– Chapter Sixteen –
Aila leaned against the window with one leg crossed over the other as she watched the clouds outside. The plane was smooth, but the seats weren't at all comfortable. The doctor glanced over at Leigh in the seat next to her. She was sitting rather stiffly with her arms folded and her head bowed down, apparently lost in thought. Katja was asleep in another seat, snoring lightly. Aila just had to shake her head at her; that woman could sleep anywhere. How she was comfy like that was beyond the doctor.
Aila shivered and rubbed her arms as a cool breeze blew through a crack in the window. "I need to buy a new hoody," she muttered to herself.
Leigh pulled herself from her thoughts and looked up sharply. "Please not another pink one," she teased.
Aila smirked. "You shush. Pink is epic."
"It's bleedin' not," Leigh grinned. "I'm sure we can find one in a shop at the airport somewhere when we land..."
"Aye," Aila said with a yawn. "Don't fancy looking for shops near Rat's place..."
"Mhm," Leigh agreed.
They sat quietly for the rest of the journey, their thoughts only interrupted every so often by Katja's snores. It took them a few moments to wake Katja once the plane landed. The German rose from her seat shakily, still tired, and made her way to leave the plane without a word to the other two.
Aila glanced at Leigh. "Is it just me, or is she paler than usual?" she asked.
"I'm not surprised. I don't think she should be travelling like this when she's sick," Leigh muttered. "She needs to rest."
"The sooner we get these samples to Beth's friend, the better," Aila sighed.
They stopped briefly so Aila could purchase a new hoody (another pink one, much to Leigh's disgust), and left in a hurry. All three were eager to get back to Rat's place.
The trio took a taxi from the airport to the street of the library. The driver said nothing, but made an odd face when told where they wanted to go. Still, he nodded and drove off once everyone was inside.
Aila looked out the windows as they passed by buildings and streetlights, taking the time to think about what their next move should be. The doctor glanced over at the sound of a snore and could only giggle at the sight of Katja slumped against Leigh, spark out once more.
"Katja, get off me," the hairdresser grunted, though she had little success shifting the other clone and could only look at Aila helplessly. "Oi, quit giggling and help me!"
Aila smirked and helped pull Katja up to a sitting position, though the German clone remained asleep, occasionally snoring quietly. "Honestly, how does she do it?" Aila sighed. "Wish I could bleedin' sleep that soundly."
When the taxi pulled up just before a street sign, the words illuminated by the car's headlights, Leigh blinked and looked around out the window. This area, while dark, didn't look anything like Rat's library. Where were they?
"Oi, what gives? This isn't Clairaut Street," she told the driver. The street sign on the corner told them they were between Briot Road and Alembert Street.
The driver shook his head. "No farther. You want to go in this area, you walk now."
Aila's mouth gaped open in stunned shock. "What!? You can't seriously expect us to walk. We don't even know how to get to where we need to go from here!" she shrieked, making Katja jolt awake and look around with wide eyes.
"Your problem, not mine," the driver grunted. "Pay up and get out."
"Sod you! You aren't getting crap since you didn't do your job!" Leigh growled, opening the door and getting out quickly. The other two clones followed suit.
The driver shouted something at them in French, but didn't stick around to collect his payment, instead turning the car around and speeding off towards the center of the city.
The three found themselves surrounded by silence as the wind picked up, the icy chill of the crisp midnight air making them shiver.
"Great! Now what the bloody hell do we do?" Leigh groaned, looking around the dark street.
"Vee call Ratty for help?" Katja offered sleepily with a shrug.
"Yeah, might be a good idea. We can't navigate around here by ourselves; we'll just get lost, or run into trouble. She did say this place is really dangerous at night," Aila agreed, crossing her arms for warmth.
Leigh grumbled at the idea of asking Rat for help with anything, but she knew the others were right. This wasn't the type of situation where she could let her feelings towards the Swiss clone cloud her judgment.
Taking out her pink clone phone, the hairdresser called and waited as the phone rang.
"What happened?"Rat asked when she answered, not even bothering with a greeting.
"Hello to you too," Leigh sighed. "Look, we need directions. How do we get to your place from..." she paused to reread the street sign. "The corner of Briot and Alembert?"
"What? What the hell are you lot doing over there?!" Rat demanded.
"It's not our fault! The taxi driver was being a dick and wouldn't take us any farther than that! Can you get us back to your place or not?" Leigh asked, somehow keeping her voice steady as she looked around uncertainly.
