look at them. But she does swear that she only fell…" looking amused at Oscar's relived expression, as though she knew exactly how Rose's leg had broken, Miss Franklin began to shut the door, but Oscar interrupted quickly,

"Miss, would it be alright if I went to see her?" At this, Miss Franklin's amused expression completely shut down, and she snapped

"No, Oscar, I'm afraid you can't." Not offering any more explanation than that, she shut the door, leaving Oscar standing outside looking confused and feeling suspicious. All hospitals have visiting hours. Why couldn't he go to see Rose?

At dinner that day, Oscar joined Max's table as usual. All the gang were laughing at how they had managed to dump Rose in the street with a broken leg, wondering how long it had been until someone found her and took her to the hospital and how long she had stayed unconscious. Oscar only joined in half-heartedly, worried sick about little Rosie.

After everyone had eaten, Miss Moscow stood up and asked everybody to stay in their seats as she had an announcement. Once all the whispers had died down, her booming voice filled the room : "As some of you might have noticed, Rose Patel," here Max nudged Oscar and grinned, "is not here tonight. This is because she is currently in hospital with a badly broken leg. She should be back by the end of the week. Now, Rose promises that she broke her leg by tripping over the kerbstone, but the hospital authorities and I do not feel that this story is very plausible, given the severity of the break. If anybody knows anything about how Rose really had this accident, I would advise them to step forwards now, or to visit my office before she gets back. That is all." Miss Moscow sat down again, and the hall erupted with talk. Everybody knew what had really happened to Rose. You would have been stupid not to realise what had happened, what with the daily book stealing and bullying by Max and Oscar's gang. But no one stepped forwards, scared that the same thing would happen to them if they said anything.

Max was busy threatening the gang as to what would happened if they told anyone what had happened, although they were all already so scared of him and Oscar that it was not strictly necessary. Oscar sat back and let him get on with it, still thinking about the possible kidnapping of Rose by SKUL. He knew that he was probably being stupid, but the remark Miss Franklin had made – that there were to be no visitors – was really annoying him. No hospitals said that visitors were forbidden, so it must be the teachers who were keeping him from visiting her. Why would they do that, if they didn't have something to hide? Oscar was very suspicious now.

Once he was back in his room, Oscar searched frantically for the communicator bookmark Frank had given Rose, so that he could send a message to HQ about Rose being in hospital. However, he couldn't find it anywhere, and was forced to conclude that it had been in Rose's bag. Nevertheless, it was important that he spoke to Frank and Lennie, and so he tried to think up an excuse to visit either Blane and Carrie or Daisy. Deciding to pretend that the mental state hair band was Carrie's, he shoved it into his pocket and quickly made his way over to her building. Once inside, it was easy to find Carrie and Blane's room – when he passed a door covered in martial arts posters, there was little doubt as to who was there.

Seconds after he had knocked on the door, it swung open to reveal Blane, looking sullen and worried. "Yeah?" he said, playing uninterested at why the orphanage golden boy Oscar Wilde was standing outside his room. Oscar pulled the band out of his pocket.

"I think this is Carrie's, is she in there?"

"Yeah, you can come in if you want," said Blane, retreating into his room. Oscar followed him in.

Carrie was sitting on the top bunk, her legs swinging off the edge. "Hey Oscar," she smiled as the door swung shut, looking glad to see him. "Is this about Rosie?"

"Yeah, it is," mumbled Oscar, looking embarrassed at himself.

"Don't tell me," said Blane, a look of anger and protectiveness on his face. "It was you who broke Rosie Red's leg, landing her in hospital."

"Not me directly, no, but I was there," replied Oscar. Blane took an angry step forwards, and Oscar raised his hands in surrender. "There was nothing I could do!" Blane lowered his threatening posture.

"Sorry about that. I'm a little tightly strung at the moment. I knew Rosie Red shouldn't have come on this mission – she's great at the techie stuff, not in the field. She's not martial arts like me or deep cover like you – she'd have done more good back at HQ with Lennie and Frank. "

"I'm not disagreeing, mate," said Oscar. "In fact I was thinking the same thing myself when I first arrived. But she's handled herself fine on a lot of missions – while it's not her strong point, she's helped loads of times."

"Hm. I still think that its wrong for a 14 year old to fight those big SKUL guys physically. Anyways, what was it you came for?"

"I'd like to borrow your communicator, if that's alright. Rose had got ours and I need to get a message to HQ."

"Course. Carrie, have you got the medal?"

"No, I lost it," Carrie grinned, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, Blane, 'Have you got the medal?' Was I likely to lose it?" she laughed as she threw the gold-plated disk at Oscar.

"Thanks," he smiled back, amused at Blane's annoyed expression. Flicking the tiny button that opened a line to HQ, Oscar waited for Lennie to answer before he started. "HQ, its Oscar. Rose has disappeared, and I have some things to report."

"Alright Oscar, fire away. Is Rose OK?"

"Well, not really. She's got a broken leg and I think she's been kidnapped, possibly by SKUL."

Lennie's voice was panicked. It was possible to hear him calling Frank in the distance, and then both the mission controllers asked for him to continue.

"I know her leg's broken, quite badly I think. Her cover is tripping over a kerbstone, but in reality…in reality…the bullies broke her leg before leaving her…unconscious…on the pavement." It was incredibly hard for Oscar to say that – his deep caring for Rose was only just becoming clear even to himself. It was the same for Carrie, and Oscar felt that he was only just realising quite how important it was to have a team around you.

Rose's team needed to find her, fast.

"Bullies…left her unconscious? That's dreadful, Oscar, but you mustn't blame yourself – there was nothing that you could do. Right, I assume she has her communicator? Oscar, why do you say that she might be with SKUL?"

"When I couldn't find her, I went and asked Miss Moscow if Rose had found her way back to the orphanage. She told me that Rose had been picked up by Miss Franklin, who took her straight to hospital. I then asked Miss Franklin if I could visit her, but she went very strange and pretty much bit my head off, saying that I couldn't visit Rose before slamming her door without explanation."

"That does seem suspicious. However, we can't send you in to kidnap Miss Franklin, as that would utterly blow your covers. What we can do is trace Rose's communicator signal…there we go…wait; the machine seems to be malfunctioning. It's saying that Rose is at Penhallows, which cant be right. Are you sure that Rose took her communicator with her?"

Oscar was about to answer, but the medal was snatched out of his hands by Blane. "Blane. Sudden thought – HQ is hidden beneath a school, in a place no villain would think to look. Don't rule out the possibility that Rose is still here, in a secret facility, in a place no good guy would think to look."

"That's a great idea, Blane!" enthused Carrie. "If there was a SKUL base beneath the orphanage, where would they access it from? Anyone noticed light switches that don't work or anything?"

"No, but we'll keep a look out. HQ, what should we do?"

"Well, I'm quite sure that Rose is at the orphanage. The communicator beacon says that she is in the school building, but I can't refine the signal past that. Whatever you do, don't make a massive fuss about Rose being gone - that would raise eyebrows – only start really worrying if she doesn't come back by the end of the week as Miss Franklin said. Keep an eye out for suspicious non-working light switches like Carrie said, but don't look for them obviously. You're all doing great. HQ over and out."