Now. The bit with the Science Museum. I am, indeed, dedicated, my dear readers. I did my research. There is actually an exhibition at the Science Museum called the Science of Spying, and yes, I did go to it. It's the most childish thing I've been to since going on the "It's a Small World" Ride at Disneyland Paris. I nearly died from the overdose of "childish". I figured Alex probably would too.
Sorry for the long delay, and I hope you enjoy! And, of course, as always, thanks to all you lovely and dedicated reviewers, and I hope you all get a place in heaven. I won't see you there, but I hope you get there all the same.
After all. Good girls go to Heaven. Bad girls go EVERYWHERE. (grin)
DISCLAIMER: Anthony Horowitz is STILL refusing to sell me those bookrights, the bstrd. :D
Chapter 11:
Alex was cleaning the kitchen when Wolf got home that night, and he straightened, nervously, when his guardian walked into the kitchen.
"Hi." He said, rather nervously, and turned back to his cleaning.
Wolf paused, frowning slightly in puzzlement. "…Hi." He said, slowly. "Good day?"
Alex shrugged, scrubbing with the dishcloth at a particularly stubborn piece of dirt on the counter. "It was OK." He nodded. "Supper'll be ready in about ten, fifteen minutes."
Wolf nodded. "Right, thanks." He looked over at the cooker. "What is it?"
"Spaghetti Bolognese."
"Ah. Nice." He gestured at his black trousers and shirt, the nearest he got to wearing a suit. "I'm going to go and change, OK?"
Alex gave him a slightly incredulous look. "Yeah, of course."
Five minutes later, the man was back, barefoot, and wearing a pair of battered jeans and a worn T-shirt. Alex was laying the table, and said, quickly, on hearing him come in,
"I've been meaning to ask, um… d'you have any washing you want doing?"
Wolf paused on his journey over to the drawers, looking at Alex in surprise. "Um – yeah, but I just take it to the laundrette normally."
"Why?" it was Alex's turn to stare. "You've got a washing machine, I've seen it."
"Came with the flat." Wolf grunted. "I don't know how to use the damn thing." He sighed. "If you can work out how to, I'll do the washing." Alex raised an eyebrow at him, and opened his mouth to say something, then seemed to think better of it, and turned back to the table. Wolf frowned, opening one of the drawers. "Where's the spaghetti?"
"On the counter." Alex replied over his shoulder as he fetched the Worcester sauce out of one of the cupboards.
"Oh." Carefully, Wolf read the instructions, and put a pan of water on to boil, turning to find Alex staring at him, biting his lip, face worried. "What?"
Alex turned away again. "…nothing."
Wolf raised an eyebrow; like he really believed that. With a mental shrug, he said, pretending to ignore thee kid's distraction, "Right, so – how much longer?"
"Five minutes?" Alex guessed, "It's only three minute pasta."
"OK."
There was an awkward pause, during which Wolf put the spaghetti in the pan, and poured himself a glass of orange juice. In the nearly silent kitchen, it was a relief when the timer went off.
Wolf watched as the kid fiddled with his food, occasionally putting something in his mouth, but more often than not, just prodding at it, half-heartedly. For a few minutes, he tried to ignore it, but eventually, he said, quietly,
"Look, Cub, either tell me what's wrong, or eat your food, OK?" The boy looked up at him, brown eyes wary. Wolf almost sighed; he supposed it must have sounded kind of harsh. "Sorry…" he began, but Cub interrupted him.
"No, it's OK." He said, quietly. "I…it's just…. It's kind of difficult to know how to bring it up."
"Bring what up?"
"Something happened at school today…"
Wolf frowned. "Someone hurt you?" A tendril of worry – and, surprisingly, a little anger – wormed its way into his thoughts. "They didn't damage that bullet wound of yours, did they?"
The kid's laugh was humourless. "No." he said, quietly. "It's one of my teachers."
The worry was replaced with a feeling strangely like the beginnings of fury. "One of your teachers hurt you?"
Alex looked up momentarily. "No!" he said, quickly. "They just – this teacher of mine – Mr. Robinson – he… he wanted to talk to me, because… hethinksyou'reabusingme."
"What?"
"I said, he thinks you're abusing me." Alex said, slowly, bright red, his eyes fixed on his plate.
Wolf froze for a second. "Ah." He said, slowly. "Right." He sat back in his chair for a second, and then said, thoughtfully. "Because of those bruises, right?"
Alex nodded, awkwardly. "I tried to say that it wasn't true, that you'd only ever been – um, kind… but, he was… it was… um – yeah. He didn't want to believe me."