Rat was silent for a moment, before sighing. "It'll be hard to navigate in the dark if you don't know where you're going. I'll come to you instead. Stay right around that area and try to stay out of sight. Don't talk to anyone. I mean it, these people are dangerous. Be there soon."
The line went dead. Leigh pressed a button on her phone and stuffed it in her pocket.
"Well?" Aila asked with a shiver.
"She said stay put. She's coming to meet us," Leigh explained. "Though if it's as dangerous as she says it is, I hope she's careful."
Katja smirked a little, earning a fierce glare from the hairdresser.
"What?" Leigh snapped.
"You and Rat," Katja grinned. "You do care."
Leigh tutted and rolled her eyes. She wasn't in the mood to argue.
The trio hovered around for a while, each of them edgy at the smallest sounds around them. It wasn't long before Aila began pacing to warm herself up, and Katja trembled, pulling her coat tightly around her.
Leigh watched her and sighed. "Here," she told Katja. She pulled off her own coat and attempted to drape it over Katja, who took a step back.
"Vat?" Katja asked with a frown.
"You're freezing," Leigh told.
"It's fine-"
"You're freezing and you're sick, and there's no point pretending you're not," Leigh snapped. "You need to keep warm."
Katja said nothing as she accepted the coat. She glanced at Leigh. "Zanks," she muttered.
Leigh joined Aila with the pacing after that, moving quickly and constantly to ignore the biting cold. After a while, sounds could be heard approaching them. The clones huddled together and looked around. To their relief, a familiar canine trotted into view, followed by the figure of a person.
"Rat," Katja managed. She stepped away from the other clones to greet her sister.
As usual, Rat wore a blank or unimpressed expression. "Let's get going," she told the group sternly without saying hello. "We're not hanging around here."
The three clones nodded and followed Rat as she turned on the spot and walked back the way she came, holding onto Charles's leash tightly. She kept her other hand in the pocket of her long black coat.
They passed several buildings and found another street before Charles suddenly stopped to growl and bark at a darkened alleyway a few feet in front of the group.
Before anyone could say anything, two tall, young men stepped out of the shadows, both looking no older than sixteen. They were both very thin and sickly looking, but sported cocky grins and dark looks in their eyes as they approached the group. Rat took a step back, but stayed in front of the other three, as she watched their movements carefully.
"Eh bien, ce qui est un groupe de belles jeunes femmes faire ici si tard?" one of them asked smoothly. ("Well, what is a group of beautiful young women doing here so late?")
"Ne pas insister," Rat answered him, and though the others couldn't understand, they could hear the tone of warning in her voice. ("Back off.")
"Bien que est pas très gentil!" the other young man remarked. "Nous ne voulions dire bonjour. Vous filles regard perdu..." ("That's not very nice!" "We only wanted to say hello. You girls look lost...")
"Nous ne sommes pas, donc chier," Rat said evenly, hoping they'd leave though she knew better than to really expect that. ("We're not, so piss off.")
The taller of the two men glared at her then, his expression turning almost feral. "Vous êtes très impoli. Nous ne voulons pas que les gens d'être rude sur notre territoire..." he muttered threateningly, taking a switchblade out of his pocket. ("You're very rude. We don't take kindly to people being rude to us on our turf.")
His friend did the same, looking rather happy at the thought of getting into a fight. Charles began growling and barking again, tugging on his leash slightly, though Rat held him steady. Her eyes darted between the men as she took another small step back.
When the men advanced again, Rat whipped her other hand out of her pocket, revealing a large silver revolver. She heard one of the other clones gasp in surprise, though she kept her eyes on the threatening men, who seemed to falter at the sight of the weapon.
The taller of the two regained his composure then and laughed. "Princesse essayer bon. Je parie que cette chose est même pas réel!" ("Nice try, princess. I bet that thing isn't even real!")
Rat stared at him for a moment. "Voulez-vous vraiment savoir?" ("Do you really want to find out?")
"Mec peut-être que nous devrions aller, cette nana est fou!" the shorter man whispered, looking much more afraid than his companion. ("Dude maybe we should go, this chick is crazy!")
"Taisez-vous, vous êtes vraiment peur de cette petite chose?" the taller man growled down at him. ("Shut up, you're really afraid of this tiny thing?")
Rat looked between the two as they argued with each other, silently weighing her options. She and the other clones could try running, but she knew Katja wasn't in any condition for such movement. On the other hand, she could injure one or both of the men, but the shot might attract more unwanted attention.
"Merde…" she muttered quietly, not sure what to do to keep herself and the other clones safe until they could get back to the library.
