PART 6:

Walking. Stumbling. Ouch. Cosima's eyes opened to be hit by a mob of flashing lights, paparazzi it seemed were lined either side of her. She was walking or stumbling down the road towards what seemed to be a black town car. When she regained her footing on the damp dark concrete the flashing continued but there was a new pressure on her right wrist. Her eyes darted about, tall red brick buildings on either side of the road, no alleys, just constant walls. There was no escape.

"You are becoming very irksome." Delphine was agitated, she moved in closer to Cosima as they walked, she whispered this into her ear, her hand stabbing hold of Cosima's. Cosima snapped her head to look at the blonde women who she realised had a lot more secrets than it first seemed. But then what did she expect this whole thing isn't exactly legal...or is it? A lot could have happened in 12 years. Cosima was suddenly aware of a pressure separate to the women's hand on her wrist, there was some sort of contraption attached to her wrist and hand. On her hand was attached something that looked like a drip right into her bright blue vein on her pale wrist right below her tattoo...that she oddly didn't have anymore. There was definitely the faint marks of where it might have been before. She felt a little sad, she would feel even more so if she wasn't currently surrounded by a heavy structured men in black suits pushing her forwards towards a black town car with people lined on either side of her on the dark street taking pictures of her for no apparent reason to her. Of course she always had her priorities straight. Cosima saw that out of the drip was attached a small length of plastic tubing before a blue rubber ball hung on the end. She saw after a few seconds that that ball was in her hand, and now it was not and something was being injected slowly into her blood stream because of it. "Oh yes, a new addition. You have caused quite a commotion on the ISRO front and with your...personality issues at the moment becoming a threat to our work. Not to mention your contact with Sarah Manning. We have been watching you. Imposters are easily wiped out." Cosima heard the words but she didn't really register them at this point her head had clouded over and she felt like she was either on a really bad come down from blow or had just got up to fast after sitting for hours. She blinked repeatedly and her legs came to give way a little beneath her. The men behind her caught her without hesitation and propped her up as if she was walking herself. "No more photos!" Delphine called out and just like that the manic flashing was gone, disappeared. The people milling around in the twilight street disembarked as if they were never there. Soon it was just the group of them, with Cosima slowly feeling heavier and heavier on her feet. It wasn't happening fast, it was prolonged and her head just wanted to shut down in instinct but they were keeping her awake. Why?

They reach the black town car and the back door was opened for her, she was shoved into the seat, more she fell into it, her hands breaking her fall against the warm leather interior. She crawled in pain like an animal leaving to die, towards the other side of the car. Her eyes half closed she got as far over as she could, bringing her knees up to her chest, her hands rubbing her eyes trying to keep them awake. Delphine got in beside her and the door is shut immediately leaving the stale air inside the car. The men clambered into the front half and started the engine. Delphine got some lipstick out of her shiny black clutch and applied it generously to her delicate lips in the mirror she kept in there. Cosima watched as the car pulled off and Delphine's hand became steady. As they moved Cosima kept blinking, soon even with her glasses her eyes were becoming more and more blurred. After a few long silent moments with just the silent engine as the background music, Delphine finally turned to face Cosima. Not that she could see clearly enough, but Cosima could see the shape of Delphine and her senses could still feel the ice cold block of tension in the air.

"You think we wouldn't know." Delphine was stressed and frustrated, keeping calm and collected but Cosima could hear the venom. "You have spasms you know, when you steal the mind of my wife. You shake and we know you are here." Delphine kept looking at Cosima, but she was getting tired now, her eyes were gone and her heart was racing. Internally she was screaming but her body was moving so slowly, falling deeper and deeper into something Cosima knew she could not escape. "As you know when the ball falls we inject you with the substance, you know which one, that will render you unconscious. Hopefully we can up the dose next time. It seems to be taking a while." Delphine turned away and too moved as far away as she could from Cosima. Cosima wanted to talk back to her but couldn't her throat was sealed and dry, just her lungs were working. "In case you wanted to know, not that it matters, we are going to see Leekie to see if we can't...deal with this issue." Cosima wanted to gulp, she wanted to open her eyes wide and protest. She wanted out of some animal instinct, which was all she had to go on to get away from that man. Get this thing out of her neck and put as many miles as she could between them. "Good night, mon chéri."