Fox registered that it was far too quiet.
It felt like he was in the eye of the storm.
Jack was sleeping in a chair next to the still drugged Eagle in his private room. The two SAS guards posted at the door were as steady and silent as their current assignment demanded them to be. Tom was still at breakfast and the rest of the floor was muted due to the utter seriousness of the patient in room 309. Eagle's room.
It was quiet.
It set his teeth on edge.
He hadn't slept, he'd only managed to choke down half a sandwich, and he dearly wished to call Sarah but she would be getting ready for work and he didn't wish to bother her with any of this. Even if he was allowed to bother her with any of this. He might tell her some of it later and hope she didn't pry for the rest.
He felt like the world was spinning and he couldn't tell if it was from the lack of sleep, lack of food, or all the chaos. He decided it was lack of food when his stomach let loose with a sound that could be described as a dying whale. It was so loud it echoed down the empty corridor and the nurse looked up from her computer to eye him with an all knowing look. He smiled, blushed, and turned towards the lifts.
When he reached the cafe he instantly knew something was wrong. The cafe was open but the only people in there were a few surgeons, a doctor, and a man that looked like a solicitor. There was no Tom or Puma in sight. He looked at his watch.
They had only been gone a half hour. It took Tom at least forty-five minutes to demolish a breakfast. Snake said it was because he was about to grow again. If they had finished, why weren't they back upstairs? Something rang terribly suspicious. He turned on his heel and marched back towards the lifts determined to have Tom in his sight within minutes. They had already lost Alex. If he lost Tom, Wolf would never forgive him. Hell, he'd never forgive himself.
Fox immediately went to Eagle's room hoping the teen had perhaps curled up in the other chair and was sleeping off his large meal. But when he peeked in all he saw was Jack. Her feet were propped up on the bed, the hood of her sweater pulled up, and she was snoring lightly. Eagle was awake. Sort of.
The soldier was blinking up at the ceiling, his expression one of bright curiosity. Fox just left him there and wondered if he should discuss the man's pain medication dose with the doctor. Clearly, Eagle was a lightweight.
Fox backtracked to the corridor where the two SAS soldiers were stoically standing guard.
"Have either of you seen Accomplice?" he asked. "Or Puma?"
"No, sir," one of them replied. Fox ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He looked down the corridor and thought. Where would the two of them have gone? "You. Go search the bottom floors. You. Take the top. I'll stand guard."
"Yes, sir," they both saluted and darted off. Fox pulled out his mobile and dialed Snake's number. The phone rang out and the other man's voicemail came on. Fox inwardly cursed. Snake was supposed to be back at the Rider home looking for something-anything-that would tell them where Wolf was being held.
Not having anything else to do at the moment Fox sat in one of the chairs just outside Eagle's door. He pulled out his gun, checked it, and put it back. He ran his head through his short hair, looked at the screen of his mobile, and willed for something good to finally happen.
"FOX!"
He jumped out of his seat immediately, his hand on his gun, and spun towards the sound of the terrified voice. Alex was running full pelt towards him and didn't seem likely to stop.
"Whoa!" Fox said as he caught the boy by the arm, stopping him cold. "Where have you been?"
It was starting to feel like a standard question when it came to Alex.
"Where's Puma?" Alex answered and Fox gave him a confused look.
"Why?"
"I cracked the flash drive," he said and Fox inwardly winced.
"Alex," he started to scold.
"Yeah, I know. Bad spy. Where is Puma?"
"I don't know. Why?"
"Because it was him! He's the one who's looking for the flash drive. He knew it was only a matter of time before Wolf got into that flash drive and figured out it was him. Where is he?"
Fox's mouth was going up and down as he tried to swallow what Alex had just thrown at him. He thought back to South America. The mission Puma had gone on with them as Snake's burns healed at home. They were only there for reconnaissance. Puma hadn't come onto the team until after they'd had several run-ins with Skelter's people. As far as Fox knew, Puma had never met someone from Skelter's organization. Clearly, he'd been wrong.
In South America, they had come across a flash drive left on the body of an informant. They had received a call from him telling them that he had evidence. The very evidence they needed for Blunt's people to take Skelter out permanently. But when they'd finally been able to reach the man, he had already been killed. A bullet to the back of the head. Execution style.
