A/N Sorry this chapter took so long. Ran into a few health issues both pre and post surgery, including two falls after surgery. I also discovered that my writing turns to crap when under the influence of certain pain meds, and I deleted one and a half chapters to start over because they sucked so bad.
Chapter Six
Alex woke cautiously, controlling his breathing and not moving a muscle, not even an eye twitch, using his other senses to try and assess his environment. The first thing he became aware of was that he was in an upright, sitting position. The feel of cold metal surrounding his wrists told him he was handcuffed, most likely to the arm rests of a chair.
Sound and smell made themselves known at virtually the same moment, as he heard the plink, plink, plink of some thick liquid dripping and the smell of fish oil almost made him gag. Speaking of gags, he realized something was tied around his mouth that tasted of herring and sweat.
"You might fool anyone else, but not me, Alex. I know you are awake." The heavily accented voice came from behind and to his left.
Alex swore, but with the gag in his mouth, it came out sounding like "uggk." He turned his head to see the assassin, and Gregorovich moved around in front of him, pulling the gag down. Alex had to work his jaw a little to relieve the stiffness he hadn't noticed until just then.
"Little Alex, why must you always interfere? Why do you allow MI6 to continue to use you like this?"
Alex glared up at him. "I'm not little, and I'm not working for MI6! I have no idea what you are doing here. I was just on holiday with friends!"
Gregorovich crossed his arms over his chest. "Really? You expect me to believe you just happen to be vacationing in Sweden?"
"Why not? I'm sure you have a way to verify that I'm not working a mission for MI6. My friends are American, here visiting international Universities. They had a few days of free time, and invited me to join them here in Sweden."
"And what are their names?"
"Kris Hadersly and Brian Aberforth," Alex replied without hesitation, giving the aliases that Kurt and Blaine had registered at the hotel under.
"How old are they?"
"Seventeen and sixteen, respectively, although Kris will be eighteen in three weeks." Kurt wouldn't be eighteen for several more months, but his alter ego was older than him. "Are you trying to imply that I'm not the only underage agent MI6 has ever taken advantage of?"
The look Gregorovich gave him indicated he believed MI6 was capable of anything. "Where in the States are they from?"
"Ohio, although Brian was actually born in the Philippines while his parents were there for vacation. He has dual citizenship." Blaine's mother was half Filipino, but he had been born in the US. He did have dual citizenship, though.
"How did you meet them?"
"Kris is a friend of Jack's cousin. I met him when Jack and I visited the US with Uncle Ian when I was twelve. This is the first time I've actually met Brian face to face, but Kris introduced us online. They've been friends for a few years now."
The assassin remained silent for several moments, studying him. "You know I will have to verify everything," he finally said.
Alex shrugged. "Of course."
He watched the older man walk away. He knew that even if Gregorovich believed his story, there was no way the assassin would let him go. Despite his reluctance to kill Alex on multiple occasions, Alex had no illusions that Gregorovich wouldn't do anything in his power to stop Alex from interfering with whatever job he was here to do.
Once he was alone, Alex was better able to assess his situation. He appeared to be in some kind of abandoned processing plant. Judging by the smell, he would guess one that used to process fish to make fish oil.
His wrists were handcuffed to the arm of the chair he was sitting in. Gregorovich had been smart in not handcuffing his hands to each other, even behind his back, as he knew Alex could easily pick the locks. By handcuffing them to the chair arms, he couldn't bring his hands close enough to pick the lock.
Alex studied the chair. It was made from strong metal. No chance of breaking the arms off. Alex wasn't worried, though. He carefully slipped his shoes off, and bracing his hands on the arms, he pushed up, like a pommel horse, and used his flexible body to slowly flip himself into a handstand, and then lowered himself behind the chair, sliding the handcuffs as far back as they would go. He carefully lowered himself to the floor, putting his feet on the back of the chair for leverage, he contorted each hand, making them as narrow as possible, and began pulling against the handcuffs. It was slow, and painful, as he was certain he dislocated several joints, but eventually he managed to free his right hand, and then the left.
He quickly put the shoes back on and began searching for an alternate exit than the one he had seen the man take a few minutes ago. He didn't want to break a window if he could avoid it. He didn't know where Gregorovich was, and he didn't want the noise to alert the man to his escape.
He found a set of stairs leading down, and as quietly as he could, descended to the floor below. Here he found what appeared to be an abandoned lab facility. Most of the equipment and supplies were missing, but there were scattered petri dishes and other glassware strewn about. He noticed a few of them seemed to have some residue in them.
