Bile rose up in my throat, the taste of it strong and terrible on my tongue. Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic, Lloyd. I needed not to panic. I needed to stay calm.
"What do you mean, I have a tracker in me?" I hissed, flinging my arms open wide in panic.
Okay, so much for staying calm.
Misako looked almost as alarmed as I felt. "I'm not certain you do. It looks like you do, but I'm sure there could be other explanations. I'm a vet, after all; I don't know if there are human medical devices that could resemble a microchip tracker. There might be."
"'Might be' isn't good enough," I said frantically, grabbing at my forearm with my other hand as if I could pull the tracker right out from under my skin. In that moment, I would've swore I could feel it there, threatening me. "If there's a chance it's a tracker, then I'm doomed. I need it out. Get it out!"
Misako took a deep breath and looked at the X-ray pictures again. After a few moments, she stated apologetically, "I don't think it's possible to get it out. Being able to perform surgery would require that the muscles and nerves be out of the way, and that's just not what it looks like. In fact, your muscles and nerves seem to have grown over and around the chip, like it's been there for a long time, likely many years. It's just not possible to get it out."
At some point, I should've gotten used to the constant difficulties that made up being me. The terrible childhood as a science experiment alone should have made me unable to be shocked at my life being awful. Apparently not, though, because I was shook to the core by this revelation. How was this possible? How was it possible for things to be this bad? My last few days had been a roller-coaster ride of pure horrible, and this only made it worse. How was I supposed to rescue Zane if the whitecoats would be able to track him down using me whenever they wanted to do so?
A voice pierced through my despairing thoughts, actually, two voices. They were low and calm, like the speakers hadn't a worry in the world, and they were asking the receptionists if they'd seen anything unusual lately.
The receptionists were saying "no" to all the questions, but they didn't know the truth. I was something unusual, and I had a feeling that I was exactly the kind of unusual those two low voices were looking for.
Misako glanced at me, and her eyebrows rose. I didn't know what she saw on my face, but it was apparently enough to make her take action. "Lloyd, come over here."
She walked to a thin door in the far wall and opened it, revealing a small closet.
"I'm not sure who we're hearing, but by the look on your face, I'm guessing whoever they are, you want nothing to do with them," Misako said quickly and quietly. "You can hide in here. I'll take care of it."
I raced over to the closet and tucked myself into it, hiding behind several long white lab coats. Misako shut the door and I was covered in darkness. My heartrate was through the roof, but I forced my breathing to stay slow and steady. If this led to a fight, I would need to be ready, and I couldn't be ready if I was hyperventilating.
Before I could do more than take a few slow, steady breaths, I heard a door open. My body tensed, my hands closing into fists and my chest going tight. This was it.
"Excuse me, what are you doing?" Misako asked loudly. "You can't come barging into places like this. What if I had been doing a procedure? Who gave you the right to come in here?"
"We don't mean to disturb you," one of the low voices from before said, as smooth as a hot knife going through butter. "We have some important business to discuss with you."
"Then go back into the waiting room and make a consultation appointment," Misako said coolly. "We're really rather busy right now. Perhaps you can get in next week."
"I'm afraid we can't wait that long. We're in search of some information for a case," the other low voice stated. Exactly what I was afraid of.
"A case of what?" Misako asked.
"I can't tell you much, only that law enforcement is involved. We're quite sorry, but we do need to ask you some questions immediately," the first voice said, implying a level of urgency. My tension rose further. This couldn't be a coincidence. They were Serpentine, they had to be.
"Questions about what? This is a veterinary office, not a detective's parlor, we won't have much information for you," Misako said coolly.
"We understand. However, you still may be able to help. Have you had any unusual patients as of late?" The second voice asked.
That's when it hit me: my X-rays. They were still on display in the corner. If the Serpentine took a good look at the pictures, they'd figure it out, and then Misako and I were screwed. As if this couldn't get any more tense…
"Unusual patients," Misako repeated skeptically. "Like what? I mean, I had a hairless cat come in the other day, some people would consider that unusual. Cats are supposed to have fur, after all."
"More like a patient that wasn't quite what you expected, or even a person who wasn't quite normal," the first voice explained.
"Most of my patients aren't quite what I expect. You'd be surprised, vets get a lot of weird cases. A few weeks ago, I even had an owner claim he was bringing in his cat but it was actually a Chihuahua," Misako stated.
"What about people? Unusual people? Kids who don't listen to instructions, or teenagers who don't meet your eyes?" The second voice pressed.
Misako laughed harshly. "Kids who don't listen to instructions and teenagers who won't make eye contact? Have you ever met a kid or a teenager? Those are far from unusual; those are pretty much par for the course. In fact, I think I'd be more surprised to meet a perfectly obedient child or a respectful teen."
The voices were silent for a moment, and I mentally gave Misako an emphatic pair of thumbs way up. She was rocking this.
"If you don't have any more questions, and I would assume by your silence you don't, then I'll have to ask you to leave. And right away, at that. As I said, we're quite busy," Misako stated, and her voice began to get further and further away and more and more muffled.
"Let us leave you with our card in case you do run into something unusual," the first voice said, barely audible in the distance.
"The next time I get a hairless cat in as a patient, you'll be the first to know," Misako said, voice dripping with so much contempt I felt withered by it even from such a ways away.
A door slammed forcefully, and immediately, I heard Misako state, "If those two two come by here again, don't let them back. If they try to force you to, call the police. Something's up with them, and I don't want whatever that something is impacting us here."
"You got it," one of the receptionists agreed.
A few moments later, the closet door opened and Misako said quietly, "You know who those two were, don't you."
It wasn't much of a question. I didn't give much of an answer, just pressing my lips together firmly and avoiding her gaze as I stepped out into the X-ray room.
Misako sighed. "I see."
"I need to leave," I told her, still not looking at her. "Now."
Misako sighed again. "I don't think I can stop you, but I will ask you to reconsider. Give yourself one more night to heal, one more night at the least. Your injuries could really use it."
I thought for a moment, weighing the consequences.
"If you push yourself too soon, your injuries will only get worse, not better," Misako reminded me.
Now it was my turn to sigh. It was true, after all. "Okay. Yeah. One more night."