Out of Place
AN – An early update! The last two chapters were originally going to be one so they're both a little short, but that just means two updates I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thank you to my reviewers for sticking with this.
Disclaimer – I don't own Thunderbirds
Chapter Ten – The Charade
John lay rigidly in the bed, trying very hard not to move. He had finally been coaxed out of the chair by Angel, but only after he extracted promises that she wouldn't attack him this time. He had eventually fallen asleep, but it wasn't deep or restful and right now he wasn't sure it had actually done him any good.
The shabby curtains in the window were doing nothing to block the morning light. He pulled an arm up over his eyes but it was no good, he had to get up. He tried to sit up slowly so as to not wake Angel, only realising afterwards that the other side of the bed was as empty as the rest of the hotel room.
For some reason that irritated him, even more so when he realised there was no note saying where she might have gone. Grumpily, he pulled out the computer and resumed his search from the night before. He hadn't had any luck at all tracking the Black Phantom and any mention he'd found of Agent Seventy-Nine was old. Angel had told him to disregard anything more from more than six months ago, so that was no good at all. He wasn't quite sure how she would know, or in fact how she was connected to International Rescue at all. He had assumed she and Scott had some form of professional relationship with benefits, a bit like Kayo had with the GDF Commander…Rigby, John thought his name was. Angel was obviously in the same line of work as Penny, though why this International Rescue needed both of them was still a mystery,
After about half an hour of fruitless searching John sighed and rubbed his eyes again. Deciding that more caffeine was needed if he was going to carry on staring at the screen, he set an automatic search running and went in search of the coffee machine. To his chagrin there was only a small kettle, hunting around he found a small amount of dried coffee in a sachet. He glared at it for a few minutes, he had a better machine than this on Thunderbird 5! Still, the woman at the front desk last night had been more than a little scary, he'd have to make do. With some trepidation he managed to boil the water and brew a cup, tentatively taking a sip.
He shuddered at the taste. Not really fit to drink, but nothing else was available. He drank it as quickly as he could, scalding his mouth on the process, before sitting back down to see if the search had turned anything up. As before, it came back blank. John tapped his index finger against his upper lip and thought about where the information might be hiding.
He was still trying to break through protective layers of cryptography an hour later, when the door opened with a creak and Angel slipped back in. John looked up, intending to rebuke her on just abandoning him, but when he saw her he suddenly lost all power of speech. If he thought she was wearing revealing clothes the night before it was nothing to what she was kitted out in now. Lycra capris clung everywhere and reached just below her knees, while a loose vest top didn't hide the visible sports bra underneath. Her skin was covered in a delicate sheen of sweat and she was breathing heavily, chest heaving on every breath.
"Y-You went…for a run?" He croaked out when his voice finally started working again.
"Yes," Angel grabbed a towel and began to wipe herself down. "I was actually making some arrangements the next village over, but a run was a good excuse for being out by myself when we're meant to be on a romantic getaway."
Trying very hard to keep his eyes on her face, John took in what she said. "Arrangements?"
"I've picked us up a new ride and found someone to take Lucille back to Jane. It's too noticeable for us to take any further." She frowned at the laptop. "Found anything?"
John sighed. "No, although…" he thought for a moment, looking at the mess of coding he was trying to hack into. "Someone has gone to a lot of effort to hide something behind these walls… I don't know yet if it's useful but it could be promising."
"Good," Angel threw the towel into the corner of the bathroom. "Can you pack? I'm going to shower and then we can get out of here."
"Where are we going?"
The brunette paused in the doorway to the bathroom, cool gaze washing over him. John felt a spike of irritation, so far he'd helped her out immensely and yet she didn't bother to even give him the time of day. Eventually she sighed and looked away. "We have been struggling to get information from the Network… I have some contacts who may be able to help. We need to move closer to London though."
John nodded, carefully untangling himself out of the code so that no one would know he had been looking around. "OK, I'll get ready." A smile of approval ghosted across her face as she disappeared into the bathroom – not much but enough for John to feel that she might, finally, be beginning to warm to him.
Angel's 'new ride' turned out to be a very unassuming small car, something John was very relieved about after the ride on the motorbike. Angel slid into the driver's seat, meaning that John could spend the journey using the laptop so as to not waste time. Not that what they were doing was time critical exactly, but John would be relieved to be safe at home.
They drove for a couple of hours, leaving rural countryside behind and beginning to see more and more settlements as they approached the capital. John was still struggling to crack through the cryptography when Angel eventually pulled up into the car park of a hotel.
He looked up from the computer and pulled a face. The hotel was bland and boring, rows of tiny windows reaching up several stories hiding behind an agin glass frontage. Angel must have seen his expression. "The point is not to stand out," she reminded him curtly. "This hotel will do, this time we are work colleagues looking for adjoining rooms so that we can keep working on a presentation through the evening."
John breathed deeply. Work colleagues, he could handle that. Angel paused as she was about to get out of the car. "Naturally, they are going to think we're having an affair. Play up to that, it's a common reason why people come to these hotels. Still got the ring I gave you?" John looked down at the silver band on his left hand. "Excellent, play with it as we're checking in." John noticed her slipping her own rings off into her pocket, leaving behind noticeable tan lines. The realisation of what that meant hit him like a thunderbolt.
He managed to just about stammer through the check-in, not realising that his nervous air gave even more credence to their cover. The man at the desk handed over a token with a suggestive leer, one that John cast his eyes downwards to avoid. Angel led the way up the stairs and along the corridor, John staring intently at the hideously patterned carpet in the hallway as he followed. He only jerked back into life when they reached a pair of doors next to each other.
"The man at the desk said there would be a connecting door," Angel told him, having noticed that he hadn't been paying attention. "You'll need to go in and open it up so that we can enter each other's room."
John nodded tersely, letting himself into his room with the token he's been given. Luckily, the carpet in here was plain and far less garish than the one in the hallway. There was nothing exciting about the room but it was clean and suitable. He sat on the bed heavily, only remembering to unlock the adjoining door when Angel knocked on it from the other side. She frowned at him as she entered.
"What's up Red?"
"I…what?"
"Red," she shrugged. "Thought it was pretty self explanatory. But what's the problem? You've suddenly got nervous?"
John swallowed. "No, no, just trying to play up to the 'work colleagues but secretly having an affair' thing you asked for." Angel studied him for another minute or two but then let it slide.
"Well ok, are you going to be ok to come out for dinner? I have someone I need to talk to and they'll be at a local restaurant this evening, it's easier if I can slip out for a few minutes over dinner."
"Just let me set another code running," John switched back to thinking about the cyphers on the Network. "I'll need to freshen up too."
"That's no problem, we have some time yet. I'll leave you to it." She turned back to the door into her room, hesitating as she did so. "You sure you're ok now?"
John's smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "Yes, I'll see you in a bit." Angel nodded and disappeared through the door. With a deep sigh, John pulled out the laptop and started to crack the next layer of code.
