A/N- Okay, I made this chapter pretty long(I write it in 10 minutes :D total record!) I'm trying to keep minimum MI6 involvement in this story. They bother me. Especially Blunt the boring :P I mean, get a wardrobe change buddy! There's no need to be so...gloomy, all of the time...
Blunt: I prefer solemn colors.
Oh, I'll bet you do :O Ahem...moving on...
Disclaimer: If only, If only, the woodpecker sighs, the bark on the tree was as soft as the skies :P AH owns it. I do have every single Alex Rider book in my possession, sadly though, Anthony has chosen to keep the rights :(
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It was a short walk home, but it always felt extensive to Alex Rider as he walked home from school. So much had happened recently that is was hard to start over and return to his life left behind. From what Mrs. Jones had told him, they would never use him again, not after the bullet. He wouldn't be bothered anymore, or taken out of school. He was free.
And yet---
He wasn't.
The truth had torn him apart, leaving no pieces behind. Would he ever be able to trust anyone? He doubted it. Ash had been a ghost from the past, nothing more. He hadn't been his godfather. He had been his potential killer.
Ash had been his parents killer.
Recently, he had begun thinking a lot about his parents. What were they really like? Did his father suspect Ash?
Or did he trust him like me?
A bitter taste lingered in his mouth. Life had it's ways of torturing him. This was one of them. It felt like he would always be alone, only to watch other people dying around him.
Clutching his backpack, Alex opened the door to the apartment.
"Jack! Jack, I'm home!" He called out.
As he walked inside, he couldn't help realizing the truth of his new life. He could do whatever he wanted. Nobody would ever bother him again. It wasn't like he was about to jump into the next terrorist threat or crime meeting that appeared again.
Smiling to himself, he dropped his back down. At least one good thing had come from the bullet. There would be no more surprises in his life.
If only he knew how wrong he was.
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James Hoskins had indeed awaited his secretary's return. In addition to a rather large pile of cluttered paperwork, he had a question to ask her. It was about the file he had found. After not only speaking with several of his co-workers, but also to the retired architect of the hospital, he was certain of one thing, and one thing only.
The architect had appeared confused when he was asked if he had built on any rooms after the hospital was built. To his knowledge, there hadn't ever been a room 301. Talks with workers had struck similar responses.
It shouldn't have bothered him. In truth, it made little difference to his life whether there was an unknown room in the hospital.
However, it was his business if there was an overlooked file in his hospital. He would be held responsible for any mishaps.
Therefore, had had waited for Holly Morgan's return.
---But she had never come back.
The only good-bye he received from his secretary was an application for resignation.
Coincidence?
...maybe...probably...
Or perhaps, it was fate's way of warning him not to ignore the file. For some odd reason, he felt drawn to it, and realized, with growing interest, that it had suddenly become his responsibility.
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Mr. Crawford was a solemn man. He had been described as cold and blunt. People had also informed him of his lack of conversation and civility.
All of this meant very little to Crawford.
He had one objective. And that was to hunt down every sick terrorist or international threat that dared to set foot in his country. Yes, he had been through many dangerous situations. He had also encountered several treacherous people, every now and then. Out of all of this experience, he had at least learnt one main lesson.
A good spy couldn't let even the smallest quirk go unnoticed.
For if he did, it could quite realistically, cost him his life.
And this is what had made Mr. Crawford remember his own wise lecture. Two weeks ago, a foreign contact temporarily placed in the Greenville Hospital(for safe, bloodless, spy internship, training purposes, no doubt)had filed his weekly report(Well, 'practice' report anyway)and Crawford had been assigned to assess it.
Ugh...in other words, they want me to act as a school teacher and grade some amateur's class work. Ridiculous.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Yes, he had tried to cheat himself out of it by just barely skimming one page.
Reading that one page however had caused several details to stick out.
Report 00732
Filed by Operative "1BNG007"
1:20- Several doctors/nurses have casual talk in conference room. STOP
1:21- A doctor is now attempting to flatter an attractive nurse by complimenting her on her, somewhat revolting lemon colored shoes. STOP
1:25- Pretty nurse has fled the room, leaving a heart-broken man all alone...grieving for his beloved-
...I can't stand rookie spies... So full of themselves and eager to make fun of things... And since when have we allowed newly charged agents to choose their own names?
One Bang, 007 James Bond? Give me a break...)
-sweetheart, who has left him. Alone and withering. Will keep tab on nurse. May soon show up as murder suspect. STOP
Honestly...
