Alex Rider: Deception

Sarah- Chapter 13

Several factors played into Sarah's decision to leave Jack wondering, and possibly freaking out over, where she was for the next few hours. First, if she did indeed go with Jack to the belly of the beast tomorrow she wanted to make sure there would be no immediate danger, so it stood to reason that she should check out the trail by herself. Second, she had to make sure Alex didn't find the trail. And finally, she was intensely anxious to find out who was overcomplicating her life. She promised herself she would only scout out the situation; nothing more. She left Jack in the lodge, after telling him that she was going out for another run or two and would be back within the hour.

When the ski lift reached the top, she slid off and allowed herself a moment of uncontrollable speed as her skis dipped downward. The adrenaline pumped energy through her veins and she saw the world with new eyes. She noticed every tree, every skier, every snowflake falling from the tree. In no time at all she reached the break in the trail, and caught her breath. Someone had been here recently. The brambles had been slashed through by skis, and the deep snow was depressed in two lines.

It could only mean one thing. Alex Rider. She was such an idiot! Of course he was working for someone! He wouldn't have come down this path if he wasn't. Why hadn't she seen it before? She knew who he was; even if wasn't working for anyone when she first met him, it didn't mean he wasn't working for the government now. What if this was all a set up? The guy at her factory could easily have made it up. But then if the government knew where she was headed, they wouldn't have sent Alex to tail her.

Get it together, Sarah! she told herself. Take a deep breath and relax. You need to think logically here, no running away with your imagination. Sarah took a slow breath and let it out. Even if Alex was tailing her and beat her to Castle Peak, she could fix the situation.

Feeling only slightly more relaxed, she sped down the hill as fast as she dared, following the path undoubtedly made by Alex. It wasn't long until the two clean tracks became a mess of upturned snow. Clearly, he had wiped out, and it looked like it was a real yardsale. She saw deep tracks made by his ski boots trudging through the heavy snow. She slowed, lest she follow in his steps and take a tumble.

The light was beginning to fade, which worried her. It wasn't significant yet, but it must've been well past three o'clock, and the sun was stretching toward the peaks of the mountain, yawning as it went. Sarah really didn't want to be out here in the dark. It would be absolutely freezing, not to mention the stress she would put Jack through. She wished she had thought to bring a phone, but she and Jack had discarded their phones weeks ago to avoid being tracked by the government. Jack carried a pre-paid phone with him for "business" purposes, but Sarah thought he had met a girl because he often looked at it anxiously during the day, and once she overheard him talking in the bathroom in a hushed and breathless voice.

At the end of Alex's messy trail, she found his skis, boots, a dry and prickly bush, and the entrance to a tunnel.

Sarah nearly slipped standing up. This was it. It had to be; there was no other explanation for a man-sized tunnel entrance into a mountain. It was clear Alex had already been there. Some snow had fallen into the entrance and the were glove marks around the edge. Looking down, she could see footprints in the muddy bottom, suggesting that it was heated somehow. She quickly removed her own skis and boots and placed them on the first step leading into the darkness. She gathered Alex's as well and laid them next to hers.

Moving the bush back over the entrance was a bit trickier. Her first attempt to pick it up by the branches was not successful and only resulted in her receiving half a dozen scratches on her face and next and a fistful of twigs. She tried again to pick it up, this time from the base, but it was so wide she could hardly wrap her arms around it without burying her face in it. Finally, after a solid five minutes of glaring at it like she had a personal grudge against it, she managed to half roll, half pull it close to the mouth of the tunnel. When it was within arms reach, she clamored down the first few steps and proceeded to drag it as close as she could.