"No, don't worry." Wolf said, absently. "S'not your fault – unless you smiled, nodded, and told him what a bastard I am."
Alex smiled, unwillingly. "No."
"Well, then." His guardian gave him a small smile, and forked up some spaghetti. "Don't worry about it."
"'Don't worry'?" Alex quoted back at him, incredulously. "What are we going to do about it?"
"Until they ring me?" Wolf shrugged. "Nothing. When your school gets in contact with me, we'll go in and talk to them, or whatever – and I'll mention it at work, see if there's any help we can get…" He shrugged again. "Until then, I'm just going to leave it. Oh, yeah, and try not to get beaten up again, OK, Cub?" he frowned, suddenly. "Actually, I needed to talk to you. 'Bout Bear."
Alex tensed. "Yes?"
"Snake talked to our superiors about this, and they want to talk to you – and to Bear, obviously – to get a clearer picture of what happened."
Alex swallowed, and coughed a little, frowning. He'd had an annoying, slightly painful cough for the past few days. "OK, then." He nodded. "I – yeah. Yeah, that's fine."
"Right." Wolf sighed. "They know you're staying with me, MI6 had to clear that with them beforehand, so I've no doubt they'll contact you when they want to talk to you."
"That's generally how it works with me." Alex shrugged. "Nothing new."
"Guess not." There was a pause. "So – looking forward to the trip?"
Alex poked unenthusiastically at his spaghetti. "Not really." He sighed. "It'll be the same as school always is, just in a different place." He shrugged. "At least the Museum'll be interesting. I used to go there as a kid."
Wolf nodded. "Yeah, me too." He smiled a little. "My gran used to take me."
"You like science?" Alex asked, casually, finally eating a little of the spaghetti.
"I took Chemistry at University." The man told him, quietly. "Yeah, I like science."
Alex as silent for a couple of seconds. "Wow. I – never knew that." He said, eventually.
"Didn't exactly come up, did it?" Wolf shifted, rather uncomfortably, "And unless you found out who you were staying with, and read my file, there's no way you could have done." He paused. "Unless you asked one of the others." He added, fairly.
"Yeah." Alex nodded. "So – which University?"
"Aberdeen." He said, stabbing at his pasta. "I took Chemistry with French."
"I didn't know you spoke French!" Alex exclaimed, surprised.
"Yeah." He shrugged. "Well, there was no point me taking it with Spanish, was there? I'm Spanish – or, half, anyway."
"Yeah, I guess." Alex fiddled with his food for a couple of seconds longer, before finally pushing his plate away. "So, why did you go from a Chemistry graduate, to being in the SAS?"
Wolf shrugged. "I wanted to." He sighed. "And, y'know, my parents wanted me to do something respectable and safe. This was the best way to annoy them."
Alex nodded, with a small, wry smile. "Yeah." There was a few minutes of silence. "I, er… I handed in that form, for you to be one of the parent chaperones." He shook his head, disbelievingly. "I can't believe you want to chaperone for a group of kids in the Science Museum."
"Beats processing reports for MI6 while I'm off-duty any day." Wolf shrugged. "Plus, I get more time to spend with my ward." He grinned, suddenly and wickedly. "It's all in the name of adult-child bonding."
Alex shuddered.
The rest of the week passed slowly – Mr. Robinson kept giving Alex meaningful looks, so Alex kept fretting about the 'abuse' charges which he was certain were going to be levelled at Wolf any day. Snake and Wolf, between them, made certain that Alex always took his medication when he needed it, and Snake had even started a sort of basic fitness regime, to improve Alex's cardiovascular fitness, so Alex was rarely left with a moment's peace while he was at home.
His cough didn't seem to be getting any better either – and one morning he woke up with a small, brown stain on his pillow. For a couple of hours he'd been terrified, but when he started coughing a few hours later, during chemistry, he ended up with a little old blood in his hand, and figured it must simply be a latent side effect from his lung collapsing, when he was shot, or possibly the beating Bear had given him.
On top of that, of course, were the 'Bear' allegations; Alex had been called down to Credenhill, the SAS headquarters – Wolf had said that he would drive him down – the coming Saturday. What with ordinary homework and friend worries, Alex was relatively stressed by the time Friday, and the school trip arrived.
Alex had walked to school with Wolf, in silence, and Tom had stared at the man as Alex reached the gates. Wolf, obviously uncomfortable, made a beeline for the other teachers and parents who seemed be going on the trip.