Leigh, who was tired, irritable and in no mood for this, turned on her heel and walked away briskly.
"Leigh? Leigh?" Aila called after her anxiously as the men began yelling in French.
"Oh please; what are they gonna do?" Leigh snapped.
She stopped abruptly when the taller of the two men caught up to her and blocked her path. Rat aimed her weapon at him, but she was hesitant to do anything out of fear of attracting attention.
"Move," Leigh warned the man with clenched fists.
The man laughed at her. He urged his friend to surround the women, and Rat held the revolver steadily. Aila pulled Katja back so they stood behind Rat, and both men laughed again.
"Move," Leigh repeated.
The men exchanged conversation in French; nobody but Rat understood what they were saying, and suddenly, the leader of the two grabbed Leigh by the shoulder to push her back. Leigh instinctively stepped forward and shoved him hard, causing him to stumble back a bit.
"Leigh, get back here!" Rat hissed as the men charged towards them.
Aila pulled Katja even further away; the shorter man lunged at Rat, and she smacked him in the face with the weapon in response. The man cried out angrily and stepped back from them, while his friend aimed a swift punch at the hacker.
Leigh jumped forward again and grabbed the man's arm with both hands, making him miss Rat by inches. The man shook Leigh off and seized her, but she kneed him in the stomach, winding him. "Get going!" she shouted at Aila and Katja, but neither of them seemed to want to move.
Charles barked aggressively at the shorter man, who composed himself, covering his now bleeding eyebrow with his hand. The dog blocked his path so he couldn't reach the women, snarling and growling.
Rat hurried over to Leigh, still pointing the weapon at the men, waiting, daring them to try anything else. When the taller of the two released a cry of rage and lunged at them, the hacker raised the revolver and fired, the deafening bang echoing through the streets. The man fell to the ground, holding his arm as blood seeped through his shirt. The other man froze at the sight, and then decided he'd had enough and fled into the alleyway.
"Everyone, move, now!" Rat ordered, ignoring the man's cries of pain. She made sure everyone else was following before sprinting down the sidewalk, mindful to keep an eye on Katja as she did.
The German woman's breathing was shallow and labored, but she didn't dare slow down. Nobody stopped running until they crossed two more streets and arrived back at the library. When the group slowed their pace, Katja gasped for breath and coughed violently into her hand. Aila frowned and rubbed Katja's back soothingly as Rat unlocked the door that led down into the basement. Katja offered the doctor a small smile and nod of thanks when the fit subsided.
The hacker released a shaky breath before walking down the short set of stairs, the adrenalin from the ordeal wearing off quickly. She was glad it was only a pair of kids they'd encountered rather than the more vicious, older members of the gangs.
When the clones made it back up to the third floor of the library, Leigh made a beeline for the small sofa she'd claimed as her bed to flop down. She'd been silent the whole way back, and didn't seem overly interested in talking, even now.
Rat discarded her coat and made her way to the kitchen to put the kettle on, figuring everyone could use a hot drink after being out in the icy air. Aila had Katja sit on one of the other sofas before retrieving her medical kit.
"No need for zat, I am fi-" Katja started, though she was quickly silenced by a fierce glare from the doctor.
"Stop saying you're fine when you clearly aren't," she snapped firmly. "Now let me have a listen."
Katja sighed and grumbled something in German, but she allowed Aila to check over her breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure, as well as a few other things. The whole room seemed deathly silent for several minutes, until Rat reemerged from the kitchen holding three mugs; two of coffee, and one of tea.
She handed the coffees to Katja and Aila, who both took the drinks gratefully, before walking over to the sofa where Leigh was lying.
"Leigh?"
"Hm?"
"Tea?"
"Cheers..." Leigh said, taking the mug. She allowed the warmth to seep into her hands for a moment, as if only then realising how cold she actually was. She took a small sip of the drink, pleased to find the other clone had added sugar this time. Rat nodded and walked back towards the kitchen to fix her own drink.
"Fuck," Leigh blurted out when Rat came back with her drink. "I know you said it's not safe out at night, but bloody hell..."
Rat shrugged and sat next to Leigh. They both watched Aila and Katja for a few moments. "Yeah, and that was nothing compared to some of the stuff that kicks off around here," Rat spoke quietly. "Though to be honest, that's why I chose to live here. DYAD aren't about to come charging into this place, and there's virtually no surveillance of this area. Criminals like to go where the cameras don't."
"You were pretty impressive with that revolver," Leigh said, grinning a little. "Damn scary though."
