Chapter 17: Escape – Take Two
Peach returned to her concealed laboratory after finishing her lecture.
"Jane. Where's Alex?" she asked grimly, unlike her usual cheery self.
Munchie pointed at the cell Alex was currently locked in.
Peach nodded in response, and stalked past Munchie, not taking any notice of Munchie's broken nose, indeed, it was very debatable whether she saw it or not. Peach took out her swipe card, and opened the cell, to find Alex sitting on the ground with metal chains hanging off his ankles and wrists, binding him, and not rope.
"What happened here Jane?" Peach demanded. "I thought my instructions were clear."
"I came into the lab, and found him…out and about," Munchie spat. "The ropes were sawn through."
"How?"
"His ID card," Munchie said producing it from her pocket and gave it to Peach to inspect. "'Careful of the edges."
Peach turned the ID card in her hands, then turned to Alex, who was watching them with amusement.
"You had better tell me everything I want to know Alex."
"Same story Professor. I was waiting for you to give you page three answers. Got bored, and pulled out a random book to read. Number code keys came up and I guess the code. I got into this place and it was smoking thickly. Then the smoke suddenly cleared. And you know the rest," Alex reported the same way he would to the MI6.
Peach nodded.
"And the escape?" she prodded.
"I leant against the door, and it kinda opened, so I hopped out, and found a knife, and cut through the ropes with them."
"You can still hear us with out the hearing aid," Munchie observed triumphantly.
Peach narrowed her eyes as she stared at Alex's ears, looking for the gadget.
"Care to explain yourself Alex?" she asked, patience running thin.
"How about…I can lip read?" Alex returned.
"Why do I find it so hard to believe?" Munchie mouthed.
"Because you don't trust me?" Alex shot back. He had practised the art of lip-reading with Don for the past week.
Munchie was taken aback.
"That just goes to show that Alex does indeed need his hearing aid. Where is it by the way Jane?" Peach said.
"It goes to prove nothing, but his cunning," Munchie replied, ignoring the last question.
"Enough Jane," Peach chastised.
Munchie just muttered to herself in response.
Peach shook her head fondly, then looked at Alex.
"How did you manage to cut your sock?" she asked.
"By not being careful enough when cutting myself free of the ropes," Alex replied, thinking fast.
Peach nodded. "Unfortunately, I shall have to look at the footage before judgement. I have underestimated you. I will not do so again."
The footage. The monitor room. How could he have forgotten?
Alex nodded. "I understand Professor Peach."
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How do I get out of this one? He asked himself as both Peach and Munchie left him alone.
Alex was sitting on the floor of the cell, taking comfort in knowing that Don would hear everything that was going on outside his small confines. Assuming, of course, that Munchie still had his watch activated in her pocket. Alex knew that he would be busted. His cover would be blown.
Alex was absorbed in his thoughts when his cell door suddenly swung open.
"You lied to us Alex. You lied to me! How could you?" Peach hissed dangerously.
"Because I was capable of doing it," Alex replied calmly, earning him a cold glare from Munchie.
Peach however; had not heard him, and yelled, "You cut through your bonds with your ID card, which is – by the way – diamond laced. But how you got out of the blasted cell is still a mystery. I am inclined to believe you Alex, despite the fact that you have lied to me. Jane here, lacks judgement when it comes to you." Peach had calmed down by the end of her outburst.
"You'll pay for what you did to my nose," Munchie promised.
"Alex, if that really is your name, you had better tell us everything. No more lies. Jane will be more than happy to hurt you. Don't make me let her loose on you."
Alex sighed and nodded. What choice did he have?
"Good," Peach said. "What's your name?"
"Alex Rider," he answered.
"Using your real name," Peach continued. "Who sent you?"
"People," Alex replied.
"Which people?" Peach asked.
"They can't do magic!" Alex exclaimed, deliberately misinterpreting the question.
"Who are the people?" Peach growled.
"Oh, that's what you mean, the MI6, CIA and FBI. They're all in on it."
"Never knew we were this famous," Peach was delighted.
"Never knew you were this sick," Alex muttered, making sure Peach could just make out what he had said.
Peach sobered up immediately.
"What have you found out?" Peach continued with the interrogation.
"Psychopaths are everywhere," Alex replied.
"Jane!"
Munchie punched Alex in the stomach. Alex tried to dodge it, but his movements were restricted by the shackles.
"Don't make me do that again Alex," Peach said. "What have you found out?"
"You do wacky experiments on the teen students that you associate yourself with, which usually results in their, our, deaths."
"How did you find our about this place?"
"Overheard you talking about it."
"You understand German?"
Alex nodded.
"Told you so. You should've been more careful Peter."
"I know, but there's no use crying over spilt milk is there Jane?"
Munchie gave no response.
"Well Alex, it was nice knowing you. Pity you have decided to pit yourself against me. But, considering how much I liked you, I'll tell you everything,"
"He deserves that Peter?" Munchie questioned.
"He deserved to know."
"If you say so Peter."
Peach's eyes glazed over, she was no longer aware that they were still standing in the cell.