He thought back. Had Puma been with them the entire time? No. Could he have slipped away to kill the informant? Possibly. Had he known about the flash drive before Wolf had picked it from the dead man's pockets and tried to plug it into their computer? Clearly not.
And none of them had known where Wolf had hidden it. The informant had made it clear that someone working this operation was feeding information to Skelter. But they had known that weeks before Puma had ever been out of training and on their team. So who was behind all of this?
"Alex when you were looking at the files on the flash drive did you find anything about who was behind all of this?" Fox asked. "Besides Puma?"
"No," the teen said. "Where is he? Where is everyone else?"
It occurred to Fox that now would be a good time to call in more back-up. Wolf was not the only hostage anymore.
00000
Wolf's head slumped forward. He knew he had to get some rest before his captors came back to continue on. If they continued on. By the fact that he was still alive he knew that they hadn't yet found the flash drive. Had his team found it? He prayed that was what happened. Because the second Skelter's men had the drive and all the evidence, he and Tom would both be dead. The thought terrified him.
Not because he would lose his own life. He had signed over his life a long time ago. It was only a matter of time for him. But Tom was just a boy-barely fifteen and still too short to reach the pedals of a car. He didn't deserve to be caught up in all of this. How were they going to get out of this? Wolf had no idea where he was, if Tom was even in the same location, or what was happening outside. He wasn't even sure how long he'd been there.
He sighed and straightened up recognizing that he wouldn't be sleeping at all. His mind was going too quickly and he was too anxious. He wanted to see Tom.
That was all he really wanted.
Well, that and he wouldn't mind a cheeseburger.
00000
Fox was in the main waiting room of the hospital trying to hold a conversation with three different people at the same time. One was a fellow soldier at the SAS and Fox was coordinating with him on the manhunt they'd initiated for Puma. They were watching his flat, his girlfriend's flat, the girlfriend's parents, and every other person they could find in Puma's file. Nobody expected him to be stupid enough to go there but they were watching them anyway.
However, Fox was spending most of his time on hold and was bouncing back and forth between touching base with Snake and convincing Alex to back off. The teen was going crazy, itching to run out in the street and start kicking in doors. It wouldn't be helpful and it would give MI6 an excuse to put the boy back in the field. Thankfully, when Fox was talking into the mobile, Snake picked up the slack.
"You can't just jump back into the field," the medic snapped. "You haven't been on a mission in months. You could get someone killed, probably yourself."
"This is Tom," Alex snapped back. "Tom!"
"We understand that," Snake said. "You're not the only one who wants to see the kid come home safe. We're all worried."
"Nobody wants to see Tom come home as much I do," Alex nearly shouted, his body tense, and a sharp finger pointed in Snake's face for emphasis. "And you cannot leave me behind. Not for something like this."
"We don't even know where they are yet," Snake replied as calm as he could be. "But when we do find them..."
"When we do find them, I'm coming with you! You four have already messed up enough."
"Hey!" Fox shouted at him and Alex's head snapped towards him. "That's not fair and you know it."
"Why didn't you guys just hand over that stupid flash drive?" This time all three looked around. This time it was Jack asking the question.
"We didn't know how high up in the operation this went," Fox told her, unwilling to hold anything else from her anymore. "We had to know who the traitor was before we could act." She nodded.
"Do me a favor Ben?" she asked.
"Of course."
"Take Alex with you," she said. "When you go. If there's one thing he can do, it's get results."
The soldier looked at her with an unreadable expression. He was moderately surprised that she was giving her blessing for Alex to go with them. Not that anyone else had given him permission to come. Still, considering Jack's well known opinion on all things government operation, he couldn't quite wrap his head around her unusual request.
But he nodded anyway.
The American turned to Alex and gently cupped his face.
"I know you," she said quietly. "And nothing is going to keep you from going to rescue Tom. And nothing is going to keep you from trying to set all of this right. But please be careful."
She kissed his forehead and left to go back to Eagle's room.
Alex turned to Fox.
"Your mobile's ringing."
Fox glared at him, trying desperately to draw on his inner Wolf.
"Fox," he snapped into the microphone. "Where? When? Got it." He snapped the mobile shut and stared directly into Alex's determined eyes.
"They found Puma," he hissed. "Let's go."