"Oh. My. God." Tom said, in awe. "You brought your SAS guardian on our school trip?"
"He kind of brought himself." Alex muttered, uncomfortably, clearing his throat. "I had nothing to do with it."
"Alex, you've brought a member of the SAS on our school trip." Tom repeated, without taking his eyes off Wolf. "That is…that's awesome."
Alex sighed.
They got down to South Kensington by Tube, and walked down the long underground passage from the tube station to the Science Museum, on Exhibition Road – Tom ineffectually shadowed Wolf all the way. By the time they reached the actual Museum, Wolf was very aware of his small, adoring shadow, and beginning to be uncomfortable, occasionally shooting Alex glances; but Alex was having way too much fun watching the pair of them to talk to Tom.
Inside the museum, they were ushered through, quickly and quietly – obviously the teachers had booked ahead. It didn't hurt that there were very few people visiting at this particular time on a Friday morning, and the queues were relatively short.
"Before we let you have some of free time to explore the museum," one of their teachers, Miss Landingham, said, loudly, "We're going to visit the special exhibition they've got on at the moment." There was a rustle of dull excitement from the children, and Alex wondered why Wolf was looking at him so gleefully. "We'll be there for maybe an hour or so," she continued "And I'd ask you to make the most of it. It's called 'The Science of Spying'." She smiled at them, as they began to talk excitedly.
Alex stared, sickly, at Wolf, who gave him an evil grin, and turned away to talk to one of the other parents.
Payback was, as always, a bitch.
Alex stood in line, next to Tom, waiting to be allowed into the 'exhibition'. Tom kept poking him, and whispering things in his ear, like "Now, you can tell me whether they're being realistic", and "You'll feel right at home, Alex!". Alex was resisting the urge to hurt him.
"Tom." He said, eventually, firmly. "Shut up."
He was given a 'spy ID card' by a smiling woman at the black doors, which were, apparently, supposed to look ominous, and he stared at it for a couple of seconds, before shrugging, smiling back at her, and walking through the doors. He couldn't help but think that an 'ID card' would somewhat defeat the object, but then, he hadn't really been expecting any blinding realism.
For a second, he stared, totally bewildered. He'd never seen so many brightly coloured plastic objects anywhere other than a toy store. And there were most of his classmates, happily 'completing the tasks'.
"I can't believe this." He muttered, and moved forward to 'find the hidden pictures in the map'.
He was half heartedly trying to find the pictures, and wondering why on earth something like this would ever come up during a mission, when Wolf walked up, and picked up the other tool that was supposed to help finding the hidden pictures. The man was still grinning.
"I'm glad you find it so funny." Alex said, disgruntled. "It's not that amusing."
"Yeah, it really is." Wolf told him, smirking. "You look so – bored."
"Do they really think this is realistic?" Alex whispered.
"Hopefully." Wolf shrugged. "They're fourteen, they're not supposed to have an intricate knowledge of how spying works."
Alex sighed. "I know. But – honestly." He pointed over at where various members of his class were pulling on different types of costume, in order to 'blend into certain situation'. "Who's going to have a wetsuit just lying around when they need to blend in?" he paused. "Actually, y'know, why would you wear a wet-suit to try and blend in, full stop? I mean, it's not often the you have to try and blend in on a beach, and if you do… well, just go swimming, or something, you don't need a wetsuit."
Wolf looked at him. "Lighten up, Cub." He advised, semi-seriously, and put down the instrument, clapping Alex on the shoulder. "Have some fun."
Alex watched him go over to the costume area, and pick up a frilly chiffon dress. The other kids in his class clustered round him, daring him to put it on – as the youngest adult there by at least a decade, he'd been nominated as the 'cool' chaperone. Wolf quelled them all with a raised eyebrow, and said something, but Alex had turned away –
– coming face to face with Lucy. She grinned at him.
"I've found a camera." She told him, pointing at the map with the hidden pictures.
"I've found a camera, a notebook, and something which I think might be a three legged cat, but that could just be because I didn't look very closely."
She laughed. "Fair enough."
In companionable silence, they worked their way through the Exhibition. Alex was dismayed to find that both Lucy and Tom got extremely in to the spying thing, and Lucy confided her long term wish to work for MI6. Tom had cracked up at that, and while Lucy glared at him, Alex had smiled, weakly, and muttered something about how he was 'sure it wasn't all it was cracked up to be'.
They looked at the 'spy equipment', and Alex couldn't help but wonder whether it was just because MI6 didn't think he needed it that they hadn't given him things to bug telephones with, and thermal detectors, or whether it was because no one was given them.
