"Frank!" Stella yelled, her voice a shrill cry of desperation.
She was on surveillance for the mission, watching the LCD screen intently. She could see and hear the team as if she were with them, and she wished desperately that she was. But she was here at HQ, miles from her friends and comrades, and worst of all, they hadn't given her access to comms, so she could only whisper frantically at the indifferent screen as if Frank, Hyperia and the others could hear her.
The KORPS base was deserted, and a long-range missile warming up. But that wasn't all - the base had been booby-trapped. Hyperia had lost her life to a laser beam through the heart, oblivious to Stella's screams of anguish as she watched her friend perish, twenty miles away. Frank had been injured by a falling a lead ball and was now limping through the mission. Her heart in her mouth, Stella watched, helpless and frightened, hoping he and the remaining members of the team could stop the missile and get out alive.
Dan had been monitoring Villi's communications whilst Tom worked on the antidote for Stella. He did not like what he was hearing. He turned to Frank, seeing that he was still on the ground, cradling Stella in his arms. Dan changed his mind, and decided to tell Tom first.
"Tom."
"Dan, I'm busy," Tom said as his right hand hovered steadily over a microcentrifuge tube, a micropipette in his hand.
"Tom, Villi have encoded instructions to walk to the banks of the nearest river into a radio transmission that they plan to send over Squizzle FM in an hour's time." Dan said evenly, not wanting to surprise Tom and have him mess up what he was doing.
"Blackmail material," Tom said, understanding immediately. "Millions of people about to jump into a river. KORPS could ask for anything."
"Exactly. Tom, I'm sorry. Stella's important, but we serve the greater good," Dan said. "We need the antidote for the EX37 and Energite mixture."
"Dan, can you get Frank in here to help me?" Tom asked. "With his help we can get both antidotes sorted in time."
"Got it," Dan said, nodding, and turned to fetch Frank.
Dan had expected Frank to be highly reluctant to leave Stella alone. But Frank knew that Stella would be furious with him if he didn't help Tom with the antidotes, so he went without argument. He got Dan to place Stella on a stretcher so she'd be more comfortable (as if she were conscious to the real world) and disappeared into the adjoining room to help Tom.
Aneisha, coming back from a toilet break, was annoyed to discover that Frank was needed in the makeshift lab. This couldn't be good for Stella's current hallucination.
Stella watched the screen in anticipation. Frank was making his way, very cautiously, to the main control room where he might have a chance of disabling the missile. He limped in the room and approached the computer, beginning type frantically on the keyboard.
"Come on, Frank," Stella urged under her breath.
Stella saw it before Frank did, on the large LCD screen in HQ. The door to the main control room was closing on its own.
"No, Frank, get out!" Stella cried, as if Frank could somehow hear her.
Almost as if he did, Frank turned and looked a the door. It was deadlocked now, and some sort of gas was leaking into the room from all four walls, engulfing Frank in its midst. There was no doubt that this was toxic.
Frank looked directly at the camera and saluted. Stella wanted to punch from the screen and pull him to safety.
"If you can hear me, Stella," Frank said into his microphone, guessing correctly that Stella was on surveillance. "I love you."
The room filled with thick smoke and Frank was obscured from view, never to be seen again.
"I love you too," Stella whispered, her eyes full of tears and her throat hoarse from screaming at the uncaring LCD screen. She didn't even notice when the rest of the team, trapped by the blast doors that Frank had managed to close, were incinerated by the missile.
"Okay, the Electrolite antidote's good for Stella," Tom said to Frank, who was busy finishing off the EX37 and Energite antidote.
"Thanks, Tom," Frank said. "This one's done too."
They swapped bottles, and Frank took Tom's Electrolite antidote into a syringe.
"Tell Dan and Keri to get the other antidote through the air at as many public places as possible," Frank said to Tom, who nodded and walked away.
Frank took the loaded syringe and grabbed a first aid kit, walking quickly into the main room where Stella lay. She was quiet and unmoving, but salty tears leaked from her closed eyes. Frank didn't want to think about what she was experiencing.
It was a miracle that his hands were steadied when he injected the antidote into her vein, dabbing away the blood with a piece of cotton and applying a firm bandage. He sat back and waited. The antidote should take effect as soon as it got through her system and she would wake up.
Anticipation and dread filled Frank's heart as he wondered what Stella had seen and heard and felt. I'm going to destroy Villi, Frank thought. i'm going to give them what they deserve.