Chapter Twelve: In the Clear
"Since we can't turn him over to the British authorities, do you have any plans for clearing me?" Steed questioned.
Bashir flashed him a quick grin. "You're an agent; don't you have some kind of immunity?"
"Not for turning traitor and shooting an admiral without justification."
"Ah. Well, I wonder…" Picking up the double's hand, he examined his fingertips for a moment. "Let's see yours."
Puzzled, Steed offered his hand.
"I thought so; your fingerprints are different. That newspaper article said the gun was dropped at the scene of the crime, so it should be easy to prove you weren't the one holding it."
"But wouldn't he have worn gloves?" Steed pointed out.
Bashir shook his head. "Why leave the gun at all? He's too intelligent to have done it accidentally. My guess is he intended to implicate you even further, assuming that as your clone he shared your fingerprints. He wasn't aware that even identical twins have unique fingerprints."
"I see. But I thought we couldn't let anyone know about the double?"
"I don't think it will be a problem for them to know the culprit was a man who resembled you enough to be mistaken for you. Dr King might even be willing to witness that it wasn't you."
"If you and Miss Gayle ask him."
Bashir smiled slightly, recognizing that Dr King didn't share his own inclination for spy adventures. Or perhaps even he would quickly be disillusioned with them in real life, where the deaths were also real and not every story ended happily.
"Let's get him out of here before he wakes up; I only have one more dose of anesthetic." He tapped his combadge. "Bashir to Defiant."
"Defiant."
"I have the double sedated and ready to be beamed to the brig. Put him under maximum security, with physical doors. He's completely immune to phasers, so I'm not sure a forcefield would hold him."
"Perhaps he should be kept sedated?" Dax suggested.
"That would probably be wise," Bashir agreed. "If he shows the least sign of coming to, only Worf should approach him."
"How did you manage to defeat him without injury?" Jadzia asked, the faintest hint of concern in her voice.
"Oh…um…element of surprise," Bashir stammered. "Bashir out." He drew a deep breath, turning to Steed as the double disappeared in the transporter beam. "She won't guess either, will she?"
"Not likely."
Bashir sighed, shaking his head. "I supposed I'm going to need some time to get used to that idea." He groaned, looking around the flat. "If he hurt the captain or Miss Gayle…"
"Can't you contact your captain?" Steed suggested.
Bashir grinned ruefully. "Of course I can. You see, sometimes it takes a non-enhanced mind to think of the obvious answer."
Steed smiled appreciatively as Bashir tapped his combadge. "Bashir to Sisko."
"Sisko here. How did the surgery go, Julian?"
"Fine…and we captured the double and had him beamed up to the Defiant. But where are you and Miss Gayle?"
"At Steed's flat," Sisko replied. "We were afraid the double might come back to Miss Gayle's, but the police are here watching for Steed, so he wasn't likely to risk coming here."
"I'm surprised you got in," Bashir said mildly. "Steed and I were worried; why didn't you contact us to let us know where you were?"
"I didn't want to risk interrupting you in the middle of surgery."
"You could have called Dr King's flat," Bashir pointed out.
"Miss Gayle was afraid the wires might be tapped," Sisko explained. "We didn't want to implicate ourselves or Dr King with a call from this apartment."
"Well, don't they have public call boxes?"
"Julian, leave it," the captain ordered. "You've made contact now, so it doesn't matter anymore."
Bashir sighed. "Yes, sir. We obviously can't join you; can you meet us here?"
"We might be followed," Sisko warned.
"Well, if you got in without being seen…or did you?"
"I'm not sure," Sisko admitted.
Bashir sighed. "I was going to suggest having Dax beam you over here, but it won't do to have you disappear if they saw you arrive. Steed and I can beam over there."
"No, better for him to stay away until we find a way to clear him; I think it will be all right if Miss Gayle and I beam over to you. We can always beam back if we have to. Sisko out."