"Yeah well, we best lie low for a while," Rat said, shrugging again. She took a long sip of her drink, and Leigh did the same. "Don't know how much more drama I can take. Not sure how much Katja can, either. She looks done in."
Leigh nodded. "I was saying to Aila on the way back that Katja needs to rest. Have you heard from Beth?"
"No," Rat said, shaking her head. "I was gonna ask you the same."
Leigh opened her mouth to respond, but Aila and Katja got up and shuffled over, collapsing into chairs closer to them.
"Do we ever get a friggin' break?" Aila asked with a yawn. "It's one thing after another..."
"Well like I just told Leigh, we should stay indoors for a few days," Rat said. "You OK Katja?"
"Ja," Katja said quietly. She looked ready to doze off again.
A pause followed.
"How'd things go with Janika?" Rat asked after a while.
"Mental as ever," Leigh grumbled, and Katja grinned.
"Leigh kidnapped zee beast kitty," she informed Rat.
Rat stared. "I'm sorry; what?"
Leigh sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
"Oh she meant well," Aila spoke before Leigh could. "Janika was ready to kill the poor thing." She proceeded to explain the situation with the cat, and Rat rolled her eyes in response. "We got Janika's samples, but she's refusing to budge," Aila changed the subject. She finished her coffee and put the cup on the floor by her feet. "I guess our next task is speaking to Beth again."
"And finding Danielle," Katja added.
"Yeah well, that's gonna have to wait until tomorrow," Rat yawned. She stood up and urged Katja to do the same. "Come on. Bed, now."
Katja obeyed without arguing. She and Rat disappeared, and Leigh curled herself into a ball on the sofa, hugging her knees. Aila hesitated for a bit. She stared at her empty cup in silence, wondering how any of them were meant to get a decent night's sleep.
Over the following few days, the group kept themselves inside and away from the windows, even though they were on the third floor. There had been a noticeable increase in gang activity every night, and Rat hypothesized that they were trying to find out who exactly shot one of their members.
Instead of dwelling on it though, the clones began looking into Danielle's life, trying to find out how to possibly approach her. The ice skater moved around quite a lot while she was on tour, and she'd be travelling for another few months by the looks of it. It would be hard for Helena to pinpoint her location and get close to her, so the others weren't overly concerned for her safety for the time being.
As the weekend set in, Leigh lay on the sofa reading a book. A shadow cut through the bright sunlight above her suddenly, and she glanced up in time to see Rat. Before Leigh could speak, something soft landed on her stomach with a crinkling sound.
"What the bleedin' hell?" she asked, confused. Her expression became even more puzzled as she lifted up the foreign item to discover it was a store-bought chocolate cupcake. "Uh...thanks?" she said to the hacker. She was baffled, but still wanted to be polite. The hairdresser sat up and set her book aside, inviting the other clone to sit with her with a wave of her hand.
Rat seemed apprehensive, but sat down anyway. Leigh looked at her, and then back at the cupcake. "Uh...not to come off as rude, but...what's this for?" she asked as tactfully as she could, hoping she didn't appear ungrateful.
Rat was silent for a moment, before speaking without meeting Leigh's gaze. "According to your file, it was your birthday last week, so..." she trailed off, gesturing vaguely to the cupcake, obviously feeling horribly awkward despite making the effort to be nice.
Leigh stared. Rat stared back. Then Leigh snorted and let out a loud laugh.
"Why is it funny?" Rat asked, affronted.
Leigh laughed a bit more and raised her hand to wipe away a tear. "It's not. Just...fuck." She sighed deeply. "Sorry."
Rat frowned and watched as Leigh gently set the cupcake down on the arm of the sofa. The hairdresser had barely given her birthday a second thought, and thinking of it now only reminded her of her parents, of Rachel, and whether or not everyone back home was safe. Where had her parents even gone? Leigh rubbed her forehead with her hand and took another deep breath to stop herself crying.
"Sorry," she said to Rat again.
"It's...fine," Rat said awkwardly, shrugging.
"And thanks," Leigh added quickly, not wanting Rat to think she didn't appreciate the gesture. She looked up and attempted a smile. "It's way better than the crappy one we tried to make for you and Katja."
Rat grinned and shrugged again. "Aila's keeping an eye on Katja," she mumbled quietly. "I was going to call Beth and see how she's doing with Alison and the scientist, if you want to join me."
Leigh abandoned her book completely and nodded. It was better to stay productive. "Sure," she agreed.
