Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.

Chapter 34: Authorization


Alex looked like he had seen a ghost.

What was he even doing outside…?

"—you okay?"

"'m… fine…"

He didn't look fine. His face was pale, sweaty. He was breathing like he had just run a marathon.

But Nico knew he had just been upstairs.

Hadn't he…?

"What's going—Alex?"

Alex stumbled, learning forward like he was just going to collapse.

"Just can't… can't… find my breath…" He seemed to pull in on himself. "Not… not safe."

Nico shared a glance with Cameron. What was going on?

And then it was like the speed in the room had been put back up to speed. Alex took a stumbling step and then just… crumpled in on himself. "Alex!" Nico darted forward, catching him before he could hit the floor.

And that was it. Alex gasping for breath on the floor, completely unresponsive to Jacobs' calls. Nico felt in a daze. Then Jacobs started yelling at Cameron to get medical help, because Alex was likely to die on them otherwise.


Nico still wasn't sure this wasn't some sort of horrible dream. A nightmare.

How could they have messed up so badly?

Everything had spiraled out of control in only a matter of minutes. And from there, everything had just changed.

Because by the time the ambulance had arrived, Alex had stopped breathing.

Mickey had all but dragged him back into the house, muttering that Cameron and Jacobs were more than enough to keep Alex safe on the trip to the hospital. That Nico couldn't be any more help. That he would just get in the way as they tried to save Alex's life.

And in the three hours since they had arrived at the hospital, Nico hadn't gotten a single update. Just Mickey dragging him into a private waiting room in some swanky hospital in uptown London. The two times Nico had tried to get up to pace, Mickey had just pulled him back down into the chair.

Nico glanced at the clock, oh so helpfully provided, and watched the second hand tick by.

Countless things could have happened in the past three hours.

There were people trying to kill Alex, after all.

Who knew what was happening at an unsecured hospital?

Alex had been upstairs studying. What had happened? How had he gotten downstairs without passing Nico? And why had he said it was not safe?

His knee bounced, jittery with nerves.

No news was good news, right?

It meant that Alex wasn't… dead, yet. But he wasn't okay either.

Mickey's phone buzzed for umpteenth time and Nico glared at it. He knew the others knew more right now, but Mickey certainly wasn't sharing, and Jacobs and Cameron hadn't reappeared.

Mickey let out a sigh and his posture relaxed. He looked up at Nico with a faint smile. "They've got him stabilized."

Stabilized. Not, he's okay. Just stabilized.

"Jacobs is coming down and he'll take you up. I'll keep an eye on things down here."

Nico exhaled. Right. They couldn't leave Alex unprotected. Not now.

"Hey," Mickey nudged his knee. "I get it. This is different. We'll figure out what happened, and… You're not the only one that cares about the kid."

And that was the problem wasn't it? He cared so much that he had turned useless.

He was compromised.

If Central Command ever found out, he – and likely the others – would be take off quicker than they could say leave. And that would be it. That would be the end. After whatever death-defying stunt Alex had just pulled, it wouldn't matter, and Central Command and MI6 be as quick to pull his one support out from underneath.

Whoever was after him wouldn't be able to ask for a better situation.

Vulnerable.

Alone.

A set-up.

And there wouldn't be anything any of them would be able to do.


"As far as they can tell, it was an attempt at poisoning." Jacobs had taken the empty chair across from Nico and Mickey. His shoulders were slumped and he looked exhausted. "Now, mind you, I'm only a medic, but… someone wants him dead. It took quite a few tries to get anything pinned down and for the first hour they were just trying to treat the symptoms. His heart stopped twice. Once, just as we arrived, and again about an hour ago."

Nico blanched.

"The good news is they know what he got hit with and have stabilized him enough to start treatment."

"So, he's not out of the woods?" Mickey asked, with a glance at Nico.

"No," Jacobs sighed, "but the doctor told me that now they know what was causing the initial symptoms, they're confident he'll improve in the next couple of hours."

Nico swallowed. They were still just looking at improvement. Far too much could happen in a couple of hours. "What… what happened?"

"We… don't really know. Cameron figures that Alex left the house at some point, earlier in the afternoon. While he was up studying. Wherever he went…" Jacobs pinched the bridge of his nose, "Someone got close enough to dose him with a deadly amount of phenobarbital. It would've been lethal if he'd not made it back. He obviously realized it, since he didn't try to sneak back in, but…"

That stupid kid.