He was going for the second option. And, even if people did get given those gadgets, he was fairly certain that they wouldn't have 'Spyware' written on them, like a brand name. It was a little like the 'Spy ID card' thing – it kind of defeated the purpose of trying to be inconspicuous.
They had a spurious 'mission' to do – go into a certain company, and find a certain code which was scattered throughout the building. First, though, they had to choose between being 'body scanned', or 'mind scanned'. Alex chose being 'mind scanned', on the basis that it was the stupidest and most unlikely thing he'd ever heard of. By the time the second 'suspicious object' flashed up on the screen – jelly beans, this time – he was thinking things like 'ooh, look, jelly beans' very enthusiastically, to see whether it would affect the outcome of the 'mind scan'.
Apparently it did; a red notice appeared on screen, telling him to 'go to the security desk' because he had 'dangerous knowledge of dangerous objects'.
Alex did look for the security desk, to see whether he'd get handcuffed, put in a cell, then get beaten and interrogated by a mad genius trying to take over the world – after all, that was what always seemed to happen to him – but he couldn't seem to find it anywhere. He wandered through the 'mission', while Lucy and Tom desperately tried to find the answer, unable to find the heart to tell them that the keyword was seven letters long, and was actually 'company'. It hadn't taken long to work it out, after all – he was just rather disappointed that it had all been so unrealistic and boring. He'd have preferred at least something of a challenge.
But, he wasn't about to begrudge Lucy and Tom their fun, so he kept his mouth shut and let them get on with it.
For him, the only interesting thing that happened in the exhibition was when he was waiting to go through a sensor, a long sort of tunnel which he had to crouch through, or be picked up as a human.
His mind unwittingly went back to the various incidents where he'd had to crawl and crouch through something in order not to be seen, and he shook himself, listening to the conversations going on around him.
Wolf was a couple of people back to him, talking to another parent.
"…just wanted to see the Science Museum, myself!" the other parent laughed. "So – which one's yours, then?"
Alex tensed, involuntarily, only to hear Wolf say, casually, "That one." He half-turned in shock, but then it was his turn, and he was ushered through the sensor.
He was busy thinking about that – and trying not to catch Wolf's eye – while they went through the galleries on photography, and while the teacher told them about their lunch break. They had an hour free to go and get their lunch, and since Wolf seemed set to go off with the other teachers, Alex allowed Tom and Lucy to drag him off.
When they were outside, Lucy headed down the street towards the corner. She grinned at Alex. "Want a smoke?" she asked, quietly.
Alex thought about it, while Tom stared. "Alex…" he hissed, urgently.
Alex thought back on all the stress recently, and on what he'd read about tobacco being relaxing. Taking a deep breath, he said, slowly. "Yeah. Thanks."
Tom shook his head, giving Alex a disappointed frown. "Fine. You two go off and kill yourselves slowly, I'm gonna find someone else to eat with."
Alex watched him go, then turned back to Lucy. "Let's go, OK?"
"Sure." She grinned. "Let's go."
Looking back on it, Alex figured that he should have known what would happen. After all, in 'real life', he never was particularly lucky.
They'd only just started smoking when a couple of their teachers, and the parents, came round the corner. They saw them straight away.
"Lucy!" one of them gasped. "Alex? What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Alex, though, was staring at Wolf, who looked furious.
Lucy dropped her cigarette instantly. "It was his idea!" she said, quickly. "He gave it to me!"
Alex didn't even have time to look incredulous, when Wolf stormed up to him, and knocked the cigarette out of his hand. "I don't know what the hell you think you're doing." He said, harshly, "But, I'm going to find out."
Alex winced.
The rest of the day was too long for Alex, and far too short. He wanted to get this argument over as quickly as he could, and at the same time, he didn't want to have it at all. Wolf was polite with all the other kids, explained things when they asked him questions, but kept up a stony silence when it came to Alex.
In fact, nothing much happened for the rest of the day at all, except almost right at the end. Alex had known that there were people in his year who resented him; he missed so much school, it was easy to pick on him as someone to dislike. He'd been standing by a wall, when someone barrelled into him, falling slightly onto him. He went flying back into it, the air knocked out of him as he fell, and the boy falling on top of him. The other kid – another Alex, Alex O'Brien – put a hand on Alex's chest, pushing himself upright, with a nasty grin. His hand had been pressing on his bullet wound, and for a few moments, Alex was left gasping in pain.
His chest ached, unpleasantly, for the rest of the day.
