Fairly quick update, I reckon :P

It hasn't got much information in it about stage 2, although it does hint at it... before being rudely interrupted. You'll see what it all means in the end, though, I can promise you that.

Now then, on with the chapter.

-8-

Chapter 21

Alex Rider

-8-

"Well, let's just hope that James' luck carries with us for patient three. I'm not sure how many more children we can send in this condition without drawing too much attention to ourselves."

They'd wandered off by the last sentence, but Alex caught the gist of it.

His mind wandered again, and soon everything went dark.

His last coherent thought was, what the hell is stage two?

-8-

Alex was unconscious throughout his next flight to Costa Rica, and his first moment of lucidity didn't come until close to twenty-four hours after they'd arrived.

His mind was more clear than it ever had been since he was first drugged, and now not only could he think for himself, but he could also feel a spongy substance underneath him where he lay on his back.

He couldn't move, he found, but even he could recognise the wafer-thin sponge mattress that was put on hospital beds. Was he really in a hospital, he wondered. Was he safe now from his captors? Did the airport security realise something was wrong?

Or was he still within his captors clutches, and the hospital bed was there's?

He wasn't sure, but he knew by his bad luck as of late that it was more than likely the latter.

As he struggled to move – to hopefully sit up slightly – his heart raced just that bit quicker, and almost instantly there was a beeping noise alerting him of the fact.

Within seconds two men entered his room, one rushing to switch off the beeping machinery, the other approaching him with a pen light and needle in each hand, a stethoscope around his neck.

"Can you speak, child?" the man that was obviously a doctor asked in perfect French, although his accent sounded more like than of a Spaniard. Although, for all Alex knew, the man could just be an imposter – not a doctor or a Spaniard or a Frenchman at all.

It gave him hope, though; a hospital bed, hospital machinery and a doctor... as the saying went, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, then in all possibility, it could very well be a duck. Or is Alex's case, a hospital.

But he knew he wasn't that lucky. Not now, any way.

He tried to speak, but couldn't, and when he tried to move his head to shake it from side to side, he almost fainted from the pain that spread out from the centre of his brain, and it was even worse that he couldn't even moan to convey it.

Instead, he waited for it to abate, before moving his eyes from side to side in a silent "no".

"Excellent!" the doctor-duck-man said cheerfully, and Alex knew at that moment that his luck hadn't followed him from his missions to the here and now. "That's very good, very good indeed," he muttered calmly to himself, although Alex still heard it, as he moved around the bed to Alex's other side where the machinery was.

The second man who had entered the room had moved away by then to stand close to the door; a guard, though considering Alex's current condition he didn't know who he was supposed to be protecting the doctor from.

"Now then, your name is Anton, correct?" He asked, and Alex narrowed his eyes in confusion, before he remembered the fake documents the other Doc had made, with Anton being his name. He moved his eyes up to see the white ceiling, before lowering them to his chest as an affirmative action, before settling his eyes back onto the doctor and watching him press some buttons on the machines.

"You remember what happened to you then, I see," he 'hmm'ed, before giving his signature, "very good."

Alex watched as papers were printed out from underneath one of the larger pieces of machinery, what Alex thought was monitoring his blood pressure, heart rate and various other things, and again the doctor said, "very good, very good indeed," as he read the results.

The man was irritating, that was for sure, although Alex had met many-a whack-jobs over the last year or so with their own little sayings.

He would have shuddered thinking about it... only he just physically couldn't.

"Well, Anton, you should be ready to go in a few short days," he said, pausing. Alex's hopes couldn't help but be raised, although he knew he really shouldn't have. The man's next sentence proved that very well. "Almendro will want to see you before that, though... make sure you're small enough to fit into the sub-shuttle. And then it will just be happy days," he smiled happily at Alex.

"But don't worry, Anton. You won't be alone, and it won't be forever. Just merely until we've gotten what we've wanted, of course." Again the doctor paused. "You're going to make us a very rich company, what with all the-"

"Doctor!" the guard interrupted, drawing Alex's and the doctor's attention to him. "That's enough. He doesn't need to know much more." He said, without taking his eyes of the doctor. Alex realised for the first time that he wouldn't look at him – and wondered whether it was because he didn't want to become attached. If he knew what he looked like, as well as his name, and saw that he was only a child, would it play on whatever piece of his cold and rotted heart he had left?

"Of course, of course. Well, Anton, we'll see each other again, I'm sure. But for now, I'll just need to pop this little needle into your arm, and we shall be good. Very good." He smiled once again, and Alex knew there was a lot of screws lose in this man's mind.

