Chapter Ten
Mickey let out an angry sigh while he leaned up against the iron door. Martha and Rose were sitting across the cement room on a dirty cot. The cell was windowless and the only other things in the room were a light bulb suspended from the ceiling and a ventilation duct next to it.
"How long they gonna keep us in here?" Mickey asked.
"As long as they want to apparently," Martha replied. "We were in Za'tiria's room without permission, not to mention we lied to the police about who we were."
"And since the government seems to be covering up this whole Nok flu, then I'm sure they won't give a tinker's cuss about our rights or violating them," Rose added.
"Well, I wish we had something to pick the lock with," Mickey muttered, glancing back at the door. "We need to get out of here and find out what they did with the Doctor."
At that moment, they heard the door unlocking. Mickey backed away from it while Rose and Martha stood up. A guard entered holding a clipboard. He looked at Mickey.
"Are you Idiotboy?" he said to him.
Mickey's mouth dropped open.
"Excuse me? What did you just call me?" he said angrily.
"Idiotboy, that's your name, isn't. Mickey Idiotboy?"
"No!"
"Oh really, then what is it?"
"It's---"
Mickey gasped when Rose kicked him hard in the shin. He saw her warning look and cleared his throat.
"I'm sorry, I'm out of sorts after everything that's happened, it is…Idiotboy."
The guard nodded.
"Very well. Mister Idiotboy, Miss Judoonmoon, and Miss Badwolf, you will accompany me to the interrogation room."
Rose and Martha stared at each other for a moment and then erupted into giggles while Mickey sighed angrily.
"I swear to God, I am gonna kill the Doctor," he muttered.
He and the others walked outside the door. They saw another guard waiting for them.
"This way," the guard said.
The guard with the clipboard came out of the room, shut the door, and followed behind while they led them to the interrogation room. On the way there, the three friends looked around at the other cell doors trying to find the Doctor. As they passed by one door, Rose looked through the window and saw the Doctor sitting on a cot, staring at the floor.
"Doctor!" she yelled.
The Doctor's head snapped up as Mickey and Martha turned to see where Rose was looking. The Doctor let out a relieved yell and ran to the door.
"Rose, Martha, Mickey, are you guys alright?" he asked her.
One of the guards tried to pull Rose away from the door while the other grabbed Mickey and Martha by the arms and pulled them down the hall. Rose grabbed onto the bars of the cell door window and held on for dear life.
"Doctor, they're taking us to the interrogation room!" she cried out as the guard tried to pull her away.
"Let her go!" the Doctor screamed at the guard who was trying to pry her fingers off the bars. "I demand to go with them!"
He let out an enraged yell when the guard pulled out his shock stick and shocked Rose in the back. She screamed in agony and fell to the floor, stunned, while the Doctor screamed curses at the guard.
"Damn you!" the Doctor screamed as the guard grabbed her under the arms and dragged her down the hall with the others.
Rose lifted her head and listened as the Doctor screamed out her name. They turned a corner and she murmured his name while the guard dragged her towards the interrogation room.
He pulled her inside and sat her down roughly in the chair. She gave the guard a dazed look while Martha quickly checked her vital signs. Once she was satisfied that she was okay, Martha leaned back in her chair and looked over at Mickey beside her.
"She'll be alright," she said when she saw the worry on his face.
Mickey nodded. The three of them sat side by side listening to the Doctor's enraged screams and curses echoing down the hall. Then, a man stepped inside the room and nodded to the guards. They bowed and left. They closed the door behind them and they could no longer hear the Doctor's screams. The man turned to the three companions and glanced at Rose.
"I'm sorry that happened to you, Miss Badwolf," he said with no hint of being the least bit sorry. "You were resisting and my guards had no choice but to shock you into submission."
"You shouldn't have done that in front of the Doctor," Rose said softly. "Now you've made him mad and you won't like him when he's mad."
The man waved his hand dismissively.
"He does not scare me. I have faced more intimidating men than him," he said. "At any rate, if he wishes the three of you to remain unharmed, he better not try anything stupid."
He leaned up against the wall and folded his arms over his chest.
"Now, perhaps you can tell me who you really are and what you are doing here?" he asked them. "And I warn you if you are caught lying, there will be serious repercussions. So out with it, who are you and what is your mission here?"
"I am a medical student from Pollos Eleven, "Rose said. "I came with the Doctor to observe and help him while he gathered information about the Nok flu."
"Indeed, and what exactly are you specializing in, Miss Badwolf?"
"Alien communicable diseases and alien pathology," Rose said thankful she knew the names of actual courses from university.
"And you wish to do what with this degree?" the man asked.
"I'm trying to become an expert in disease prevention and treatment of alien populations and also be able to determine type of disease through autopsy," Rose said automatically.
The man glanced over at Martha and Mickey who were staring at him passively. He studied their faces looking for any sign of deception, but all three of them had been trained by the Doctor on how to handle interrogations and they were able to hide their emotions and maintain a poker face. The man snorted at them and looked back at Rose.
"And this is what your master told you to say?"
"He's not my master," Rose said.
The man stared at her with a smirk on his face.
"Your lover then," he said to her.
"He's not my lover either."
The smirk widened.
"Oh really? They told me you put up quite a fight when you saw him. Much more than these two did, which is why they had to shock you."
"I was scared because I didn't know what you are going to do with us and when I saw him, I panicked," Rose said calmly. "The Doctor is a close friend and a mentor, but he is not my lover."
The man stared at her face and she looked back at him impassively.
"Funny, you don't seem terrified," the man said to her.
Rose shrugged.
"Well, since you shocked me, I decided it was better to remain calm," she replied.
The man regarded her silently for a moment.
"I am not entirely convinced, Miss Badwolf, I believe I will go a little deeper with my questioning of you and your friends."
"Go as deep as you like, you won't learn anything from us that I haven't already told you," Rose said shrugging.
"Oh, we shall see, Miss Badwolf,"
He opened the door and leaned out. Whispering something to the guards, he opened the door wider and let them come inside the room.
"You will go with them, I have a machine that will tell me straight away whether or not you are lying," he said to them.
He narrowed his eyes.
"And trust me, I meant exactly what I said about the consequences if you are found to be lying. I guarantee you they will not be pleasant if you are." He said.