Although Nico would very much like to shake him and try to make him see sense, he would be equally happy to just see him.

"So, someone's actively trying to kill him, but for all we know, he went out to meet them." Mickey crumpled up the paper cup in his hand, and threw it across the room into the bin. "Brilliant. And what has MI6 had to say about all this?"

Jacobs shrugged. "Handler said they would send an agent. Haven't seen anyone yet, but honestly… I wouldn't be surprised if this was an inside job." He stood up and nodded toward the door. "I'll take you up Nico, but it's not pretty." He cast a glance at Mickey. "Keep an eye out. Let us know if you see anything suspicious."

Nico followed Jacobs up through the hospital, thankful that Jacobs seemed to know that he didn't want to talk. They passed through doors that had 'Authorized Personnel Only' written on them. How… Nico wasn't going to ask. But they were certainly passing through to the section of the hospital less travelled by the casual visitor. Jacobs must've had a pass or something, because no one stopped them on their way, though they received a number of skeptical looks.

Jacobs paused outside a pair of doors that proclaimed 'OR SUITE 4'. "Listen, he looks… rough." Jacobs cautioned. "They have him intubated and are filtering his blood for the toxins. He's not awake and we pray to god he stays that way for a while, but they can't risk sedating him."

Nico clenched his jaw. "I've seen this kid get tortured." And if that didn't mean he couldn't just swallow down anything that happened… well… That was a problem for whenever he managed to get back to a psychologist.

Whenever that was, whoever that was, they were going to have a mountain of things to unpack.

Jacobs gave him one last long glance, before slowly opening the door.

With a lead up like that, Nico was half expecting to see a theater filled with blood or something. Instead, it looked pristine, not even that many people present. He barely registered Cameron, standing off to the side, his eyes only for the boy laying in the middle of the remaining commotion. There were machines and monitors, tubes and wires, but underneath it, Alex just looked pale and exhausted. Some of the tubes had red flowing out of them, and Nico tried not to think about what that might mean.

"He's doing a lot better, even from when Jacobs went down," Cameron said from the side. "They say he's already responding to treatment, but it'll be a couple of hours before he'll be out of the danger zone."

Nico gave a jerky nod.

"Don't worry," Cameron patted Nico's shoulder. "I'm sure he'll wake up soon enough so you can give him a good scolding for being a dumb idiot."

Nico suppressed a snort.

But seeing him… although it was clear Alex wasn't okay, there was enough evidence that he was at least better than when they had carted him away from the safehouse.

Of course, now they would have to deal with the aftermath of it all. Would MI6 allow them to continue their posting? Was this all an elaborate setup that allowed someone to get critical access to Alex and he would still die on them? Or was everything just a coincidence and would work out fine in the end?

Coincidences didn't exist…

Nico saw Cameron straighten up imperceptibly out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see what had caught Cameron's attention, and noticed for the first time the casually dressed man hanging at the back of the room. "Who's that?" He muttered under his breath.

"Suit." Cameron said, before waving the man over.

The suit gave Nico a skeptical glance. "Is this the guardian?"

"Ye-yeah…"

The suit cast a glance at Alex. "I realize this isn't easy, but legally speaking, paperwork needs to be filled out." He held up a cautious hand. "For the hospital, mainly. We're keeping this out of the usual channels."

At least they seemed to realize that their organization posed some sort of threat to Alex… But they were MI6. They could do just about anything under the eyes of the crown and be at no fault. "And you need me for…?"

The suit gave him a cautious smile. "You're his guardian, are you not?"

Nico snorted. Only because MI6 had decided that that was the optimum choice at the time. He had no doubt that they couldn't take it away just as quickly. And probably would if they had realized how… attached he had become.

"If you're worried, your friends can keep an eye on him. There's just a little paperwork to be done and then I'll be out of your hair." He tried to give him a reassuring look, but it fell flat.

Nico shared a long glance with Cameron. He didn't exactly want them to split up, but then it would be pretty obvious if the suit tried to off him…

"Go on, then," Cameron said, "We'll be here when you're finished."

The suit led the way out of the room and into a side room that was probably a staging area for the nursing staff. The suit waved Nico into a chair, across the table from him. He slid a bag off his shoulder and pulled out a stack of papers, and the one on top had the logo of the hospital.

They spent a long moment mutually gauging the other, before the suit finally spoke.

"Listen, I hope you all are as smart as the reports make it seem, because that…?" He nodded toward the OR. "That does not look smart. Alex was seriously injured under your watch and many of the higher ups feel that that's course for removal from his case. He has a track record, you understand."