1:29- James Hoskins, head of medical department, joins staff for casual coffee and tea/conversational chat. STOP
2:00- J.H leaves room, after asking questions about a room 301. Workers have no answers. He appears perplexed. Perhaps he has misplaced the room 301...Will check to see if it is possible to lose a room in a generally small hospital. STOP
2:10-Doctors/nurses continue their gossip about difficult patients. Will contact patient rep. to see if this is considered illegal harassment. This agent doubts it. STOP
5:00- Agent has noted several unusual occurrences. Rejected, woman-repelling doctor nearly burned his throat while drinking hot tea. This agent suspects it to be treason from the pretty, though probably evil, nurse.
5:22-Holly Morgan, secretary resigned today, appearing to perplex J.H even more. This guy seriously has a lot of problems for the head doctor around here. Will refer him to a shrink. STOP
5:30- After being rudely ignore by mister, I'm-better-than-you, I ironically found an unlabeled file in his briefcase, with room 301 typed on it and some barely legible initials on the back. At the moment I am pretty sure it is legal for me to go through a suspect's belongings. STOP.
Actually...that isn't a bad question...
There were plenty of more notes that were sure to include senseless remarks, but he instantly picked out James Hoskins.
So, he had an unlabeled file---
To a room that didn't exist.
---And nobody knew anything about it.
And yet, still, Doctor Hoskins seemed to be determined to find 301...or whatever he really was looking for anyway.
It might be something, though it was probably nothing. Either way, it was his duty-bound way to confirm any possible suspicions. Besides, he had been trapped doing office work for a couple years now. MI6 claimed he was now all washed up, useless for Secret Intelligence. He disagreed.
It couldn't hurt, I suppose...to just check up on things.
And, of course, he absolutely would.
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Yassen was having quite a day, waking up to find himself in an undersized medical center. The first person he had come in contact with was a young and rather flustered nurse. She was obviously new to her job, and also rather oblivious as to who he was and how he had arrived in a small, unguarded, and typically safe hospital.
...unguarded...
So, MI6 hadn't rescued him. If they had, he would no doubt be at a small clinic in a maximum security prison right now.
And if SCORPIA had rescued him... Well, they wouldn't have rescued him. If they had found him, he would be dead right now.
There were obviously few options as to the process of arriving in this facility. He weighed them up in his head.
Situation 1, someone had mistaken him for a soldier or unknown person and had therefore taken him to a near medical center.
Situation 2, someone had recognized him, but had taken him to a hospital without reporting it anyway.
Situation 3, other reasons that are currently unknown.
Barely shrugging, he wiped situation three from his mind. He had no friends...or even allies for that matter. The last person he could even remember that had managed to gain his trust had been...
John Rider...
But he was dead now. And, like many events in life, Yassen had buried it deep within himself, not daring to let emotions resurface. The last time he had let that happen had been with Alex, and they both ended up getting shot.
He chuckled to himself, hardly believing that Alex had been wearing a bullet resistant jacket the whole time.
Dropping the smile from his face, he sat up weakly. No, he was not yet fully recovered, but he would be soon. And when some of his strength returned, he would disappear before his whereabouts were found.
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Read and Review!!! C'mon, even I review the stories I read(and I read an awful lot of stories at that :D)
The more reviews I get the more encouraged I become to write better, longer, and more quickly updated chapters ;)
Oh, and here's a quick questionnaire to answer on your review if you have the time.
1. Who do you think should be the first person to find out John is alive? The first one to meet him?
2. How do you think Yassen got at the hospital(is that what you call them in the UK too? I don't know...)? I sorta blanked out when writing that part, but didn't want MI6 to have captured him like every other story.
3. Should Tom/Jack/Wolf/Fox/or someone else become a main character in this story?
4. Is it true that Brits eat spaghetti on toast? If it is, then that is so cool! I'm sooo moving to Britian :D(I eat everything on toast) If not...I'm the most easily convinced person there is... In fact, that's probably true. My aunt once told me they ate dogs in France(my relatives love bullying me because I'm the youngest in our entire family tree...I have a gazillion cousins, and their all JERKS:P), so when I was talking to my relatives living in France I asked them why they hadn't eaten their pet dog yet...yes, they looked at me rather oddly. OO
R&R and I'll update faster! And if you have me on Story Alert, then for goodness sake's, REVIEW!!! It only takes thirty seconds...unless you type long, and generally annoying ones...like me :D