Chapter 13
Ara Malloy narrowed her eyes at Sophia as she slowly moved one hand to her left breast pocket and raised the other slowly.
"What the fuck do you think you’re doing?" Dr. Malloy snarled.
Before Sophia could answer, the barrel of another gun pressed against the small of the doctor’s back. Duo leaned forward and spoke into her ear.
"Move the hand. Now."
The whisper, delivered in such a deadly calm, stopped Dr. Malloy in her tracks. She put both hands in the air before letting out a defeated sigh.
Sophia stood, the gun still pointed at the doctor’s head. She stared at Dr. Malloy while casually slipping the weapon from her right hand to her left. Sophia pressed it to the hollow of the startled woman’s neck as she moved her right hand to the pocket of the lab coat.
The doctor, stuck between the barrels of two guns, could only scowl at Sophia as she pulled a scalpel from the pocket.
Sophia shook her head in mock disappointment as she tapped the scalpel against the lapel of the coat. Her eyes glistened merrily as she held up the instrument between their faces.
"I prefer anesthetics prior to being sliced and diced, doctor."
Dr. Malloy said nothing as Duo began talking from behind her and Sophia resumed rummaging through her coat.
"Our supervisors dearly wants to have a chat with you, doctor. In fact we all wanna have one. So what you’re gonna do is go out and do your rounds for 30 minutes. I’ll call for you and when we’re done with our ‘phone call’," Duo said, stressing the fact the call would be him checking up on her, "you’ll tell someone in charge you have to leave for a week starting now. Make up an excuse why. And don’t even think about leaving here without meeting up with us again. Say you have to pick up notes you left in here. Remember, we have eyes and ears all over this hospital. They’ll shoot your kneecaps off before you have a chance to step in the wrong direction. Clear?" he finished. His voice had grown colder with each passing sentence until it was like listening to ice cracking.
The doctor suddenly seemed to get her voice back. "I will not ask again. Why are you doing this?"
Sophia was finished searching through her coat and reached for the communicator strapped to her waist. "Well, it’s like this. We have proof you’ve been on X18999 aiding a young rebel. As well as on earth."
Dr. Malloy’s eyes widened for a moment but then returned to their pissed off stare. Her voice was like a whip-crack when she answered. "I have never been to X18-whatever it was. You have no such evidence. And if you would kindly replace my communicator, I would appreciate it. It contains only personal information. Besides, you’d never be able to crack the code."
Sophia punched a few buttons in response and a voice cheerfully greeted her, stating the date and time. She smiled at the slack-jawed doctor.
"You were saying something about a code?"
"Bitch," Ara Malloy growled under her breath.
"Thank you," Sophia answered, punching buttons and opening folders.
"Voice mail to and from Khushrenada Memorial on X18999, passport use to X18999 for the past 3 months…that looks like evidence to me. How about you Duo?"
He grinned and spun the doctor so she could see both of the Preventers. Sophia punched a few more buttons before slapping the communicator into the doctor’s palm. She narrowed her eyes suddenly.
"Quatre. What’ll happen to Quatre?"
Dr. Malloy looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "The same thing that’ll happen to all of my patients. Quatre will be seen by an attending physician. All of my notes are dictated as well, so there are a few different places they can get the information they need on him. As it is, he should have the bandages off tomorrow and be out of the hospital off all meds in a week."
"Good."
At the same time, both guns disappeared back into the shoulder holsters. Sophia turned the doctor to leave. "Now go. Be back in half an hour, or we’ll find you. And it won’t be fun."
Her threat seemed to take seed, for Dr. Malloy nodded before opening the door.
"Thank you so much, Dr. Malloy. You’ve been a big help with Quatre," Duo said, loud enough for passersby to hear, smiling.
Dr. Malloy smiled back, though it was forced. She pointed to the empty table behind them. "Feel free to stay awhile and look over the noted I have on him," she said with a quick wink. She closed the door firmly behind her and the two Preventers moved to sit in the chairs.
"I really hope she bought the crap about the ‘eyes and ears’ and stays in the building. It’d be a bitch to go after her," Duo said as he slumped into the seat.
Sophia smiled at him, patting her own communicator strapped to her hip. "It won’t be a problem. I linked our communicators. If she goes a mile or more away from mine, GPS warns me and signals her location to me." She sat next to him as he chuckled and glanced at the clock.
"Well, 20 minutes before I call her."
"20? I thought she got half an hour," Sophia mused, raising one eyebrow just slightly.
Duo grinned and leaned back in the chair. "Yeah, I said 30 minutes, but I’ll give her 20. It’ll keep her on her toes."
Sophia laughed heartily at this before un-strapping her communicator and laying it in her lap. They stared at each other for a moment, then Duo crossed his arms over his chest and cleared his throat.
"So… we’ve got 20 minutes. Whatcha wanna do?"
Their eyes met again and twin grins appeared on their faces. ****************************************************************************
"Oh, God," Sophia moaned, eyes closed in ecstasy. "It’s so good, Duo. Tell me there’s more."
He grinned, delighted at her open display of pleasure.
"Oh, yeah. There’s more, Soph."
He picked up the coffee pot and poured more of the hot liquid into her empty mug. She immediately drank half the contents and sat back happily in her chair.
"Where," Sophia gasped, staring at Duo in complete admiration, "did you learn to make coffee like that? It was incredible!"
Duo chuckled before stretching himself out onto the chair. "You forget. I can’t see clearly in the morning unless I have coffee, so I had to learn how to forage on my own."
He glanced at the clock now reading 2 minutes before he was going to call. He got up and walked to the courtesy phone hanging on the wall by the door. Taking out a little black box from his jacket pocket, he unwrapped the cords and plugged the free end into the phone.
"Is that a scrambler?" Sophia asked, rising from the chair to stand near him. Duo nodded in the affirmative.
"Yep," he said, watching the dots fly across the screen depicting a world map. They little dots never stayed in place for more than a seconds. Duo picked up the phone and dialed the main number to the hospital.
A few moments later a person picked up, and Duo cut her off in her introductory spiel.
"Hi. I’m placing an urgent call to Dr. Ara Malloy for her family. Please get her on the line, this is an emergency."
"Hold on just a minute, sir."
Duo grinned at Sophia over the receiver as hold music played in his ear. Suddenly Dr. Malloy’s voice answered.
"Yes?"
"Okay. Make your excuses and get back here."
"Oh my god! Are you joking? Is this some sort of sick prank? Who are you?!"
"Nice performance. Wrap it up and get moving."
Dr. Malloy’s voice dropped to a low whisper. "So she died on impact. Tell my father I’ll be there immediately." With that she hung up. ****************************************************************************
5 minutes after Duo called Dr. Malloy, she opened the door to the waiting room, carrying her briefcase, and had changed into a dress suit and was carrying her scrubs. She looked expectantly at them as they rose to leave.
"What about my car?"
Duo smiled. "I’ll drive it. You’ll go with Sophia."
Grumbling about men and their awful driving habits, Dr. Malloy allowed the Preventers to walk her through the halls. They left through the back exit and made their way around the building to the parking lot. Duo took the keys from Dr. Malloy and, after taking her hospital pass and license plate number, left to go find the car. Sophia led her over to the Explorer.
They both got into the car and Sophia started the engine, putting the car into drive and she spoke to the doctor.
"Try anything funny and I won’t hesitate in shooting you."