"No more hints!" Bashir hissed, and caught Steed's nod just before Sisko and Miss Gayle materialized. He was willing to accept Steed's logic that Sisko would never guess he was enhanced, but that was no reason to purposely try to get him thinking. He wondered uneasily what Steed's earlier motive had been.
"Steed!" Miss Gayle cried. "Are you all right? Bashir said you fought the double again."
"Actually, the doctor did most of the fighting," Steed said smoothly. "Slipped him the mickey before I could even get warmed up."
"The mickey…?" Sisko asked in confusion.
Bashir gave him a lopsided grin, holding out his hypospray. "Injected a large dose of the strongest concoction of sedatives I could come up with. You see, I was right the first time; my hypospray was the only weapon I needed." He sobered. "But I'm glad you have the projectile weapon for protection; he turned out to be immune to phaser fire."
Sisko's eyebrows rose. "Is that usual for genetic mutants?"
"Not to my knowledge," Bashir said stiffly, flinching at the harsh term. Steed shook his head slightly, and Bashir understood what he meant to say; He doesn't mean you.
"Anyway," he said, clearing his throat, "I checked the double's fingerprints, and they're different from Steed's; all we have to do to prove he was innocent is get the police to check the fingerprints on the gun."
Steed turned toward Miss Gayle. "My dear, I believe you would be the best person for the job."
Miss Gayle sighed. "The only person, since you'd be arrested and Bashir and Sisko shouldn't be seen. But we left both cars back at your flat; should I 'beam' over there?"
"You don't want to risk being seen coming from his flat; that's why we beamed over here in the first place."
"I suppose I'll see if Martin will give me a lift, then."
"He said he'd already 'wasted' enough time on our 'escapades,'" Bashir said doubtfully.
"Ah, but he never means that any more than you do, my dear."
Miss Gayle looked darkly at him, but crossed to the phone to call. "Is he at his flat?"
"He mentioned seeing patients…probably in his office if he's not out on a call."
Miss Gayle nodded and dialed the number without further comment.
oOo
"So, you think you have evidence to clear Steed," Dr King said a little cynically as Cathy got into the seat next to him.
"Yes. The fingerprints should be enough to get him off, but we were also hoping you would testify that the man you saw shoot Admiral Westlake wasn't Steed."
Dr King was silent for a moment, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. "Cathy…for all intents and purposes, it was."
"But you know it wasn't…Don't you?" she asked, looking at him anxiously when a moment had passed without his response.
Dr King sighed. "I'd like to believe it, Cathy. But I still find it suspicious that no one has seen him and this 'double' together."
"Dr Bashir has," Miss Gayle reminded him of what she had told him over the phone.
Dr King shook his head. "I admit I find myself liking him, but I still hesitate to trust the word of a virtual stranger over my own eyes."
"But surely…you don't actually believe Steed would?"
Dr King closed his eyes for a brief instant as they were stopped for a crossing pedestrian. "I have seen him kill a man and leave without a backwards glance."
"Enemies of the state," Miss Gayle insisted.
"And are you so sure this admiral wasn't? You know how much Steed keeps to himself; he tells you to be there and expects you to trust him about the details he didn't bother to mention. Maybe he made a mistake this time, and he's using us to cover his tracks."
Miss Gayle shook her head. "No, I won't believe that — and you don't either."
Dr King sighed. "I won't swear it was Steed I saw, but until the fingerprints prove he wasn't the one who held the gun, I'm not going to swear it wasn't, either."
Miss Gayle smiled, reaching to open her door as he pulled up in front of the police station. "Fair enough. Will you wait here for me?"
"Don't take too long; I do still have patients to see."
"Thank you, Martin."
Dr King found himself smiling as he watched her walk into the building. "I'm a sucker," he admitted softly to himself. But he leaned back in the seat; his patients would just have to wait.
Next chapter coming next week!
I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know! (Note that the spelling of some Avengers characters' names has been changed intentionally.)
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