PART 8
Marcus ran as fast as he could. He knew he had to reach Susan but, every time he turned a corner there was yet another long corridor to go down. Desperation made him run faster, perspiration broke out on his forehead and ran down his face. He brushed the drops away from his eyes and turned another corner. He stopped. Susan lay on the ground in front of him, motionless.
With a small cry he ran forward and fell to his knees beside her then pulled her body into his arms. "Susan, wake up," he implored. When he got no response, he shook her body slightly. "Susan…please," he begged in a whisper.
Her eyes opened suddenly and he drew in a sharp breath. Marcus, I love you. The words appeared in his mind even though the woman in his arms hadn't opened her mouth, then her eyes closed again and a feeling of dread overcame him, as he knew she was dead.
"Susan!" Marcus called out as he awoke with a start. He looked around Medlab, rapidly blinking away traces of sleep. His racing heart gradually slowed and he let out a sigh if relief as he realised he'd just had a bad dream. Susan was in her quarters sleeping. He ran a tired hand through his hair then, suddenly, his hand froze and his eyes widened in surprise as Susan's voice swam hazily in his head.
Marcus, I love you.
The Ranger immediately looked up half expecting to see her standing in the doorway and then shook his head. 'You're just remembering the dream,' he told himself sternly. Or was he? Marcus stood as the cold, sinking feeling of his nightmare unexpectedly returned and he walked quickly over to a comms unit placing a call to Ivanova.
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"Dump the body in Down Below," Jess ordered as she stood over the now motionless Ivanova. "Make sure it's somewhere that it won't be found for a few weeks." She grabbed a bag and threw it at the two men. "Here, put this on her so she won't be recognised."
Adam nodded and opened the bag to reveal a dirty, foul smelling robe with a hood. He and Paul struggled, but eventually, they managed to clothe the lifeless body. They then picked her up and stood on each side to drag her along between them as though they were helping a drunken friend.
Jess opened the door and checked the corridor. "OK, it's all clear. Take her away and be back here by 0900 tomorrow."
The two men half dragged, half carried Ivanova out of the room and away down the corridor. Jess watched them until they were out of sight then, after hearing a beep from the room behind her, she went back in.
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Marcus breathed a sigh of relief as Susan's face appeared on the screen in front of him. "Susan, you're safe," he began with a shaky laugh. "I've just had the weirdest dream."
"Oh? What about?" the woman at the other end of the link asked.
A picture of Ivanova laying limp in his arms flashed into the Rangers mind and he shook his head slightly. "Oh it was nothing. Just my imagination working overtime," he dismissed lightly. "I'm sorry I woke you."
"I wasn't sleeping," she informed him. "I wanted to change first."
Marcus smiled and nodded. "Have a good rest, Susan."
"I will."
The screen blinked off and Marcus sighed thinking about how much better he'd felt better just seeing her face. Suddenly, his reverie was interrupted by a series of bleeps going off behind him. He turned and gasped in dismay as he saw a monitor in Duncan's room was going haywire. This was it.
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A beep on a console monitor in Franklin's office alerted the night nurse who was busy with a report. She looked at the readings and hurriedly pushed a button on the audio comms unit by her side.
"Franklin. What's up?" came a tired voice over the system.
"Doctor, it's Nurse Andrews in Medlab. You asked me to let you know if there was any change in the vital signs for the patient called Duncan."
"Yeah. And?"
"I think we're losing him," she replied and heard Franklin sigh deeply.
"I'll be right there."
The nurse terminated the call and looked back at the monitor again with a sigh. The life signs were weaker and she felt sad for the young man that was keeping such a steady bedside vigil. 'Still,' she comforted herself as she walked out of the office and towards the room Duncan was in, 'at least his wait would soon be at an end.'
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Jess terminated the link with Marcus and switched the comms unit off. 'That was close,' she thought. She couldn't afford a slip up now, not when they were so close.
She looked at her surroundings and then made her way into the bedroom. Idly, she looked through Ivanova's clothes and personal belongings hoping to find something interesting.
