"OK, I'll go and help the boys. I think Frank is going to need a lot more hands to the job up at the KORPS base anyway. You OK here on your own ?" Edward asked Rose. Rose just nodded absentmindedly from her analysis bench. He left her to get on with it in peace.
Early that morning, Zoe and Dan were woken by a guard bringing them some food. Dan's face still ached. Zoe winced when he turned his head to face her, so he guessed he didn't look too pretty. "What's the damage ?" he asked her.
"Well," she said, pausing, "You've got a bloody nose, one very black eye and one quite black eye and your neck is covered in little cuts."
"Looking good then !" said Dan.
Zoe laughed and turned away so he wouldn't see her rubbing tears from her eyes. This wasn't going to help Dan.
They ate their food and drink and waited. They didn't have long to wait before their cell doors were opened and they were both taken to the same room they'd first arrived in. After a minute the Crime Minister arrived, accompanied by a small, stooped man, wearing a lab coat. "Professor, your test subject, as promised," she said, disinterestedly. The man walked up to Dan and looked him over.
"Hm, he is in a bit of a mess," the man commented. "No matter. He is conscious. That will do," he added. Dan thought he'd just got through the world's easiest job interview.
The Crime Minister turned to Zoe. "Now, your side of the bargain V95. You will accompany our team on a mission to obtain a nuclear warhead. You will come with me to receive your instructions," she ordered. She clicked her fingers and Zoe was untied and lead from the room with the Crime Minister following her. The Crime Minister stopped in the doorway. "Oh and Professor, please try not to kill him. Not yet," she instructed. The Professor smiled and nodded vaguely back to her.
Dan looked up at the Professor. "So, we will begin," said the Professor, rubbing his hands together. Dan was untied and taken behind the Professor to a large room cut out of the rocks. The Professor told him to sit in a chair. Two male assistants strapped his hands to the chair. Then a woman brought a bowl of warm water and washed the dried blood off his face and dabbed his cuts with antiseptic. He was then released and his jacket and shirt removed. Dan shivered a little in the coolness of the big rock chamber. He was taken across to a kind of examination bed and told to get on. He climbed on and found himself half lying and half sitting while the assistants strapped his arms, his ankles and waist. They attached all kinds of monitors and wired him up to an ECG machine.
"Good, now we are ready. We will begin with the hypnosis compound. I want to see how long the effects will last," instructed the Professor. A plastic breathing mask attached to a series of tubes was pulled over Dan's face and strapped to his head. He nervously stared up at the roof of the cave, wondering what was going to happen next. He then found himself staring up into the Professor's face, feeling confused. He had a weird memory, rather like a strange dream where he'd been singing some dreadful song he didn't like.
"Hm, that was an improvement on the last batch," said the Professor thoughtfully. "Could still be improved though. Never mind, we will move on to the paralysis gas. We want the effects to last longer. Bring the sample please. We need him to stand up for this one."
The assistants released Dan from his restraints and still with the breathing mask in place positioned him in the centre of the room. The two men walked away as the woman approached him, wearing a full chemical protection suit. She held some sort of garden spray. She sprayed a fine liquid at his chest. Dan flinched as the cold liquid hit his bare chest. He staggered backwards, and felt himself floating into space. He noticed the room moving upwards and the floor coming up to meet his face. For ages he felt nothing. It was as if he were floating in outer space. His vision blurred and the voices of the people around him became distorted and confusing.
The room rolled around and he was looking at the roof again. Still unable to focus his eyes, he couldn't understand what he was being told or follow the mysterious moving shapes in front of him. After what seemed like an age he started to feel his hands again although they seemed to be detached from his body. He found himself looking into the face of the Professor. "Ah good. Can you please follow my finger," instructed the Professor. He moved his finger from side to side and Dan was able to follow it with his eyes. "Excellent, the effects were much stronger than the batch we sent with the latest mission team. They lasted for longer as well," said the Professor, sounding satisfied.
