A/N: So…to make up for the fact that I have not updated in a week, this chapter will be extra-long. Well, extra-long for ME at least. For all you others, it might actually be a medium sized chapter.
Anyway, thank you to all that reviewed. And I really don't mind, Teddybearcrazy, that you didn't review. You tried your best. (I read your stories on Wattpad! They ARE good. Everyone else, be sure to check them out!)
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Alex Rider. Yes, not even a teeny-weeny lock of hair. I wish, though.
Alex had slipped out the door, and that was when he realized he wasn't wearing shoes, his ribs were throbbing, and his arm was in a cast, meaning he could injure himself running too fast. That was potentially…problematic.
But there was no time to worry now. He had 15, 20 minutes tops. Ms. Jones would note his absence soon.
The only problem was, he had no way of knowing which way to go. True, he had travelled to practically all the parts of the hospital by this point, but he was mainly unconscious, or covered in a thin white sheet, Alex assumed so he wouldn't figure out that they were wheeling him for another surgery.
He'd have to wing it. The annoying but reassuring part was, that on most of his missions, he had to wing it. So, Alex was familiar in this category.
Then Alex realized something else. He had no weapons, and even if he did, his weapon hand was out of action. Desperately, he checked his pajamas pockets for anything, but the pin he had used was still left in the lock in the room. He put his hand on the doorway, ready to open it, but decided against it. He was wasting precious time.
Alex crept down the carpeted hallways, his feet padding silently along. The good part was that nobody could hear him. The bad part? He couldn't hear anyone else either.
Too many close calls happened this way. A blonde nurse smiling brightly while walking briskly down the large hallway nearly caught him. Alex managed to dive into a random room, that was, thank god, empty. But the nurse's smile had flickered for a moment, then her face cleared, as if she remembered something, and she went walking on.
Alex counted to five, then quickly walked out of the room and in the opposite direction.
He encountered a few more nurses and one doctor, and that's when he realized something strange. All the people he had encountered so far were all coming from the same direction- the direction he was walking in.
Alex ducked into a janitorial closet as two Asian nurses chatted companionly walked down the hallway. His uncle, Ian, had told him that people tell a story. He just had to be observant and figure it out.
So, the next time a nurse (brunette, blue eyes, freckles) walked down the hallway, he tried to tell himself a story about her.
She wasn't tall, although the white heels she wore added to her height. Her brown hair was straight and in a ponytail, and Alex saw that despite her fit appearance, she was middle aged. Her skin was tanned, very deeply, almost hiding the freckles on her face.
Well, that was all good and everything, but it wouldn't be of much help to Alex. He sighed quietly, impatient, and his calm running out. And the nurse was almost out of his view anyway.
Then, Alex saw something glint. Not jewelry; the nurse wasn't wearing any. It was a syringe. And it was filled with something.
From the distance, Alex could only make out that the liquid was blue. But if he had gone closer, he would have seen that the liquid wasn't just blue. It was filled with emerald chunks of green and delicate rosy shades of pink. Almost pretty, they would have been, but for the fact that they were moving. They would have been about a millimeter in diameter, but easy to make out amidst the clear blue liquid. He would have also seen that partially hidden behind the syringe was a scalpel. Silver, glinting, and its blade razor sharp, a small hole on its side that could be opened by a Yankee Screwdriver, very rare and hard to find in a common market. (In fact, the one that would be used to open the hole was originally found in an online black market.)
The nurse moved down the hallway, then turned a corner and she was gone. Alex decided against following her; he had almost forgot his original mission.
The file room would be near the main office, or connected. He just had to get past all the doctors, nurses, surgeons, dentists and patients who probably suffered injuries worse than him. He didn't like to think about what those injuries might be.
Since all those nurses and doctors were coming from that direction, he assumed that the office might be there. Then again, they might just have been coming from wherever they were stationed, and Alex was wrong, and that would be even more potentially problematic.
Alex didn't have time to think about that. But then again. He thought wryly, time was something that he didn't seem to have enough of these days.
He had walked for another 2 minutes, and then came a flight of stairs. There was no elevator in sight, something he found strange, considering that they would have to transport patients up and down to the surgery rooms.