Thinking they might be relevant to the mission, he gathered several of them, wrapping them in newspaper he found on the floor as well, and tucking them away in his waistband, he located a window with most of the pane missing, and carefully climbed out into what appeared to be an alleyway. He took off running as fast as he could, searching his pocket for his phone, but of course Gregorovich had taken it, along with his wallet and passport.
Alex knew he couldn't go back to the hotel, that would be the first place Gregorovich would search. He needed to warn Kurt and Blaine to get out, but without his phone, he didn't know how to contact them. Of course his main objective was figuring out just where the hell he was.
…
Kyra Vashenko-Chao had always felt more comfortable around computers than other humans. Computers didn't care who you are or who your family was. Computers didn't bully you or care what clothes you wore, or if you were a little different. Computers simply did what they were programmed to do without judgment.
She could count on one hand the number of true friends she had, and still have several fingers left over. Which was why she was fiercely protective of the one friend she had. The second time she had met Alex Rider, she had hacked into his phone and planted a tracer program. This particular tracer was programmed to alert her if anyone but Alex tried to access his phone, and to track his location.
When the alarm was triggered on his phone well after midnight Swedish time, she had immediately tracked the phone to a location more than two hundred miles west of where Alex had told her he would be staying for a while. She had sent a message to the other hacker she had traced back to the US, letting him know that Alex might be in danger. She hadn't heard back yet, but Alex's phone hadn't moved at all since the alarm had been tripped.
Biting her lip, she triggered the phone's camera, but kept the screen off, not wanting to risk anyone noticing. She only needed the audio for the moment, anyway.
She stifled a gasp of shock when she recognized the voice speaking in angry Russian on the other end of the line.
"I don't know how he escaped! Don't you think if I knew that I would have recaptured him by now? Just have someone check on his two companions at the hotel. No! Don't worry about him. I'll get him back. He won't get far without his passport or money. Just remain focused on your job. Now that the virus is ready, it's time to begin phase one."
Kyra didn't bother contacting the other hacker, and instead placed a phone call to the number she had tracked for that email Alex had had her send.
…
Kurt and Blaine had left the hotel as soon as they'd gotten Elle's call Sunday morning, stopping only long enough to check Alex's room. To the untrained eye, it looked perfectly normal, but to Kurt, whose life depended on being observant, it was apparent it had been searched. Just little inconsistencies from the way it had appeared when he and Blaine had stopped in the night before.
They didn't bother checking into a new hotel, there weren't many other options in Bjarstad anyway. Instead they'd set up at an abandoned dairy farm closer to Hillerska. They were joined there by Nick, Charlie, American Nick, Jeff, Isaac and Tao. They also had a team searching for Alex in the area where his phone was last located, and along the roads leading from there to Bjarstad. It was now Monday morning, and there had been no sign of him yet.
Kurt paced the kitchen, frowning and wishing he had a grande nonfat mocha and a slice of cheesecake. "Have we heard anything from our eyes on the Crown Prince?"
"Yes," Tao replied. "The Crown Prince is safe for the moment. Isaac is taking up position as we speak to monitor the younger prince."
Kurt nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by his phone. "It's one of the search teams," he said as he answered it.
"This is search team Bravo, we've located Rider and are bringing him in."
"Great! Put him on the phone." There was a brief rustling sound as the phone was passed over.
"Hello?"
"Alex! Are you okay? What happened? Kyra called and said you weren't where you were supposed to be."
The other boy let out a disgruntled sound. "Gregorovich was waiting for me in my hotel room the other night. He used ether to knock me out, and drove me someplace a couple hours west. I got away, and brought back goodies for your lab nerd."
Charlie sat up straighter. "What do you mean?"
"The place he held me was in an abandoned fish oil plant, but as I was leaving I found what appeared to be some abandoned lab equipment, mostly glassware. I grabbed some petri dishes that have some kind of residue in them. I thought they might be related to the virus."
"How far away are you now?" Kurt asked.
"Your guy says we should be at your new base of operations in just over ninety minutes."
"Tell him I said to get you here in an hour if possible. Kyra also told us she managed to listen in on Gregorvich's side of a phone call using your phone. They've completed the virus."
…
Charlie frowned as he studied the sample under the microscope. He'd seen this before. "That son of a bitch stole my work!"
