The teams have been divided up to investigate Perfect Match. Meet your maker.
For you Hazi. Your review made me laugh. Not sure about other 'Deri' stories sorry.
"Keeping Frank busy ?" Rose asked. "He's looking worried," she added.
"Frank always worries about his teams," said Stella. "We've never lost anyone from the MI High teams. I don't plan to start now," she said crisply. Rose guessed that these words were largely for Tom's benefit. She watched his shoulders stiffen and guessed that Stella's words had done the job. Tom was all business now. He was planning to kick some technical butt.
Dan woke again, feeling a little better. He turned his head around. Keri was sitting opposite him, eating from a tray. "Hey, you're awake !" she said, brightening up. "You look better," she said, not sounding very convincing.
"I guess I had some way to go," said Dan dryly. This earned him a small smile.
"You want some food ?" asked Keri. "Oh, and you need to take these," she said, waving a small plastic cup with a couple of tablets inside. "Antibiotics. You need them for your leg, they said," she added, peering into the cup. "I guess they were telling the truth," she added dubiously.
Dan inched himself upright and leaned against the end of his bed. "We might as well assume so. They've gone to some effort to keep me alive. It would be pretty odd to kill me off now," he said. He looked across at the second tray of food. He realised that there was no way he could walk over there and pick it up.
"Oh, sorry !" said Keri. She carried the tray over and put is on his knee, then fetched him a drink of water. "Here," she said, handing him the cup and the tablets. "You'd better take them."
"Thanks Keri," said Dan. "Sorry to be a pain."
"You're not !" said Keri quickly, then looking back down at her knees. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Dan swallowed the two tablets. Although she had no idea if they were really antibiotics or not, it felt important that Dan took them. She wanted him to get better. She had no idea how long they were going to be kept alive, or what these people wanted with them. She only knew that she really needed Dan with her. The thought of being locked up alone in here scared her. Being locked up reminded her too much of KORPS.
Dan managed to eat half of his food and then gave up. "You full ?" asked Keri curiously. She had been starving and had demolished her food.
"Yeah," said Dan wearily. In truth he was too tired to eat any more. All he wanted to do was sleep. He felt like he could sleep for days. He guessed that this wasn't going to be an option in their current situation.
The door to their room opened and three men came in. One was carrying a stun stick. He glanced at Dan and then pointed the stick at Keri. One of the other men retrieved the trays of food from them both before taking them out of the room. After a few seconds he returned and the two men stood looking at Dan. "He's not going to walk," said one of the men. "What'll we do ?" he asked.
"Get the chair," said the other man. The guy left the room and returned pushing a wheelchair. "Get in !" the man ordered Dan. Dan tried to pull himself over to the side of the bed. "Oh just grab him," said the man impatiently. The two men grabbed one of Dan's arms each and hauled him off the bed and dropped him into the wheelchair. Dan grunted with pain and Keri leapt to her feet.
"Get off him ! You don't need to do that !" she shouted. The thug with the stun stick waved it at her threateningly.
"K.. ! Tanya !" grunted Dan. "No don't Tanya. It's Okay. You can't do anything," he said, kicking himself for forgetting Keri's cover name for a second. "Leave her alone !" he hissed to the men.
The men grinned nastily and stepped back from Keri. "Take him to the lab," ordered one of the men. "You don't need to tie him up. He isn't going anywhere," he added, and they wheeled him out of the room. Keri watched him go with a sinking feeling in her gut. Once the door closed behind the goon with the stun stick she kicked the leg of her bed, earning her a bruised toe and not much else. She hopped around angrily for a minute and then flopped on to her bed, staring at Dan's now empty bed. Keri dropped her head into her hands. What was going on here ? This didn't feel like KORPS. Nobody was wearing KORPS insignia and boy did those people love insignia !
xxxooooooxxxxxo
Dan sat as still as he could in the wheelchair, waiting for the throbbing in his leg to subside. They had given him antibiotics, but a painkiller wouldn't hurt would it ? Wouldn't hurt ? Ha ! A half smile lifted his upper lip. "What have you got to smile about ?" snarled one of the men, grabbing his hair and pulling his head back. "You're going to meet your maker mate !" laughed the man, dropping Dan's head. The others laughed loudly, but stopped when they came to a door. A passcard was waved in front of a keypad and the door swooshed open.