There was also no floor number. Luckily, Alex knew what floor he was on. The 4th. That would mean there would be 3 floors up, then the roof (he highly doubted the main office would be up there) and 3 floors down, including the basement.
The office could be in the basement, but that would be illogical. If you were a visitor, you would have to walk all the way down to register, and then back up again. And if you were injured, that would probably hurt like hell. Then again, the hospital could be in the basement, and as illogical as that could be, there was an equal chance that the office could be there.
Alex shook his head. He was confusing himself unnecessarily. He should just go down to the first floor, and check for the office there.
He descended the steps carefully, gripping the railing awkwardly with his good hand. There were no floor numbers, so it was intuition and guessing that made him open the door 2 flights of steps down.
The door opened up to a boring reception, the one found in any hospital in the world, with white walls, boring couches, and a vending machine in the corner. The vending machine was unremarkable as well, just the sort of food you might find in a health junkies kitchens-hummus, pita chips, and 'low-sugar, gluten free, and made with 100 percent fruit' fruit snacks.
The perfect cover, a thought in his mind came forward. Alex found himself agreeing, then realized what he was just agreeing to. Alex pushed the thought away. He was just a normal patient at this hospital, not an undercover spy. If MI6 wanted him to spy for them, they could ask him, so Alex didn't have to spy. They never asked him.
But still, Alex found himself pondering the thought.
"Can I help you?" A voice, high and clear like a bell, cut through his thoughts. Alex startled, thinking that someone had seen him, but in reality, the receptionist was just greeting another visitor.
Alex frowned. The visitor looked strange to be the sort to walk into a hospital, because the person defied all the rules and unspoken normalities of a hospital.
The person was dressed in black leather, from the boots to the shirt. The only thing that wasn't black leather were the pants, which were jeans, not old and faded, but brand new.
That would-be chapter one of the person. Just the outside look. Alex had a feeling that the person had a deeper secret; in other words, the person was hiding something.
At first, Alex couldn't see the person's hair or face, because of the black hood, but the person shifted a bit to the left, right in the way of an AC unit, and the strong wind blew the hood back a bit, exposing long blonde curls.
Alex narrowed his eyes. The person was a woman. You couldn't tell at first, because the clothes she was wearing fit her loosely, hiding any curves on the body. But now that he knew what he was looking for, he could see the concealed curves, the lithe body with sculpted arms and legs.
The woman finally spokes.
"Yes, I'm here for a person named Carnegie Chilton." Her voice was deep and smoky, slightly American accented. Alex found that strange, that an American would be visiting a British Hospital, no matter how high class it would be.
The receptionist smiled brightly. "Wait just a moment. Let me get the file."
Alex's brow furrowed from his hidden spot at the stairwell. What file? The file on Carnegie Melon? It could have been any file but Alex could never know. Or so he thought.
Because by chance, the receptionist returned with a bright pink file. While this may seem like nothing, think about it very carefully.
How many bright pink files have you seen in your life? The average person sees barely 4 bright pink files per lifetime. Alex figured that there could only be so many bright pink files in the file room.
Speaking of the file room, Alex knew that more than 20 minutes had passed since his escape. If he was going to get to the file room, he would have to move fast. Time was ticking.
The receptionist would be gone for a while, not long, but enough time for Alex to move. The woman was standing there impatiently, fingers tapping a rhythm on the plastic ledge. She didn't see Alex creep behind her stealthily. She also didn't hear the little manila door at the other end of the reception room open, and a small lithe teen boy slip in.
And Alex was inside the reception room.
A/N: Well, that's my longest chapter yet. And I got a good bunch of reviews, and lots of them were questions and suggestions, so I'll answer a few.
Yes, Tom Harris and James will visit Alex soon. It's coming up, don't worry. And there won't be romance in this story much, although it may come up once or twice. (Nothing too inappropriate).
As for the two months in the hospital, you right. Way too much time. But don't worry, it's a plot thing. It will all make sense in a while.
And finally, I have been to a hospital. The food is horrible. Ooh! Ooh! I just made an advertisement for hospital food-
Want severe food poisoning?
Go to a hospital!
Want to become taste blind?
Go to a hospital!
Want to puke?
Go to a hospital!
And I know that they do try their hardest to make good food, but still...
You could get food poisoning.