"What?" Nick said, having just entered the lab in time to hear Charlie's outburst. His voice startled the dark haired boy.
"Nick! What are you doing here?"
"I brought you your lunch. What do you mean, someone stole your work?"
Charlie glared at his microscope. "Not someone, I know exactly who did it. They took my research on speeding up and slowing down mitosis to create tissue faster for transplants."
Nick frowned. "What does that have to do with creating a virus?"
"Nothing. I don't think this is part of the virus at all."
"I'm confused, then," Nick said, setting the tray of food on the bench by the door and turning to face Charlie with his arms crossed over his chest. "If they didn't create a virus, what did they create?"
Charlie turned to look at him more fully now. "I don't know. Originally my research was to find a way to speed up mitosis so that doctors could grow skin and tissue grafts in a matter of hours instead of days, and then slowing it back down when it reached the size needed."
They were both quiet for a moment, lost in their own thoughts. Nick shrugged it off first. "Why don't you sit down and eat while we try and figure out what they are planning?"
Charlie glanced at the tray. From across the room he could see a sandwich, some apple slices, baby carrots, and two cups, one of which presumably held tea, the other some kind of soup. "I really should analyze the other samples."
"Come on, Charlie, you can't work on an empty stomach. You can analyze the rest after you eat."
Charlie sighed, and carefully began removing his protective gear.
"You said you already know who stole your research," Nick said as he watched the younger boy wash his hands thoroughly. "Was it Ben?"
"It had to have been. I told you I saw him try and steal it once before, but at that point I hadn't perfected the technique. What I saw in that petri dish was the results of my most recent attempts, which means he must have stolen it in the past two weeks."
"Is there any chance someone else could have stolen it?" Nick asked as Charlie sat down and took a sip of his tea.
Charlie glanced up at him, and shrugged. "It's possible, but unlikely. Ben was one of only two people who knew what I was researching, and the other person, Professor Daniels, is in his late eighties and somewhat absentminded. He should have retired ten years ago." He took a bite of the corn chowder before he continued speaking. "I suppose the professor could have mentioned it to someone else and not remembered doing so, but I would wager on Ben being the culprit."
"You do realize that means Ben is working for the terrorists, right?"
That gave Charlie a pause. He hadn't even made the connection. Now that he realized it, though, it triggered a memory. "Ben was working on a project about vaccines, but I really didn't pay much attention to it, too busy working on my own project."
Nick stood up straighter. "Vaccines go hand in hand with viruses. Damn it! I need to tell Elle."
"Wait!" Charlie said. "Those samples I analyzed from your raid the other day. Remember I said that some of the cells were mid mitosis when they died, but that they were corrupted? That the DNA had altered?"
"Yes?"
"What if that was the purpose of the virus?" Charlie frowned. "No, that can't be right. The immune system would fight the changes, the rejected DNA being treated as a foreign body, like a rejected transplant organ. Unless…"
Nick frowned as Charlie's voice trailed off. "What? What are you thinking, Charlie?"
"Thirty seven hundred containers of Nucleic acid. Unwritten DNA. Increased mitosis rate. What if Alex is right? What if they are making clones, using my research to speed up the process so it takes days rather than years for the clones to reach the right age?"
"But Siren's report called it a virus. You said those first samples were a virus."
"Yes, but remember the information Kyra provided from the conversation she overheard. Gregorovich said that the virus was ready, and it was time to begin phase one. What if phase one is to create clones of certain people, and then unleash the virus? What if that first sample wasn't the active virus, but a sample from a clone that was still developing? That would explain why the cells were mutating."
He stood up, ignoring the food. "I need to do more tests on that first sample."
"Charlie, eat your lunch first," Nick said. "If you are right, you are going to need the nourishment."
…
Simon took a seat next to Wille in the library Thursday afternoon for workies, noticing the other boy was laughing at something on his phone.
"What's so funny?"
Wille glanced up at him, still laughing. "My cousin sent me a funny picture." He turned the phone so Simon could see the screen. It showed Erik making a face of agony, reaching for a glass of water as Jon leaned into the shot laughing. It was captioned; Some people just can't handle ghost pepper jelly on their morning toast. "Erik should have learned by now not to trust anything Jon feeds him. One time when we were younger, Beatz tricked Erik into eating frog spawn by telling him it was passion fruit. Now Erik throws up anytime anyone mentions the words passion fruit."
Simon laughed. "Beatz?"
"Yeah, it's what all his friends call him. He beatboxes. He's even performed competitively with an a cappella group."
