Rimmer waited in agony for the evening to roll around. He'd stashed the papers in a safe place back at his hotel room and now he was itching to see Dave and tell him the good news. Now all they had to do was to formulate a plan to get Dave out of the brothel and away from the eagle-eye of his so-called 'protectors'. If he was eager enough to get out, maybe he would come and stay with Rimmer at the hotel...

He forced himself to eat dinner but he was so excited he could barely swallow his food. He kept going over in his head the moment he would reveal to Dave his ingenious plan, and how wonderfully impressed he was bound to be. God, Arnie, I never realised how brilliant and resourceful you are...

By the time he made his way down the road to see him, Rimmer had developed an actual swagger.

The woman at the reception desk recognised him when he came in, "Hi there," she seemed a little flustered, "I'm afraid Dave's not taking any customers tonight. Would you like to see somebody else?" Rimmer was taken aback,

"Why isn't he seeing anybody?"

"He's sick," the woman explained, "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about; he's probably just picked up a bug. We get that a lot here. You understand." Her voice was calm, but she was definitely nervous about something and Rimmer noticed.

"Is he very ill?" he asked anxiously.

"No, no, no..." she shook her head, "He'll be fine. He just needs some rest. He'll be right as rain after a few days in bed."

Rimmer felt worry starting to drop in heavy dollops into his stomach. Even she didn't sound like she believed it, and she was trying pretty hard to convince herself. There was something wrong here.

He couldn't leave things like this. He had to know what was going on. He decided to take a risk. "If you don't mind," he said politely, "I'd quite like to take a look at him. I'm a doctor, you see. Maybe I could help." She looked up in surprise,

"You're a doctor?"

"Yes; a medical officer," he lied smoothly; "If you let me check him over there may be something I could do." She looked doubtful,

"I don't know..."

"I'd fully expect us to be chaperoned, of course," he said, "But I'd like to help if I could."

The woman bit her lip and hesitated for a second; but in the end her anxiety about the situation seemed to win out. "Okay. If you just follow me..." She led him down a corridor he'd never seen before, past a smoky room with a loud TV blaring and a large kitchen with the sounds of gossip drifting out. To one side was another door which she knocked at timidly. "Yeah, come in," an aggrieved sounding voice said. They went in.

It was a smallish room with a battered wardrobe full of boxes in one corner and a dusty sofa in the middle. Dave was lying on the sofa under a blanket with a skinny brunette girl tending to him. His breathing sounded shallow and laboured. A middle-aged man with dark hair and a cigarette was standing irritably over them both, frowning. "What is it, Rita?" he snapped at the blonde woman who'd brought Rimmer in, "And who's he?"

"He's a doctor," she said, "He wanted to see Dave and I thought it would be for the best."

"Hey, doc," the man held out a hand, "I'm Rudolph. I'm the boss of this mad-house, would you believe." Rimmer shook his hand and tried to hide his distaste,

"How do you do?"

"You did your good deed, Rita, now get back out the front, will ya? Atta girl," Rudolph said impatiently. Rita crept out. "So you wanna examine the patient?" he asked, stepping aside. "Yes, I think I should," Rimmer replied, trying to sound professional. He bent over Dave and called to him softly. No reply. He placed the back of his hand against his forehead and was shocked at how hot he was. He looked up at Rudolph, "He's got a very high fever. How long has he been like this?" Rudolph shrugged and looked at the girl. "He started feeling sick last night," she supplied; "He couldn't get out of bed this morning so we moved him down here to keep him away from the others. He's been like this all day. I don't think he's come round once. We've tried to get him to eat but..." she shrugged helplessly.

"I see," Rimmer said thoughtfully, "Have you given him any painkillers? Asprin? Something to try and..."

He paused. He looked hard at Dave. At his neck just above the collar of his shirt. He bent over him and lifted up his t-shirt. A dark, purple-red rash was spreading over his chest. Dave had menfluenza.

"Oh my God!" he jumped up, "You need to call for an ambulance now!"

"Joanie, do what he says," Rudolph snapped and the girl ran out. "What? What is it?" he asked Rimmer.

"You don't know what this means? Don't you watch the news?" Rimmer demanded. Rudolph looked at him blankly. "It's menfluenza!" Rimmer yelled at him, "It's an epidemic right now! We need to get Dave to a hospital and isolate anyone who's been in contact with him since last night. If there's the slightest sign that they're ill, they need to go to a hospital too!"

"Christ, really?" Rudolph was shocked.

"Yes, really! And if you've got any sense you'll close this place until you're certain everyone's clean!" Rimmer bundled the blanket around Dave and lifted him up into his arms. "Call Rita and tell her to clear reception. I'm taking Dave up to be ready for the ambulance." Rudolph pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and was already talking to Rita when Rimmer carried Lister out of the door.