The men pushed Dan's chair into the centre of the room and stopped suddenly. "Leave him ! We'll take it from here," said a woman's voice. Dan looked around him nervously. He was in a stark, white room filled with various bits of equipment. What was this place ? A tall, slender woman with white hair, white skin and pink eyes behind thick spectacles walked up to him, glancing at an electronic tablet in her hand. "Zac Zucchero," she said to herself before staring hard at Dan. Dan felt a sweat breaking out on his forehead. Would she know ? "So, you do not look like your picture," said the woman.
"Yeah, well we were lying low. MI9 had been showing a bit too much interest," said Dan. He wished he didn't sound quite so weak. He cleared his throat in an effort to sound less feeble. "We changed our appearances," he added, looking away from the woman. She was making him nervous.
"Hm ! No matter. The underlying structure should be the same," said the woman. "Put him on the couch," she instructed. Hands grabbed Dan's chair and wheeled him over to a hospital style couch. He was lifted out of the chair and on to the bed, but much more gently than he had been taken from his and Keri's cell. Never-the-less, his leg was jarred and he couldn't help wincing at the sharp pain running up his leg. "Carefully please. We can't afford to have too much damage," ordered the woman. Dan sank back against the cushioning of the couch and tried to steel himself for what was to come. Two men wearing white hospital type outfits strapped his wrists to the sides of the bed. "I think that will do," said the woman. "He is not strong. Take the samples !" ordered the woman.
The men wired Dan up to monitors and then fitted a cannula into his wrist. They started taking blood samples. After the sixth, Dan started to wonder if he was going to have any blood left by the time they finished. He was starting to feel light-headed again. A beeping noise started behind his head. "That will do. His blood pressure is starting to drop again. Take the other samples," ordered the woman.
The men cleared away the tubes of blood and one put on fresh gloves and using a pair of tweezers started pulling individual hairs from Dan's head. It hurt a surprising amount. He guessed they were after DNA samples. "Obviously we will want to access your DNA controlled bank accounts," said the woman, smiling down at him.
Dan smiled to himself. "Yeah, good luck with that," he thought to himself. His DNA wasn't going to open anything of Zac Zucchero's. Then the thought hit him. What would happen if they tried to use his DNA while he and Keri were still here ? Then he decided that they would probably be got rid of long before that. Why did he have to think that ? This wasn't fair on Keri. Surely she had suffered enough.
"Did I say something amusing ?" demanded the woman staring at him hard. Dan froze and shook his head. What was he thinking ? He was supposed to be undercover here. A wave of dizziness swept over him and his eyelids drooped. "That will do, thankyou !" the woman ordered. "Strap him down and we will take the retina scan," she said.
The men strapped Dan firmly to the bed by his shoulders and waist before raising the top half of the bed. Once he was sitting upright they pushed a machine up to his face and pushed his chin on to a strap at the front. "Open your eyes and you will not suffer," ordered the woman. Dan felt tired and dizzy. His eyelids were drooping again. "Awake I said !" snapped the woman and Dan felt someone squeeze his sore leg. He groaned in pain, opening his eyes wide. "That's better," she said. There was a clicking and whirring noise from the machinery. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds the noise stopped and his leg was released. Dan whimpered as the machine was pulled away from his face. "Nearly done," said the woman. "The scanner !" ordered the woman. One of the men lowered the bed down flat again and another machine was pulled over the bed. "There will be a bright light. You should close your eyes and keep perfectly still," instructed the woman. Dan had no problem with that instruction. His eyes were barely shut when he sensed blinding light through his closed eyelids. Lights played on to his face for an age. "Good. All done. Take him back," ordered the woman.
Dan was put back in the wheelchair and taken back to the cell with Keri. The men dumped him on his bed. He heard a muffled cry followed by Keri calling out, "Zac ! Oh God Zac !" as the men left the room. Keri ran over to Dan's side and he felt her lifting his head slightly. "Dan ? What did they do to you ?" whispered Keri. She sounded really worried.
Dan felt exhausted. "Just tests and scans," he managed to whisper. Keri wrapped her arm around his shoulder, hugging him close. "It's Okay," whispered Dan. "We'll be Okay." His eyes closed and he drifted off into an exhausted sleep. Keri kept hugging him close, angrily wiping tears from her eyes. She was going to get them for this. They were going to pay, big time !