Finally Free - Alex Rider

Chapter Sixteen

When I woke, everything was blurry at first. Then I realised I was no longer in the car. Frowning, I slowly sat up, wincing as it pulled at something on my stomach. Pushing down the blankets that currently surrounded me, I glanced down at myself.

Bandages. There were bandages wrapped around my entire stomach. Most were dyed red in some parts.

Why...? Bullet wounds. I got shot, didn't I? Three times.

But then I was with Brutar and he was driving us back to St. Dominicks.

I looked around at my surroundings. Yep, this was most definitely St. Dominicks.

Everything was white and sterilised, almost too shiny and clean to look at.

Forcing myself to straighten up, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, and stood up, swaying slightly from a sudden hit of dizziness. Easily catching my balance, I walked over to a chair in the corner of the room, tugging on a shirt that was left lying over it, before leaving the room and wandering down the corridors, finding my way back to Ben Daniels room.

Once there, I only hesitated for a split second, before walking in, collapsing down on the chair in the corner.

My partner was sound asleep. My unit, however, was not. They all stared at me. I stared back at them, "... What? Come on, guys, you know how much I hate hospitals".

Snake sighed, "YOU, are not meant to be up yet... Nor are you meant to be out of bed... And, actually, now that I think about it, you shouldn't even be awake yet".

"Yea, well, I'm kinda immune to drugs. So... I guess that plan failed".

"How did you figure that out?" He asked, half amused, half surprised.

"Well... MI6 has officially refused to give me any of the basic painkillers anymore, cause they don't really work... Yet they don't give me anything stronger or weaker either, cause the risk of me getting addicted is way higher... Basically, drugs don't work on me that well, and so, my body refuses them".

He stared at me. Silence.

When he next spoke, his voice was low and dangerous, "MI6 made you intolerant to painkillers? To panadol? Iburophen? Even antibiotics?" I nodded once. He glared in my direction, not at me, but at the wall behind me, "Then what the HELL do give you after a bad mission? What if you came back shot? Or stabbed? Or even worse? Then what?"

I shrugged, "Then I'm expected to grin and bear it".

He was about to yell some more, but was cut off before he could even open his mouth.

"Leave it, Snake. There's nothing any of us can do about it anymore". We all turned, only to find Ben wide awake and sitting up in bed, calmly looking back at us.

The other spy stared at me for a minute, before glancing down at my chest, where a small blood stain was steadily growing wider and wider over the light-coloured fabric, "... How bad is it?"

"Well, you know how these things are-" I started, but the way his furious eyes snapped back up to mine quickly made me backtrack.

"The truth, Alex" He said quietly, "Please".

I swallowed thickly, "... Not as bad as Istanbul, but one more than Budapest".

He stared at me, "... Does that include the stabbing from Istanbul?"

"No" I replied, "... But it includes the whippings from Budapest".

He let out a shaky breath, "So, three bullets in your chest, and your backs practically shredded, huh?"

"Pretty much".

It was silent for a minute.

"... Am I the only one here to wants to know what happened in Istanbul and Budapest?" Eagle asked suddenly.

"We can't tell you" I replied,

just as Ben said, "Classified information".

We glanced over at each other, before grinning, and saying at the same time, "Cape Town".

"... You know, some day, I'm gonna make you two tell us all these missions stories" Eagle finally replied.

I smirked at him, before looking back over at Ben, "So... Where's the assassin?"

"Gone".

I frowned, "Where is he?"

"He had to go" He explained, "Something about the Iraqi government needing to be blown up".

I laughed, "He's still fighting with them?"

"Honestly? Truth be told, I don't think think he ever stopped".

"He REALLY has to get over that argument" I muttered, and the older spy grinned, before suddenly reaching over to the small table next to the bed, and picking up a small envelope on it, tossing it over to me, "Said to give you this".

I easily caught it, opening it up and frowning down at the note. It was Brutar's writing alright, but why would he leave a letter? Quickly skimming through it, I gave a small laugh. Which turned into a medium laugh. And then a large one.

Within two minutes, I was in tears from laughing so much, with the others staring at me worriedly.

Slowly, Wolf reached over, and picked up the letter from where it had fallen to the ground, a confused expression coming over his face as he read through it, "... I can't understand this".

Eagle quickly jumped up, and ran over, before also frowning at the sight, "Nor can I... This ain't been written in English".

Ben took one last look at my doubled over form, before asking for them to give it back to him. And, just like the other two before him, he read through it. Except this time, he could understand it. And soon, he was laughing his head off too.

"GUYS!" Wolf finally barked, "What does it say?"

I reduced my laughings to a large grin, "Oh, you know, just the usual things that contract killers talk about... 'Take life one day at a time', 'I wanted my life to be more like a movie so I started killing people', 'If these walls could talk I'd have to kill them too'... Just the little things like that".

The three soldiers stared at us.

Silence.

Eagle giggled. Snake smothered a laugh. And Wolf tried to force down a smirk.

When the doctors finally came to inform them that I was 'missing' from my hospital room, they found each and every single one of us with tears in our eyes, mouths in huge grins, and just that little bit more hope in our hearts.