The Soul Collectors

19

The doctor grabbed her wrist. With her left hand Darby grabbed his index finger and swiftly bent it backwards, breaking it at the bottom of the digit.

The man howled. He clutched his wrist and stared at the broken finger as he staggered away. He hit the wall and tumbled sideways to the floor.

An alarm sounded, loud and piercing. Bright red lights started blinking from the walls.

Darby hopped off the bed. The doctor was lying on his back, howling. She straddled him. He tried striking at her with his good hand. She slapped it away and grabbed him by the throat, pinning him to the floor.

'Exposure to any nerve agent, especially sarin gas, results in immediate symptoms,' she yelled over the alarm. 'If I had been infected, not only would I have shown symptoms by now, you would have remembered to turn on your respirator before coming into my room.'

She ripped the mask off his face and said, 'Tell me why you're keeping me locked up in here.'

He sucked in air, his face a mottled red. He said something but she couldn't hear him over the alarm.

'What was that?' she yelled, leaning closer.

'Orders,' he gasped.

'Whose orders?'

'Please,' he begged. 'Please.'

Out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of movement.

Darby looked up and saw two men, one tall and white with a blond crew cut, the other a burly Hispanic man with a shaved head, standing beyond the Plexiglas door. Both wore suits, ties and sidearms on their hips; she saw the slight bulge underneath their jackets.

Feds.

The tall white guy with the crew cut waved a badge in front of the keycard reader. Darby got to her feet. She started running as the door opened.

Crew Cut thought he could grab her and toss her against the floor. He came at her with both hands and she knocked them away, then raked him across the face with her elbow. She heard his nose break before his head snapped back. As his hands flew to his face, she planted her knee deep in his groin and turned to the Hispanic guy, who was reaching underneath his suit jacket.

Darby hit him once in the solar plexus, throwing all of her weight behind the punch. His breath caught in his throat. He tried sucking in air and when he turned she landed two solid shots to his kidneys.

Weeping came from behind her. She turned and saw the doc huddled in the corner of the room, staring at his broken finger. Crew Cut was lying sideways on the blue-padded floor, gagging up blood. It spilled down his chest, covering his shirt and two-dollar tie. He coughed and spat up blood. While she was dealing with his partner, Crew Cut had somehow managed to release his sidearm, a nine, and was pointing it at her.

Not a nine. The shape of the handgun was wrong, the magazine long and fat.

A puff of air and something sharp pierced her thigh.

A dart.

Darby pulled it free. The dart tip was gone, stuck in her thigh muscle, burning as it dissolved. He'd shot her with a tranquillizer, like she was some sort of unruly zoo animal.

Maybe I am, she thought, her knees starting to feel watery. They've got to keep me tamed. They've been pumping drugs into me to keep me tame. They want to keep me here, they don't want to let me go just yet because… they… because…

She suddenly became aware of her body, of her accelerating heart pumping the drug through her system, flushing her skin. Crew Cut was no longer interested in her. He had stumbled to his feet and now had the wall phone gripped in his hand, saying something about bringing a gurney around to the front — at least that was what she thought he was saying. The man's voice sounded garbled, as though she were listening to him from deep under water.

They're not wearing biohazard gear, she thought.

Then: I'm not infected — I never was infected.

The room's colours grew brighter, more intense. Darby saw Crew Cut swipe the back of his hand across his shattered nose. He examined the blood, bright red and gleaming underneath the overhead lights, and listened to whoever was speaking on the other end of the line as she tumbled against the padded floor, the room spinning her into darkness.