Disclaimer: Anthony Horowitz owns Alex Rider, and do you think his chosen sn would be "PrattlingPrincess"? Do you think it would be any type of princess?
Neither did I.
The plane landed in Bogota at about three in the afternoon. It was cloudy, and so humid it felt as if they'd stepped out into a fish tank. But, surprisingly, it was cool enough that Alex was glad he had his jacket.
The city, to put it plainly, was unique. During the short taxi drive to the hotel, Alex saw mimes in the crosswalks and farmers leading oxen past the Congress building. The skyline couldn't compare to London's (of course), but Alex had a feeling that - like all cities - it would be more beautiful after dark.
Their hotel was in the Puente Aranda district, a packed urban neighborhood. They'd rented two hotel rooms, each with two beds and a couch. Alex absently wondered which government was paying for it: the British government or the Colombian government. He wished he knew. It would significantly impact what he ordered from room service.
After deciding that it wasn't safe to leave Eagle and Fox alone, Wolf and Snake decided not to let them room together. Snake and Fox took one room, while Wolf, Eagle, and Alex took the other. Since they were staying only one night, they were going to flip a coin to decide who would have to sleep on the couch.
Then Eagle made some comment about maybe calling that "chick" from the airport later.
Wolf told him he was sleeping on the couch.
And that was that.
Due to jetlag, they only got a couple hours of sleep.
Before leaving, they went over their cover story one more time. The men were simply four friends on vacation, and Cub was the son of one of their girlfriends. Snake volunteered for the job, and rather successfully repeated his story of the two year girlfriend who wanted her teenage son to bond with his potential stepfather.
In order to attract as little attention as possible, they decided to ditch the codenames when in the company of locals. Last names were hardly needed, since it would be odd to refer to a friend by their full name.
Cub became Alex.
Fox became Todd.
Eagle became Neil.
Snake became Gavin.
Wolf became Diego.
As such, they prepared for the two day bus trip to the town of Santa Marta, which would be followed by the three day jungle hike to La Ciudad Perdita.
Snake - or Gavin - talked to Alex as they waited for Wolf (Diego) and Fox (Todd) to check them out of the hotel, and for Eagle (Neil) to finish apologizing to a rather traumatized maid (Snake left him alone for five minutes and he managed to challenge the Argentinian traveler in the room next to them to a room-service-trolley-cart race down the hall, which ended in tears).
"The way I see it," Snake said, "this is a lot like SAS Selection. You don't want to stick out. Not first in line, not last in line. Always polite but not memorable, because as soon as you're noticed all eyes are on you. You want to be Mr. Grey Man. (1)"
(1)This is a slightly plagiarised quote I got off a website about the SAS, just to warn you.
Oh, and sorry it's short, but there's more coming soon, and the action's about to begin!!!
Reviews are always welcome!!!!!