00000
Puma had been attempting to leave the country in the hull of a freighter belonging to a Swedish shipping company. A crew member had seen him breaking into one of the containers to try to hide in and reported it. They had picked up the report the second it had come onto the wire and had been able to dispatch a team before Puma had a chance to realize he'd been seen.
Fox and Alex watched through the two-way mirror as an experienced SAS officer interrogated Puma about everything he had done and had planned to do. Over the course of the next ten hours, it came out that he had been approached by Skelter's inside man with the promise that in exchange for several favors he would be rewarded handsomely. He had hoped to pay off his debts and marry his girlfriend with that money. He had initially been told to fudge records and details on reports to keep K-Unit away from what they were beginning to uncover.
When it was discovered that K-Unit had found a flash drive on the body of an informant it fell to Puma to get it back before Wolf found a way past the security. However, after failing to secure the flash drive from Wolf's hiding spot the traitor behind it all had become desperate and had hatched the plan playing out before them now. Puma's last act of betrayal was to take Tom from the hospital and deliver him to a team waiting for him a couple of blocks away. He didn't know where Tom had been taken after that.
When the official interrogator left the room Fox managed to slip inside. He unplugged the security camera above the door. Puma eyed him warily.
"I think you're lying," Fox said.
"I told him everything," Puma replied, referring to the man he'd spent the last ten hours with. There were bruises on Puma's face and hands that Fox would later deny having any knowledge of.
"I still think you're lying," he said. "How could you? You had dinner at Eagle's table and then just handed him over to die."
"He wasn't supposed to get hurt."
"Don't be stupid Puma," Fox seethed. "These people aren't going to stop until they have that flash drive and they aren't going to feel bad about a pint sized corpse. And you know it."
"I don't know where they are."
"Where did you meet your contact?"
"In some old apartment building. On the South side of town."
"Address. Now."
00000
It became immediately apparent that Puma had given them a fake address. Snake had led the team that raided the apartment building frightening the work crew renovating the outdated building quite thoroughly. There was nothing there. There was no evidence of any kind that the place was being used for meetings. Background checks on the worker's came back clean. Snake was convinced they'd been played.
"I'm telling you Fox," he said into his mobile as he watched the traffic from a seventh floor window. "There's nothing here."
"Look again," Fox replied. He sounded incredibly strained and Snake could hear Alex in the background though he sounded as if he was talking to someone else.
"I will," Snake promised, "but I'm telling you. I think it's a fake address."
"Still, keep looking." Snake hung up quickly after that knowing that Fox wouldn't be satisfied until it was completely apparent that there was nothing there. He wondered why Puma was still protecting these people. He obviously didn't support what they were doing; he was in it for the money. It was in his best interest to tell them the truth at this point. So unless someone had done a very good job at cleaning up after themselves, Puma's involvement went deeper than they'd originally thought.
"Tiger," he addressed the soldier shifting through the room's contents. The man turned towards him expectantly.
"Sir?"
"Get me everything you can find on this building. I want to know who has access. Plumbers, electricians, contractors, real estate, solicitors. Everyone. Concentrate on people with some sort of connection to government employees. We're looking for someone on the inside."
Tiger nodded and left. Snake didn't like where this was going. Everything just felt so twisted. Whoever had hired Puma to do business with Skelter was very good at hiding and it was getting to the point that Snake wasn't sure they were going to find this person. The best they could hope for was finding Wolf and Tom.
00000
Alex watched as Eagle mumbled drunkenly in his sleep. They really needed to take his pain medication down a notch. Jack had left for some food and Alex was starting to worry about her as well. She was pale and deep bruises were starting to form under her eyes. She hadn't left the hospital since the night of the first attack. She was so scared and worried and there was nothing that she could do.
They were all worried about Tom. Wolf had been gone for so long there was no telling what condition they would find him in if they were able to find him at all. Alex could barely even think about Tom. He left the room, leaving Eagle with the lone SAS guard in the corridor and went to the lifts. Travelling two floors up he found what he was looking for.
The still alive and barely conscious intruder Eagle had tased. There was another guard in front of his door as well. Alex simply marched up to him.
"Fox wants to see you," he said simply. The guard looked at him skeptically. "I'll keep an eye out while you're gone." The man still didn't answer but nodded and left to go looking for Fox. These soldiers knew who Alex was and at the moment they weren't going to question him or his intentions. They probably should have though.