"Cool," Simon said, impressed. "And he's your cousin?"
"Well, third cousin, several times removed, but he's always been more like another brother to me, we're so close."
"Closer than August?"
Wille frowned. "August is an arrogant jerk who thinks he is so important because he is related to the royal family. He seems to think that because Erik is friends with him, it gives him some authority over me. Jon is a Crown Prince in his own right, but you'd never realize it if you met him. He is fun, and has a wicked sense of humor, and you never want to make him angry at you unless you like finding horse dung in your shoes. But he's also one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, and fiercely protective of people he cares about."
"Must be nice to have a cousin like that."
"You don't have any cousins?"
Simon shrugged. "None that I'm close to. My mom was an only child, and my dad was never really close with his family, so we really never knew them well."
"I'm sorry," Wille said. "But you're close with your mom and sister, right?"
Simon smiled. "Yeah. I'd do anything for them."
Neither boy was aware of the two boys watching them and listening in on their conversations. Isaac wasn't even facing them, but monitored them through the micro camera hidden in the corner of the book he was 'reading,' while the 'earpods' he was listening to picked up their conversation from up to fifty feet away. His only interest in them being to be certain there was no imminent danger to the prince.
The other boy watching them had other plans however.
Simon and Wille settled in to work on their studies, with the prince offering Simon help on his maths work. After about forty minutes or so, they were interrupted as August dropped into a seat across from Simon, and began prattling in that unctuous way that was more condescending than anything else.
"This is really the best thing about rowing," he began. "It brings people together. It's really wonderful, isn't it?"
Simon glanced at Wille, not knowing what to say, but August didn't really give him a chance to speak anyway.
"You know, class, ethnicity, it doesn't matter. Everyone has the same chances."
Simon felt rage starting to build up in him, and not wanting to risk punching the older boy and getting in trouble, he began to gather his things.
"I'm off to the library."
"Okay, but," Wille stammered. "Maybe we'll see you at practice tonight?"
"I can't make it tonight, I have plans."
"You can't just skip practice if you want to make the rowing team," August said.
"Yeah, well, I can't make it tonight. It's important."
Suddenly Sara, who had been sitting a couple tables over, stood as well. "It's too distracting in here." She hastily gathered her things and joined her brother at the exit.
"Wait!" Felice called out. "You must come to the horror movie night tomorrow! Well, both of you. At the Manor House."
"Okay," Sara said.
After Simon and Sara left, Felice smiled at Wille, who smiled back softly in gratitude.
…
"Can you explain that again, for those of us who don't speak Greek?" Wes asked through the monitor on the wall.
Charlie sighed. "I've been thinking of the theft and Siren's message as two separate instances. When you first informed me of the theft, like you, my mind went to the possibility of a man-made virus and a bioweapon of some kind.
"But then Alex mentioned cloning, and it made sense, with the amount of Nucleic acid stolen. So when Siren mentioned a virus in her message, my mind didn't automatically connect the two. Then you brought me the samples from your raid on her last known location, I was looking for viruses, and I found it. But something didn't seem right to me at the time. So I went back and looked at them again.
"The first time I studied them, I noticed that as the cells divided, they seemed to mutate, but that's not how viruses work. Upon further inspection, I realized my mistake. The cells aren't virus cells, they're human."
"But why would human cells change during mitosis?" Blaine asked.
"Because these are fetal cells," Charlie explained. "When a fertilized egg splits for the first time, it becomes a zygote. For a while, all cells are identical when they split, but at a certain point during development, different types of cells form; skin cells, tissue cells, bone cells, etc. They all have the same DNA, but they perform different functions."
"But the sample was labeled GV version three," Nick reminded him. "GV, Gemini Virus?"
Charlie smiled at Nick as if he had said something genius. "Exactly! I'm pretty sure I've figured out their plan! The clones are the virus! They will be the carriers, while being immune themselves."
There was a moment of silence as the others processed this information.
"But, what about the people who created the clones? Wouldn't they be affected?" Kurt asked.
"If they can make a virus, they can make a vaccine. They would be sure to protect themselves."
"Okay," Elle said, from a different monitor than Wes. "But where does the prince of Sweden fit into all of this?"
"I can't be certain, but I would hypothesize that whichever of the princes is the target will be replaced with a clone, in order to get close to the royal family and infect them."
"Great," Tao interjected. "Now all we have to do is figure out which one is the target."