Here we go again! Alex thought. Story time!
"I was an only child with a drunkard German as a father," Peach said after a while. "My mother, a legal American citizen, was the one who found work in order to support us. She had to hide as much money as possible from my father, for he would just go out and buy more drink with that what money he had. He was nice enough when he was sober, but, more often than not, beat the both of us up whilst drunk.
"My mother paid for my schooling, and I got good results - especially in Chem. But that drunken bastard didn't care, so long as he had his alcohol. There were times when I continually asked my mum to leave him. Do you know what she said?
"No? I'll tell you! My poor mother kept saying 'I love him, no matter how many flaws.' She deserved a better life, but she didn't leave him. I couldn't understand. I can't understand, even now!
"Life went on like that until I got into college with a scholarship, where I meet a kindly old professor who took me under his wing. Dear Professor Medley, he saw my potential…"
"But not your insanity it seems," Alex muttered.
Peach ignored him and continued.
"…he also saw that I could help bring out Jane's true potential."
"And not to mention. Madness."
Peach glared at him, but didn't comment.
"Professor Medley assigned me Jane's student tutor, and over time, we became the best of friends. Life was as good as it got.
"Then, one night, I arrived home in great spirits, I had just passed my first year with the top marks, only to find my mother's broken and beraggled corpse. She had died. My blasted father had killed her, beaten her up and broken her neck in a drunken rage.
"I was distort. I didn't think I could ever feel again. But I still returned to college the next day, as my mother would have wanted me to, and confided in Jane; my increased loathing of my father and the death of my poor kind mother. It was then that Jane gave the suggestion to do some chemical experiments on him.
"It was perfect. So, that day, after Professor Medley had finished and asked me and Jane to pack up. We slipped some of the demo product into a vial, and I spiked my father's alcohol with it that night.
"He died instantaneously. The chemicals had triggered a violent heart attack, and I was liberated!" Peach finished triumphantly.
"That doesn't explain why you experiment on us teens," Alex prompted.
"Don't you see Alex? Looking around. So many teenagers, so many of them, that haven't had to suffer what I did, that didn't have to go through the pains in life. It wasn't fair. I wanted to teach them about suffering. But you Alex, you are different. I could tell from the moment I laid my eyes on you, from your eyes, that you have been through a lot. You have suffered, even more than I had to. We're kindred spirits, you and I."
"You're nuts!" Alex yelled. "You belong in an asylum!"
Munchie kicked at Alex's legs without any warning.
Alex managed to jump over the kick.
"I like you Alex, but I don't like being lied to. I have a lecture now, and once I return, I shall try out this chemical mixture on you," Peach said, holding up a vial of red liquid. It is designed to cause profuse bleeding, until you die.
"Jane, leave the watch and ID on this bench, and be sure to lock his cell properly this time."
Munchie nodded.
"Oh, and one other thing Jane. Don't play with his instruments."
Munchie nodded again.
With that, both mad scientists left his cell, with Munchie turning around briefly, to electronically lock his cell, still oblivious to the cut bolts.
Amongst their departing footsteps, Alex managed to hear Peach's order.
"Hide his laptop."
By then, Alex had already decided to leave his laptop behind, knowing for sure that Peach would get Munchie to go through it sometime.
He gave them about ten minutes' head start, before getting up off the ground with difficulty and leaning casually against the 'locked' door, and out into the open. Alex sneaked to the experiment benches and picked up all his gadgets that Peach and Munchie had taken away from him, save his laptop of course. He pocketed everything after sawing off the lengths of chain connecting his cuffs and clasped on his till active watch.
"Don, I'll need to call you up. Hang on," Alex spoke into the transmitter.
Alex deactivated his watch and called Don on his phone.
"Are you alright there kid?" Don asked, concerned. "I heard your exchange with Peach."
"As good as can be expected."
So how are you going to get out?"
"I'll just change the variable at need."
"Right…" Don said slowly, confused.
"I have to get out."
"You have to show us the way in. Sorry kiddo, but we really need you to, even though we have the video evidence, and the mirror is broken, we still need to get in and arrest the two."
Alex heard the exit sliding open.
"I'll get back to you," he whispered hurriedly, before disconnecting.
Munchie entered the lab.
"Why can you never stay in your cell?" she growled.
"Because I don't have to," Alex answered.
"I'll be glad to throw this at you," Munchie continued, picking up the vial of undiluted hydrochloric acid again.
"And I won't hesitate to cover you in this," Alex responded, lifting up his body spray."
Munchie cackled maniacally.
"What? With a runout bottle of body spray?" she sneered. "What can it do?"
"This…" Alex replied good humouredly, and pressed the nozzle down.
Smoke filled the room a second time, obscuring Alex from vies, and he took that opportunity to escape through the exit…
Only to see Peach enter her office.
Alex frantically looked around for a place to hide, but Peach had already spotted him.
"Alex!" she exclaimed.
He was already close to the door, while Peach had been nearer to her desk when she saw him. So Alex did the first thing that came to mind. He sprayed the body spray for the third time that day, and escaped through the door.