Nico opened his mouth to protest, but the suit motioned for him to wait.

"Of course, I managed to do a little bit of digging before my superiors sent me here. Your safehouse was compromised, I hope you realize." He pulled out a familiar music player and placed it on the table. "You may or may not recognize this. However, for the past three months Alex has been using it as a form of contact with an individual he believes was connected to our organization. That individual impersonated someone Alex trusted, asked for a meeting to disclose classified information, and subsequently poisoned him."

Nico blanched. Alex had gone out to get information. He was probably just as frustrated as the rest of them were by the lack of communication and the lack of knowledge as to why they were called back to London in the first place. "So, they tried to kill him."

The suit shrugged. "That's unclear. It doesn't match the MO, but then, I'm sure you're realizing that none of us have the entire story. Only Alex does. And your reports have commented on how… unreliable his memory has been the past couple of months." He sorted through the papers, pulling out a nearly blank one and pushed it across the table toward Nico. "Of course, my superiors are unsure what to do about the memory issues and the current threats to his life."

The suit tapped the paper somewhat forcefully, and Nico glanced down to read it.

'MI6 NOT SECURE. CONTINUE WITHOUT ORDERS.'

Nico's eyes widened at those six words, and looked up at the suit, alarmed.

The suit gave a sharp nod, before pulling a coffee cup out of his bag as well. He crumpled the paper up and shoved it into the liquid. It started disintegrating immediately. "Arrangements are being made for Alex to continue treatment here. Myself and my immediate superior are the only ones aware of Alex's location. You, of course, do need to sign off on some things, however the hospital does tend to take some liberties where minors are concerned." He pushed the rest of the papers across the table, along with a pen. "I'll give you a moment to read through things, but rest assured that you only really need to include your signature for legal purposes."

Nico glanced at the papers, but the suit was completely serious.

He was not made out for covert operations…

The first few pages were standard consent to treat and privacy forms. Five pages in however, was another nearly blank sheet.

'CC PROVIDES UNILATERAL AUTHORIZATION FOR AWOL ACTIONS.' There was some General's signature next to it, probably a high ranking one, too.

'SHARE WITH UNIT LEADER ONLY; DISCARD IMMEDIATELY.'

Nico glanced up at the suit again, this time nodding between the paper and the cup. The suit nodded, hopefully confirming that the paper would work the same way. Nico was a little worried it would disintegrate in his hands, so he carefully folded it and put it into his pocket.

Cameron was going to lose his mind.

They were going AWOL.

Off the grid.

No support.

At least, those actions had been cleared for them. And really, it was the only way to protect Alex.

Nico signed the last of the papers and pushed them back to the suit.

The suit gave him a hesitant smile, before placing the papers back in his bag. "I'll be back to check on things in… about four days. Alex should be awake and finished with treatment by then. If anything comes up before then, I'll let you know."

Which, if Nico was reading things right, meant they had a couple of days, three at most, to get out.

"Right then, Lieutenant Kendrick, your unit is officially removed from protection duty effective in 7 days. Suitable replacements will be determined and set in place before that period is up." The suit stood up, clearly finished with his business, though Nico wondered just who the show was for. The music player was still on the table and the suit nodded toward it. Nico grabbed it, though he wondered what use it would be if it had been tampered with by an enemy.

Of course, there was no telling what exactly was going to happen.

There was no way to verify that everything the suit had said was even valid. Not without potentially blowing whatever was left of their cover.

The suit led the way out of the room, before gesturing back to the OR door. "I'll make my way from here." He started to walk away, before turning around and giving Nico a peculiar glance. "Oh, and when Alex wakes up, tell him that I said he should be more careful in the future."

Nico snorted. "And just who should I tell him said this?" Because he certainly wasn't going to just say a suit told him that.

The suit just gave him a brilliant smile. "Just tell him Ben says 'hi.' He'll know who it is." And the man turned and walked away without another glance.

Ben.

Nico shook his head and went back to the OR. He had bigger issues to deal with than mysterious suits. Like convincing Cameron that they had to make a plan, and quick.


A/N: Quick disclaimer, I am not a doctor and do not pretend this is in any way medically accurate, or even feasible. Just enjoy it for what it is. It's been a hot minute, but I finally have internet back in my apartment, and thus, an update. Sorry for leaving you on a cliff hanger. But it's only going to get worse from here...