They put Dottie back in a cell, anyway. This one is smaller than the last, but otherwise there's not much to distinguish it from any of the other cells she's spent time in before. She paces around and measures the number of steps from one side to the other, inspects the cot and the toilet for anything that might be useful, and examines the steel door. Nothing to work with. She opens the blouse she got from Peggy to look at the stab wound. It hurts, but somehow the makeshift stitches have still held and there are no early signs of infection. Part of her wants to laugh. Well, at least when Whitney Frost comes for her, her insides won't be all over the floor…
Dottie supposes that other people would use this time to reflect, but she's never seen the point. She is, however, exhausted. She hasn't slept in over twenty four hours and it's starting to catch up with her—no wonder she felt her control slipping back at the warehouse. No food, either, but there's nothing to be done about that. Dottie's gone hungry before.
She lies down and is on the verge of drifting off when the door swings open. She doesn't bother getting up or looking to see who it is, but she can tell from the footsteps that it's a heavier man. Not Peggy, not Sousa. Not Whitney Frost.
"Underwood," the man says. "Dr. Wexford is here to conduct your psych evaluation."
Dottie smiles. "Show her in."
She sits up. The door is closed and nobody is there. Suddenly Dottie feels nauseous. She would vomit if her stomach weren't empty. When she gets out of here—if she gets out of here—she will kill Whitney Frost if it's the last thing she does, for what the woman has done to her. After that, Dottie has no plans.
She gets up and paces again. The other spy was right—Dottie can run, but only for so long. Eventually, she'll make a mistake or get unlucky. But if the choice is between running or sitting and waiting for them to come to her, then she will run as far as she can. She is resourceful; she will survive. The first step is getting out of this place.
It turns out she doesn't have long to wait. She hears footsteps in the hall, so quiet she almost misses them. It's the quietness that puts her on full alert. Dottie is injured and has nothing to use as a weapon, so she knows surprise is the only way she will win this one. The first few seconds are crucial. She plants herself along the wall next to the door and braces herself as it opens.
The moment the other spy steps through the door with her gun raised, Dottie grabs her by her outstretched arm and slams her into the wall. The gun goes off and the bullet ricochets off the floor. Dottie is able to knock the gun out of the other woman's hand, but not before she gets an elbow to the stomach. It's a hard enough blow that she almost stumbles, which would be a fatal mistake. Instead, Dottie grabs her by the hair and shoves her headfirst into the hard metal corner of the cot and finishes with a swift kick to the head. The woman drops to the floor, shuddering.
Dottie retrieves the gun and checks the silencer. The weight is comforting in her hand. She regards the other woman lying almost unconscious on the ground. Comrade, she would have called her once. Sister.
"Goodbye," Dottie says, and shoots. She closes the door behind her and doesn't look back.
Dottie realizes something is not quite right about the SSR as she makes her way cautiously down the hall. Something is making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. It's too quiet, too empty.
It's also dawning on her that even if she does find Whitney Frost, she doesn't know how to kill her. She's dealing with something far bigger and more powerful than herself. But Peggy and Sousa had found a way before to expel the zero matter, so it must be possible. What was it they had talked about on the drive back to the SSR? A gamma cannon?
The floor is shaking, just barely. Dottie freezes and looks down to see a white rat go running past her feet. And then another one, and then another one. Suddenly there are dozens and dozens of white rats spilling out the door at the very end of the hallway, all skittering in the other direction, squeaking in fear.
Dottie forces down the bile rising in her throat. She can still turn around. Run the other way. She remembers the way Frost reached out and grabbed her, how it felt to be devoured from the inside out, unable to move, unable to scream. After Frost left, she sobbed until she couldn't breathe. And then when the chance came, she ran scared, like a rabbit. Like a rat.
The rats vanish as swiftly as they appeared. Whitney Frost's voice drifts down the hall. "Come out, little spy. I know you're there."