Rat booted up her laptop to pull up a Skype window and leave a short message telling Beth to call them if she was about. Leaning back on the sofa, Rat pulled up a program displaying many lines of seemingly random numbers and symbols. She typed away while waiting for Beth to respond to them.
Leigh watched curiously. "What are you doing?" she dared to inquire.
Rat paused for a moment. "Just getting some work done while waiting for Beth to answer," she responded vaguely.
"Right..." Leigh said, guessing it was something to do with DYAD.
As if sensing her thoughts, Rat felt the need to clarify. "Legal work. I need to finish this program design and submit it by next week in order to get paid."
Leigh raised an eyebrow. "Really? What do you actually do for a living besides the illegal stuff?" It hadn't struck her before now, but she realised she never wondered how exactly the other clone made money for food and to cover the costs of running her servers when she clearly hated interacting with people and going outside.
"Well...it's a bit ironic really, but I help design security software for a large company in France," Rat explained, glancing at Leigh. "They employ teams from all over, though the rules are fairly lax. As long as the projects are submitted by a certain deadline, you can work on them in your free time, and once they're cleared as being free of major flaws, they direct-deposit paychecks into our accounts."
Leigh grinned and couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, that is pretty ironic, all things considered," she said. "But whatever works."
"Yeah, this place really isn't cheap to maintain," Rat said. "But things are pretty much covered as long as I keep up with this."
Just then, the Skype icon at the bottom of the screen flashed orange. Rat brought the window up to see that Beth had responded, telling them to call. The two clones greeted Beth and waved after starting the call. The Canadian clone waved back, though she seemed annoyed and looked exhausted.
"You look like shit," Leigh told Beth bluntly.
Beth rolled her eyes. "Did you get Janika's samples?" she asked with an edgy tone to her voice.
"Yes," Rat confirmed. "We're still trying to figure out when's best to visit Danielle. We thought we'd see how you're doing in the meantime."
"Ugh," Beth groaned, rolling her eyes again. She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "This whole clone bullshit is harder than I thought it'd be."
Leigh raised her eyebrows, but she couldn't disagree. "I know how you feel there," she told the detective.
"Honestly, I had Ali here the other day, and Paul turned up unexpectedly," Beth sighed miserably. "It was such a fuckin' drama trying to keep her out of sight and get her out of the house without Paul seeing. Me and Alison were just starting to get used to things and see eye to eye, but then she full on freaked out and nearly had a friggin' panic attack about the entire thing...she won't go anywhere without a firearm now, and I'm worried she's gonna end up doing something stupid-"
"Paul didn't see her, did he?" Rat asked, wanting to be sure.
"No, of course he didn't," Beth snapped, tiredness clearly getting the better of her. "He knows something's up though. I swear he thinks I'm up to something...and if I'm not careful, I'm gonna end up screwing up at work. I can't focus on the job anymore because of all this."
A pause followed. Rat shifted awkwardly and glanced at Leigh.
"You heard from your science buddy?" Leigh asked casually. "Honestly, why don't you just tell us her name already?"
"Because," Beth groaned, glaring at the camera now, "I'm trying to establish trust over here, as well as other stressful bullshit. It's hard enough trying to keep Alison calm without screwing things up with the other one as well. You get those samples to me before anything else."
"Right..." Leigh sighed.
Beth stared for a moment or two, tugging at her hair uneasily. "Call me again when you have Danielle's samples. I have enough to deal with over here without you lot wasting my time unnecessarily."
Beth ended the call abruptly.
Leigh and Rat exchanged glances. "That went well," Rat grumbled.
"She's stressed as fuck," Leigh told her. "God help the rest of us if the friggin' cop is struggling to cope."
"Well...I don't know what we do now," Rat muttered.
Leigh sighed heavily. "Fuck's sake..."
A few days slowly became a few weeks, and the inhabitants of the library were growing restless. There had been no word of another attack from Helena, and though a chance to relax was nice to a degree, nobody dared go outside just yet. The gang crime slowly decreased back to what Rat considered a normal level, though the clones remained cautious and didn't leave the library unless they had to.
They'd kept in weekly contact with Janika, but Beth had all but dropped her communication with them unless she had something critical to report, which wasn't often at all. The detective seemed to be struggling a lot with her personal issues and didn't like mindlessly chatting when there wasn't anything of importance to discuss.
One morning at the beginning of June, Rat walked through the library towards the staircase, quieter than usual. She picked up her coat, as if debating putting it on (even though summer had officially begun and temperatures were pleasantly high) before putting it back down where it had been. She continued her walk towards the staircase.