"Nothing," she grumbled out loud as she slammed a drawer shut and sat down on the bed. "This woman is so boring." As she sat, she let her legs swing slightly and they suddenly came into contact with something solid beneath the bed. Curiously, Jess bent over and peered into the darkness. She saw it was a suitcase and dragged it out.
Not expecting to find anything more interesting than she already had, Jess opened it to find some clothes and a small rectangular wooden box sitting in there. She ignored the drab brown clothing and picked up the box, letting the suitcase lid close with a snap.
Upon opening the box, she saw a short cylindrical piece of metal, a few papers and an ornate brooch. She immediately picked up the pin and tossed the box onto the floor at her feet where the papers fell out and the tube of metal rolled away across the room, clinking softly as it came to rest against a wall.
Examining the piece in her hand, she saw it had a dark, almost black, coloured jewel in the centre with a human figure one side and a Minbari figure the other. 'A Ranger pin', she suddenly realised and smiled in delight. These were worth a small fortune on the black market. The mission just kept getting better and better.
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Franklin hurried along the corridor and entered MedLab where Nurse Andrews immediately approached him. "I'm sorry to have dragged you out of bed, Dr. Franklin, but it was a false alarm," she told him apologetically. "One of the monitor wires had worked itself loose so I put it back and the readings are still low but stable."
Franklin sighed. "Not to worry. I'll just take a quick look at him while I'm here anyway." He went into Duncan's room and glanced at Marcus who was sat by the patient's bedside. Worry was etched into the Rangers features as he stared at the old man on the bed.
"You need to get some sleep," the doctor advised sternly. "You shouldn't be pushing yourself this early into your recuperation."
"I'm fine," Marcus replied quietly.
"As your doctor, I could order you to take that rest," Franklin warned.
"Yes, but as my friend, you won't," Marcus retorted knowingly.
Franklin let out another sigh then turned to check the monitor readings.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Marcus suddenly asked. "You must have known how ill he was."
The doctor looked at him and nodded. "I did. But he asked me not to tell you. He thought he'd be gone before you had a chance to find out." He expected the Ranger to be angry and was surprised when his friend merely gave a sad smile.
"I suspected as much," Marcus admitted. "Duncan wouldn't want to worry or upset me. He wanted my return to be a happy one."
Franklin nodded and patted him gently on the shoulder. "Goodnight, Marcus," he said as he walked out of the room.
"Night, Stephen," the Ranger replied and went back to his vigil.
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Adam and Paul dropped the body of Ivanova in the dark corner of a foul smelling room in the depths of Down Below.
"What's that disgusting smell?" Paul asked as he wrinkled his nose up in revulsion.
"Probably sewerage," Adam replied and waved his hand in front of his face in a vain attempt at dispelling the rank odour. "Let's go back to that bar we passed about ten minutes ago. We can wait there until the morning."
Paul nodded his agreement and the two men walked quickly away. They hadn't gone far when Adam suddenly stopped and ran his hands through his pockets. He looked at Paul in concern and said, "I think I've dropped my watch. I'd better go back and see if I can find it. I don't want any leads back to me."
"You stupid fool!" exclaimed the other man. "Come on, lets go back and…"
"No, I'll go," Adam interrupted quickly and made a show of looking at him closely. "You don't look too good, it must be the stench down here. Why don't you go on and I'll catch you up."
Paul reluctantly agreed and walked off unhappily. Adam waited until the other man was out of sight then ran back to Ivanova's prone body. He parted the robe and pushed back the hood, then placed his fingers to her neck. He smiled as he felt the faint pulse beating excruciatingly slow under his touch.
After a quick glance around, he pulled out a syringe and a small vial from his trouser pocket. Filling the empty hypodermic to the appropriate line, he then placed it at Ivanova's neck and slowly pushed the plunger in. Once done, he threw the offending object away and again held his fingers to her throat. The pulse was a little stronger and he knew that eventually it would return to its normal pattern.
Heaving a relieved sigh, he carefully pulled the hood forward to re-cover her face and wrapped the robe around her again for warmth. His job was done, Ivanova was going to live but he knew she wouldn't be in any state to be a threat to them before they completed their work on Babylon 5 the next day. Happy with his work, he stood up and headed along the dirty corridor and on towards the bar to meet Carrington.
END PART 8