Dan desperately wanted this nightmare to be over. He was struggling to stay positive as he was becoming increasingly frightened. He had no idea how long he lay on the cold hard floor before he was able to sit himself up again. The breathing mask was removed and he was given a drink of water. The two assistants then took him to use the facilities before bringing him back. Once again they put him on the examination bed and strapped him down. Dan clenched his fists as the breathing mask was placed back over his face. This would be over soon. It would be over soon, he promised himself.
"Good, the anaesthetic gas," said the Professor. "We need to know how strong a dose we can use. I want his heart rate monitored closely. Tell me as soon as his heart rate falls below 30," he instructed his team. Dan could sense the level of excitement rising amongst the scientists around him. He only wished he could share their enjoyment. He was terrified.
"His heart rate is very high, and so is his blood pressure," reported the woman. She had a foreign accent, Dan noticed.
"Ah ? No matter," said the Professor dismissively. "We don't want to upset the Crime Minister and kill him now do we ?" he laughed. "Let us begin." Dan squeezed his eyes shut hoping he could escape this terrible dream. When he opened them, he was still there. He felt cold air hitting his lungs. He wanted to cough, but found that he couldn't. The cold seemed to grip his whole chest and he struggled to breathe. A dark mist seemed to surround him and the room around him disappeared.
Dan awoke gradually, feeling nauseous and groggy. Someone was slapping the side of his face. "Hah, better. Now I think we won't tell the Crime Minister about this little episode will we ?" he heard the Professor saying. What episode ? Ow, his chest hurt. It felt like someone had been punching him in the ribs. Dan managed to move his head slightly and looked down at his chest. There were some bruises on his ribs, just below his heart. He wondered what had happened.
"Curious yes ?" asked the Professor. "You were dead for a little while. We managed to resuscitate you. No harm done," he added lightly. Dan lay back on the bed. He felt weak and exhausted and a bit sick.
"I feel, feel, s-s-sick," said Dan quietly. He tried to turn his head. Someone pulled off his breathing mask and swiftly supported his head while pushing a bowl under his face. After a second or two he vomited into the bowl. He felt a little better afterwards. He lay on the bed feeling dreadful and listening to the scientists calling out readings to one another and recording numbers. Eventually they stopped. They pulled him upright and handed him his shirt and jacket. Dan couldn't summon the strength to put them back on, and ended up being escorted back to his cell still carrying them.
As the cell door clanged shut behind him, Dan's legs gave way and he had to crawl to his bed, where he pulled the blanket around him, curled up and went to sleep.
Zoe returned from her mission wondering what was the point of her going. The KORPS agents were jubilant. They had their warhead. They boasted of how successful the nerve agent gas had been. "We sprayed it all over them. Idiots didn't even realise it was absorbed through the skin," crowed one of the agents. Zoe sat in silence. It hadn't been comfortable looking at Oscar and the other MI9 agents lying helpless on the ground. She'd liked Oscar. He had gentle eyes. She wondered what had happened to Dan.
Zoe was taken straight back to her cell, where she found Dan curled up asleep on his bed. His shirt and jacket were lying on the floor where he had abandoned them. With an empty feeling in her heart, Zoe sank on to her bed and reached through the bars to gently stroke Dan's hair. She told him how much she'd missed him during the day and how glad she was to see him again.
After a while Dan's eyes flickered open and he turned his head to look at her. He smiled slightly when he saw her worried face looking at him. He tried to speak, but his voice was a hoarse whisper. "So, how was your day ?" he asked her. Zoe didn't know what to say. She lifted him up and pushing her arms through the bars, wrapped him in a hug. Dan was surprised by her strength. He'd never met a girl like her.
"How are you feeling ?" she asked him with her eyes squeezed shut.
"Oh, I'm alright now," he answered. She noticed that he wasn't going into any details. Someone came in with a tray of food for each of them. After the food was dumped on the floor of each cell they were once again left alone.
Dan looked at the tray, not feeling hungry. All he really wanted to do was sleep. Hopefully tomorrow would be cancelled.
"You need to eat something," said Zoe. "We've got to get out of here and you'll need the strength," she encouraged.
Sighing, Dan pulled the tray to him, picked it up and started putting food into his mouth.