"You going somewhere?" Aila asked curiously, watching her from the corner of her eye.
Rat paused to glance back. "Yeah. I'll be back in a few hours."
Leigh, who had been playing fetch with Bianca, looked up. "A few hours? Is it really safe to go out alone for that long?"
Rat shook her head. "I'll be fine, don't worry," she said, though something definitely seemed off with her. Seeing Leigh and Aila's curious looks, she added, "I just need to clear my head."
"What's going on?" Aila asked, sensing there was something the other clone wasn't telling them.
"Nothing, honest...just...today's kind of a special day, I suppose, and I'd like to take a walk," Rat offered as a vague explanation.
Katja glanced up from where she'd been lying on a the sofa with an untouched box of cookies on the floor next to her. "Vat day is today Ratty?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Rat paused, as if considering something, but shook her head. "Nothing for you to worry about. You focus on resting, alright?"
Over the last few weeks, Katja had been slowly getting worse, however much she tried to deny it. She and Rat became unusually distant with each other as the coughing fits became more frequent.
Aila and Leigh noticed the two sisters didn't spend much time together anymore. Katja would sleep more and Rat would keep busy with her computer work. The other two clones were unsure how to help them.
Rat managed to slip away without anyone arguing. In her hurry to leave, and with her thoughts distracting her, the hacker failed to notice a car parked in the shadows of a nearby alley across from the building she stepped out from. Rat walked briskly, head down, unaware of the pair of eyes watching her intently from inside the vehicle.
Back inside, Katja shifted towards the other clones uncomfortably and perched herself on the sofa. The three of them were quiet for a while, each preoccupied with their own thoughts. Leigh continued to toss Bianca's ball every so often for the dog to chase, but she found herself growing restless. Katja dozed in her seat, and Aila eventually took the German's laptop to catch up on the latest news from England.
The doctor gave an almighty sigh after a few minutes. "I know I try to be optimistic about everything, but I am so bored," she admitted.
Leigh offered a weak grin and nodded. She agreed with Aila completely. There were only so many days of sitting around doing nothing any sane person could tolerate before they became agitated. "Maybe we should have gone with Rat. Wonder what she's up to..."
"Can't blame her for wanting some air. It's roasting," Aila complained. She sighed, shut down Katja's laptop and got to her feet. "I think I'll take a wander outside to cool down."
"I'll come too," Leigh sighed, she too standing up. She glanced over at Katja before following Aila. It wasn't long before the two of them were outside, taking in the fresh air.
"I'm worried about Katja," Leigh muttered.
"So you say every day," Aila commented.
Leigh shrugged. "All she does is sleep these days. I know she liked her sleep before she got sick, but this is crazy."
Aila suppressed a sigh. She sat down on a stone step and waited for the hairdresser to join her. "I'm worried too," she mumbled, not meeting Leigh's gaze. "More than I probably let on."
Leigh watched her. Aila was always the calmest of the group, even in the hardest situations.
"Leigh," Aila began, looking really uncomfortable now. "It's nearly impossible to tell how fast this disease is spreading without the right equipment to carry out tests and such. I...don't know how long she's got if we can't get her any treatment. I just..." she trailed off.
"There has to be something," Leigh grumbled. "I wish Beth would stop being so stubborn! If she told us who this scientist is, we could track her down and go and see her ourselves, couldn't we? Right now it seems as if she can help Katja if nobody else can."
"I suppose we could...but how well do you think that'd go down, really?" Aila asked with raised eyebrows.
"Yeah well, nothing goes as planned, does it? I bet Rat has info on the scientist in all those files somewhere. Maybe we should try to work out who she is ourselves."
"And piss off Rat and Beth in the process?" Aila asked.
"What's the alternative?" Leigh asked desperately. "Sit around for God knows how many more weeks trying to find the right time to meet Danielle, while Katja gets worse in the meantime? What if she gets so bad she can't travel anymore? I don't know. This scientist wants proof of our existence. Maybe meeting her is our best option. Maybe we should just go while we still can."
They both fell quiet. Aila's head raced with thoughts at all Leigh had just spoken. She agreed Leigh had a point, but it wasn't without risk. The doctor wasn't sure what to make of it.
Aila's head snapped up suddenly when the figure of a man caught her eye. He stood quite still before the clones, just staring. Aila stared back. The man was tall, aging, dressed in black, and he had a bald head. Aila nudged Leigh to get her attention.
"Hmm?" Leigh responded, looking up.
Her eyes found the man's, and her blood turned cold.