Their journey home was totally, uncomfortably silent, Alex trying to ignore the ache in his chest, and the tenseness in the air. Once they reached the flat, he waited, as Wolf shut the door with a deliberate thud, and turned to him.
"Go – just go and wait in the kitchen, OK?" he growled, and Alex obeyed, instantly.
Wolf appeared a couple of seconds later, and glared at him for a couple of seconds. "How could you be so fucking stupid?" he said, angrily.
Alex shrugged.
"Don't damn well shrug!" he half-shouted. "This isn't a fucking game, Alex! A couple of months ago, your lung collapsed, and now you're smoking?"
Alex shrugged. After all, he didn't have anything to say, so he just kept silent.
"Answer me!" Wolf yelled at him.
"What do you want me to say?" Alex asked, tiredly.
"I want you to tell me the truth." Wolf said, roughly. "What the fuck were you thinking?"
"I was stressed." Alex said, looking fixedly at the table.
"And you think that gives you an excuse to smoke?!" Wolf yelled in his face, leaning over Alex, hands flat on the table. Alex shrugged again, clearing his throat, awkwardly, wanting to cough, but unwilling to do so in his irate guardian's face. "Don't damn well shrug at me! You could have seriously damaged yourself!" he pushed himself upright, glaring down at the boy. "Well?"
"I don't have anything to say." Alex said, softly.
"Why the fuck not?!" he said, angrily. "You damn well should have something to say!"
"What, you want me to apologise?" Alex asked, harshly, swallowing his cough again. "You want me to tell you how sorry I am?"
Wolf glared at him. "What are MI6 gonna say about this, huh?" he said, lashing out. "Did you even think about what they can do to you for breach of contract?!"
Alex stared at him for a minute, then laughed, harshly. "Contract?!" he said, roughly, standing up and glaring right back at his guardian, still trying desperately not to cough, though he could tell it was a lost cause. "What contract?!" he coughed for a couple of seconds, tasting blood, but ignoring it. He just wished this headache would go away – and his chest was starting to really hurt… Resolutely, he straightened again, and continued, "You think I got a contract? I was lucky to get medical attention! I'm government property, Wolf, they don't need to give me a contract, they already fucking own me!"
Wolf frowned, the wind suddenly taken out of his sails. "You haven't got a contract?"
"Nope!" he said, with a bitter smile. "No contract, no paycheque, no benefits. I suppose I should be grateful they decided to patch me up at all!" he shook his head, with a bitter huff of laughter. "If they hadn't had 'further use' for me, they probably wouldn't have bothered, so you can stuff your 'breach of contract'. Was there anything else?"
Wolf stared at him for a couple of seconds, then shook himself and said, finally, rather quietly, "Do you want a drink?" He was frowning, thoughtfully, apparently wanting to think over what Alex had said, rather than continue their argument – for the moment, anyway.
Alex stared at him. "Er – yeah, sure."
He sat back down again, while Wolf put the kettle on for coffee. While it boiled, Wolf leant against the counter, crossing his arms, and saying, slowly,
"Look, Cub, I'm sorry about that. I didn't know you didn't have a contract…" he bit his lip. "We'll talk about that, later, OK?"
Alex sighed. "Yeah, sure."
"This smoking thing…" Wolf shook his head. "I – God, I just thought you were cleverer than that."
Alex shrugged. "That was the second time I'd ever done it." He coughed again, grimacing as it caught painfully in his sore chest and throat. His throat felt uncomfortably wet, so he cleared it, rather awkwardly.
"And – why did you get that girl involved?" Wolf asked, with a curious frown.
"I didn't." Alex told him. "I – she…" he flushed, not wanting to tell tales. Thankfully, Wolf caught on, his face darkening.
"She lied." Alex nodded, awkwardly. "Right. OK, then. I'm sorry I misjudged you…" Alex coughed again, the coughs tearing through him, painfully; he tuned Wolf out, unable to concentrate on what the man was saying. His chest hurt, his head hurt, and he was so tired… There was something wet in his palm, and a roaring in his ears. He felt suddenly light headed. "…not great, but – Cub? Cub, are you OK?" Alex stared at his hand, coughs subsiding somewhat. "Alex, what's wrong?"
Alex looked up at him, eyes wide and a little scared. "That never happened before."
Wolf frowned, taking an uncertain step towards him. "What? Alex?"
Alex looked back at his palm, where there was a bright red swathe of blood. Wolf grabbed his wrist, looking at his hand.
"Oh my god." He whispered.
Hah! There you go. GOD, but that was fun to write.
Lol, ami xxx