"You should be able to move by tomorrow morning now, so Bargo will just put some cuffs around you to be on the safe side, and then you'll have the day to yourself. And oh, in case you need to go to the bathroom, we've placed a special tube in your, ahm, your ahm, well, I'm sure you know where," he said, flustered, "so just... go as you please, okay Anton?"

A doctor being flustered from mentioning his, ah, groin area? Really? It was almost as bad as when Jack had "the talk" with him about puberty when he was ten and thought that using pictures and hand gestures would be less embarrassing. It should have been Ian to have the talk, only he wasn't really home, and any time Jack had brought the subject up with him, he'd conveniently hear the phone or door ringing, or have to go to work... at eleven at night... on a Bank holiday Monday...

If anything, it made it worse; Alex had to be subjected to not only the male form during puberty, but that of the female form, too. She wanted him to understand that when he was older and started to date, sometimes a woman may be a little... testy at times, and to know why so he'd have the patience with her.

Alex didn't look at Jack quite the same way ever again, and when she bought the food or "clothes" shopping home, he never rushed to look inside the bags for some biscuits and crisps for fear of spotting some female products that would bring back the horrible memories.

So, either this man hadn't seen everything, or talked about everything with patients, or he wasn't a real doctor.

"Well then, Anton, that's all, so just relax, and enjoy your stay" the doctor said pleasantly as he watched the guard slip on hand cuffs to his wrists and rope around his ankles that were both tied to the bars on his bed. He made it seem like why Alex was here was because of a holiday, not because he was a prisoner.

Alex could feel himself getting sleepy, and knew that it was because of whatever drug the doctor had given him.

-8-

Alex woke every four hours or so uncomfortable and always in pain; as his body became more aware of itself, and he managed to move his limbs, blood rushed through his veins creating the dreaded pins and needles. It was bad enough when you had just a foot that had gone to sleep, or an arm that had, but having your whole body come alive almost simultaneously was too much, and he fainted once again.

He awoke to less pain and a window that was open and spilled bright sunlight into his room.

He hadn't noticed before, and guessed it was because someone had been in the room and pulled the yellow curtains open, along with the window.

He managed this time to move himself upwards into a sitting position, sliding his hand cuffs and rope along the metal bars as he did so.

He was just pleased to know that whatever zombie/coma-like state he'd been in before had finally worn off, although dreaded the fact that he could be placed in it again so very easily.

Not being able to think or move for himself had been horrible; his mind was his greatest asset, and without it he could never come up with a plan to escape.

Escape.

How long now was it since that word had meant little more than a word to be used on a scrabble board, or escaping from school on a hot Friday afternoon to enjoy the weekend?

He sighed, and waited for little over an hour before a women in a nurse uniform came into the room, unsurprised to see him awake and sitting up.

She walked to the bottom of his bed, picked up the chart there before scribbling something on it and walking out of the room.

The doctor strode in just moments later, followed by a man in what looked to be a very expensive suit. His black hair was slicked back, and his tanned skin showed him to be a native to Costa Rica. Or at least a native to a hot place, at any rate.

"This is child two?" He asked the doctor, and the doctor nodded his head in confirmation

"This is Anton. French. Given half of the antidote fourteen hours ago, and can obviously move already." Doctor spoke in Spanish, as if trying to keep Alex from listening in. "He's moving along quickly, which is good, of course. Very good."

Ah, the man just had to get that in, didn't he? Alex mused silently to himself.

"Anton, this is Almendro, the man I told you about last night, remember?" Doctor said in a placating tone to him, as if speaking to a young child.

Alex nodded his head, and thankfully, it didn't cause him too much pain.

"So," he said, turning to Almendro. "Is he to your liking?"

Almendro had been looking at Alex throughout the introductions, but changed from just looking at his face to looking at all of him, sizing him up and measuring him.

"He'll fit," Almendro said. "Make sure his hands can move steadily before taking him the the sub-shuttle. No point in telling him what he'll be doing if he can't even do it... if he can do it, however, make sure you explain to him what will happen if he tries to leave us." Almendro said this last part whilst looking directly at Alex. "And make sure he meets child one and three before he does so... so he knows he can easily be replaced."

And with that, Almendro left the room, as the doctor set about testing Alex's body parts.

-8-

Well, there you have it, another chapter – and doesn't the doctor just get on your nerves?

I've given a couple of hints as to what's coming up next for Alex, although I hope not too many – can't have you all just knowing now, or else you won't bother to read it.

So, rate and review, please :)