You know, I have to admit I'm glad I'm not Jack. I get so worried for Alex whenever he goes off doing his 'detective' stuff, but she's his guardian - she must be insanely worried. Worried sick. As worried as if she was Lord Voldemort after discovering that Harry Potter had destroyed all his horcruxes. I swear Alex actually goes looking for trouble, it's really not good for the nerves. But I'll get to that bit later, let's just start at the beginning.
Alex has to go to the headmaster's office, as he evidently ran off during the school trip and only joined them on the bus later (although he and Tom put out the story that he'd "fallen out the window"...). I know the Head didn't have much choice in the matter, and he does seem like a genuinely nice, fair person, but given the real circumstances, it was so unfair that he excluded Alex. It was only for a day, but still thinking about all he'd been through it would be nice for Alex to have a break wouldn't it?
Oh, but don't worry, because Alex manages to make the day of some use (well that's one way to call it). He somehow remembers hearing Straik and McCain talking when he was in the office with them, and they mentioned Myra Bennett (the boring Dr who welcomed them to Greenfields) going to somewhere called Elm's Cross. Rather than going back home and doing homework like any normal boy, Alex decides to look this place up, discovers it's in London, and gets a taxi there.
How many of you would ever do this kind of thing? It happens in Harry Potter as well: despite knowing that what they're dealing with is dangerous, despite Alex knowing that he was shot at repeatedly just the day before, he decides to go back and investigate more. Why? He must know from all his experience that it's not a good idea and yet he still does it. He does note this: he realises that instead of being someone who is used by MI6, they have turned him into someone who wants to be used by them. He can no longer help but satisfy his curiosity, and maybe no longer trusts MI6 to get it right.
He arrives at Elm's Cross and it is an old, apparently disused film studio. It doesn't appear to have CCTV of any kind so, being Alex, he saunters right in. After finding nothing other than old props, Alex hears voices: one belonging to Dr Bennett, and two other men. They are all leaving, and what they were saying didn't seem to be significant. Now I've said that it probably will be, but just this once I'm not going to hypothesise. They all leave and Alex wanders around the set. It's of an African village - one with mudhuts and spears that you see in old films - and it's littered with dead bodies. Not real ones: all made by the props department, and mostly animals. Alex finds them repulsive, so they must have been really horrible, but I didn't get much of a sense of it.
The door the people left from has been chained and bolted, and Alex has to find another way out. I was feeling nervous about this because it's not like Horowitz to lock Alex in somewhere and not include another threat. I couldn't imagine Alex escaping in no hurry. Of course, that was when the fire started.
I really, really don't want to criticise these books because I do honestly think they're fantastic, but here I couldn't help but think, "Here we go again". I know these books are about adventure and escaping etc, but I just feel like we've had this scenario one too many times. Not only in this book (although we have had three near-death experiences in 245 pages) but throughout the series. And don't you dare say I'm getting too old, because I refuse to be too old for children's books. It's just maybe Horowitz does it in the same way, making it out that Alex is about to die and then saying, oh no don't worry he manages again, when it's obvious he's not going to die because I'm only half way through the book. I can't quite articulate what feels wrong here, but hopefully I don't feel it again!! I truly love these books!
So anyway, back to the fire! Now Alex is really in need of an escape (he's guessed that the three people deliberately set fire to the place, after recalling something McCain said before). He decides that the ventilation shaft will be big enough for him to crawl through and he climbs up a ladder (too convenient??) and bangs open a panel and climbs in. It's like an oven in there, and he has a long way to go and it's very slow progress, so it was definitely tense: especially when he got to the end and the grill that led outside wouldn't open and he saw a ball of fire travelling along the chite, BUT of course he managed to kick open the grill just in time and landed unhurt on the ground and limped away to safety. I don't want to say obviously there, but I'm so tempted. THAT'S NOT A CRITICISM! Just saying.
No comments:
Post a Comment