Opening the door, Alex slipped inside. The intruder was wired to several different machines. He was being treated for electrocution and for the other injuries he had sustained when he tumbled out of Alex's second story window. Closing the door, Alex took a moment to lock it. He didn't want to be interrupted.
When he walked towards the bed he noticed that the man was awake and was watching him curiously.
"I'm Alex Rider," he said quietly. The man's eyes widened a little in surprise. He obviously wasn't expecting Alex to show up in his room. "You're people hurt my family and kidnapped my friends. I want to know why."
"I don't know anything," the man rasped.
"Yes you do," Alex said. "You've heard of me. I can tell by your eyes. Tell me what I want to know."
"What's in it for me?"
"I have connections," Alex said not untruthfully. "I can find you a nice cushy prison cell somewhere no one will ever find you." In a situation like this, it was the best this man had to hope for. It was that or he was going to die at the hands of this Skelter person. There was no way for his employer to know that he wasn't talking. He was a loose end and loose ends had a way of dying.
"You're messing with something bad kid," the man said. "You and your friends."
"Skelter?"
"No," the man said. "That guy sticks to South America."
"You're talking about the leak. In the SAS."
"Yes. He's powerful and dangerous. K-Unit got too close to what was happening. That Wolf guy started to figure out that Skelter was working with someone in the SAS. He wouldn't let it go."
"How does Puma fit in?"
"Puma was approached simply because he was already in with K-Unit. It was pure luck that Snake's temporary replacement had a price. And a low one at that."
"He did it for the money," Alex stated and the man nodded. "Who is this guy? Who are you working for?"
"I never met him," the man said. "None of us ground soldiers did. We only ever called him the Agent."
"Where were you supposed to take me?" he asked.
"We weren't there for you," he said. "Your bedroom window just happened to be open. We were there for Eagle."
"Why Eagle?" he asked.
"Puma said he has the most computer training in the Unit," the intruder replied. "If anyone on that team was going to crack the security on the drive it was him. We figured he'd know where it was."
"Where is Wolf?" Alex pressed.
"I'm not telling you."
"Seriously?" Alex snapped. "You spill everything else but this is what you're going to shut up about."
"This is the information you really want. It has the highest price."
Alex's eyes narrowed. He didn't like this man. He didn't particularly like anyone whose loyalty was up for sale. But they were running out of time and Alex made a split second decision. He smiled, quite ruthlessly, and called on everything he knew about interrogation.
00000
Fox stormed off the lifts and down the corridor to the intruder's hospital room. He didn't know what Alex was doing but the boy had known it was something he'd have to do alone. That worried Fox. When he got to the door he found it closed and locked. He pounded on the wood.
"Cub! Open this door!"
He stopped for a moment and listened. What he heard made his stomach drop. Whining and crying.
The soldier backed up a pace and brought his leg up to kick the door in. It was flimsy and gave way instantly. Alex was seated beside the bed calm as could be and the intruder was writhing in pain on the bed. Alex's hand was resting on the man's morphine drip. He had clearly turned it off leaving the intruder to feel every bit of the aftermath of being electrocuted by five million volts. Fox thought it a form of torture.
"Cub! What are you doing?"
"Having a private conversation," he said calmly. "But you're certainly welcome to join us." Fox hadn't seen this side to Alex in a long time. The boy was on the job and he was willing to do that job no matter what it entailed. After all, this had become personal.
The man in the bed moaned in pain.
"It's simple really," Alex continued. "Give me an address, a real address, and I'll turn your morphine back on. Surely that's more important than money at the moment."
"It's in the warehouse district!" he shouted.
"And where's the real location?" Alex pressed.
"That is the real location!"
"No, that's the location you were supposed to go to if everything worked out. But your plan failed and one of you was compromised. Where do you go for Plans B through Z?"
Fox crossed his arms and watched Alex work. It was a bit disturbing because of how young he was. Fox had worked with Alex before; he knew how well he did the job. But he'd also seen him as a kid. A regular kid. Once you saw Cub as a regular kid it was jarring to see him at work again. But he was still capable and he was determined to get his way.
And in the end, this for-hire gun didn't have what it took to outlast Alex Rider. He talked. Fox was out of the room, location in hand, before he could see Alex turn the man's morphine back on and ease his pain.