Doctor Owen answered the call from the withheld number.
‘Doctor Owen, isn’t it?’ asked the female voice on the other end.
‘Who is this?’
‘My name is Roxanne Maria di Santo Ramirez. But you can call me Roxy for short.’
‘What do you want?’
‘If my intelligence is correct, you are currently running around the city picking up scraps that you’ve left behind and you’re planning to run away into the night with Doctor Forrest and complete your plans of saving the world.’
Doctor Owen said nothing.
‘From your silence, I take it my intelligence is correct. Unfortunately I must throw a spanner into the works. You see, Doctor Forrest had the mistaken notion that he would be able to escape from us. And if that wasn’t audacious enough, he thought he could run off with your wife as well.’
‘What have you done with them? If you’ve hurt her…’
‘Calm down, Doc, they’re both fine. However, I need you to do something for me to secure their safety.’
‘What’s that?’
‘When you have all of the samples and documents, you must bring them to me and I will exchange them for your wife and the doctor. Okay?’
‘Let me speak to my wife.’
‘I thought you might ask to speak to her so I’ve got her right here.’
‘Andrew, don’t believe her. I haven’t…’ Emily said, her voice filled with fear and panic.
‘That’s enough,’ said Roxy, ‘So what do you say, Doc? The samples for both of them. Seems like a fair swap to me.’
‘Okay,’ he sighed, ‘When and where?’
‘Before sunrise tomorrow. I will call you to tell you where to meet us.’
Roxy hung up. Doctor Owen rubbed his eyes with his hands and let out a roar of frustration. Taking deep breaths, he calmed himself down and explained the situation to Jane and Becky. They all looked at each other across the table with one thing on their minds.
There’s nothing we can do.
‘Are you sure you can trust Doctor Forrest?’ Becky asked.
‘Of course,’ Doctor Owen said, ‘We’ve worked together for a very long time.’
Doctor Owen had a spark of inspiration. Roxy hadn’t let him speak to the doctor. Was she bluffing? He took out his mobile phone and called Doctor Forrest’s number. After a few rings, there was an answer.
‘Don’t waste any time, Doc,’ Roxy said and hung up.
‘Shit!’ Doctor Owen exclaimed.
‘Look,’ Becky said, ‘All we can do is carry on what you were doing. We finish picking up the samples and work out a way to get your wife and the doctor back without doing the swap.’
‘How are we going to do that?’ Jane said, ‘There’s only three of us and we haven’t got any weapons.’
‘Well, that’s not strictly true,’ Becky said.
Becky got up and walked into the next room, coming back with a large black case in her arms. She threw it onto the table and opened it up. Before Jane and the doctor, an arsenal of pistols and silver blades made their jaws drop. It was clear that Becky was a one-woman army. She had an array of weapons that would make Rambo jealous and from what they had seen of her in action so far; she knew exactly how to use them.
‘Okay,’ said Becky, ‘I’ve got an idea.’
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