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Old 04-13-2017, 09:29 AM   #136
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default For SCIENCE!

Dr. Anderson pats Cherry Bell‘s back and strokes her hair as she cries. Townsend is speaking into the radio and a telephone in rapid succession, arguing with the Coast Guard that no men are to be landed on Jewell Island until after his boss has spoken with the incident commander and speaking with someone from Onyx Rain on the phone about possible measures to contain the incident. Townsend is quite accomplished at circumlocution and while the unnamed party on the other side appears to follow him, Dr. Anderson is unsure what measures have been proposed, let alone accepted.

As his eyes pass over the messily dead Dr. Cotton, Dr. Anderson considers that the body should probably be decently covered, to avoid further upsetting anyone. He addresses the nurse still standing there frozen.

Dr. Anderson: “Nurse McRae, could you find a sheet to cover the body?”
Nurse McRae [robotically]: “I could.”

McRae makes no move to do so and the mechanical intonation of her voice serves to confirm Dr. Anderson’s earlier deduction. Abandoning, for the moment, attempts at communicating with McRae, Dr. Anderson instead speaks to Bell in a gentle voice.

Dr. Anderson: “Ms. Bell, do you remember the events of today?”
Cherry Bell [sniffles]: “Uhhh… sure. You and Chase and these other guys came to visit me. You wanted my help to talk Raul into something to do with the government. I agreed to help, but Warden Tyrrell and the guards didn’t want to let me go, so we been running all night from them. Except Chase, I guess, he’s been beating them up and I’ve been helping him.”
Anderson: “Yes, good. You remember Warden Tyrrell, who had been keeping you here. Do you remember anyone else responsible for keeping you here, someone who was not merely a subordinate of the Deputy Warden?”
Bell: “I… there’s another man, but I can’t remember anything about him. Just… just a dark shape in my memories, standing behind me or Tyrrell. Why can’t I remember, Mr. M?”
Anderson: “I believe that some of your memories have been subjected to a hypnotic block while you were in a susceptible state, Ms. Bell, most likely induced through chemical means. The code phrase you just heard activated this mental block. With time I should be able to help you recover access to any lost memories, but it will require work.”
Bell: “It doesn’t sound like they were good memories.”
Anderson: “No, Ms. Bell. Some of them were most assuredly not. And… I do not suppose there is any question of testimony being required for a trial process for Dr. Cotton. Nevertheless, blocking off bad memories, consciously, subconsciously or with chemical help, might not suffice to render them unable to damage your psyche. But all of that is for the future. For now, are you feeling okay?”
Bell: “I feel… empty. I don’t even know why I was crying… and screaming? My throat is raw, but I don’t remember screaming. I guess… I guess I’m okay, Mr. M.”
Anderson: “With Taylor gone, there is no one here with any kind of training or equipment if some guards should not have surrendered. Could you possibly stand guard at the door with your rifle?”
Bell [smiling through drying tears]: “Sure, Mr. M. I’ll protect you and all these other men from the scary guards.”

Dr. Anderson looks around the room, at the drugged Banks, Berrocal and Burr lying on sickrooms and a couch, as well as the unnamed mental patient that the nurse dosed lolling strapped into his chair, the glassy eyed nurse standing by him, apparently unaware of her surroundings, and the distinctly non-combatant Townsend speaking into the radio.

Anderson: “Thank you, my dear.”

Townsend looks up and sees that Cherry Bell is still armed with an M16A2 assault rifle and is taking up a guard position on the door. He frowns at this, but Dr. Anderson forestalls any objection.

Dr. Anderson: “If anyone arrives who is hostile to us, I certainly could not shoot them, even if I were to carry a gun. Could you?”
Townsend: “Er, perhaps not. But Dr. Cotton told the guards to surrender before that maniac shot him!”
Anderson: “And you are willing to bet our lives that not one person did not hear this or is not willing to obey it?
Townsend: “If you insist, but I’m holding you responsible for what she does with that gun, Dr. Anderson.”

As Townsend goes back to talking on the radio, Dr. Anderson makes a quick circuit of the room, checking the drugged and wounded men for vital signs or symptoms that indicate a need for emergency treatment. As far as he can tell, those who have serious injuries, like Burr, have been stabilised already and without knowing what drugs they have been given, there is not much he can do about any of them. Dr. Anderson spots the empty vial on the floor, which Nurse McRae apparently dropped after dosing her patient. While pretending to check Burr’s pulse, Dr. Anderson palms it and sneaks it into a pocket.

Checking that neither Bell nor Townsend are looking in his direction, Dr. Anderson next checks on the patient drugged by Nurse McRae. He uses the opportunity to check McRae’s pockets and comes up with a full vial which looks identical to the empty one on the floor. With surprising dexterity, Dr. Anderson makes that full vial disappear into a pocket as deftly as the empty one did. As he does, Dr. Anderson hears voices in the corridor outside.

O’Toole: “Banks? Townsend? Dr. Anderson? Are you there?”
Townsend: “In here!”

Townsend stands up from the radio equipment after excusing himself to the Coast Guard operator. O’Toole comes into view just outside the room, accompanying a respectable older gentleman, dressed as a doctor. Before Townsend speaks, he closes the door and drags O’Toole away a few steps down the corridor, perhaps to try to prevent Cherry Bell from hearing what they are talking about. If so, it doesn’t work all that well, as Dr. Anderson can follow their speech even through the door and Bell probably can as well.

O’Toole: “Taylor found this guy, says his name is McKinney. McKinney says he’s a doctor and claims he doesn’t remember any hostage crisis, but I think he’s lying through his teeth, the sneaky [fornicating] [noun indicating doubtful parentage]!”
Townsend: “That is Dr. McKinney, Assistant Medical Director and Chief of Non-Psychiatric Medicine at Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane.”
O’Toole: “I’m not [fornicating] blind. I know he looks like his damned picture in the files! I meant he was lying about not remembering, Townsend.”
Townsend: “Well, never mind what he remembers. Somebody else will take statements from everybody, let them worry about who is lying and who is telling the truth. You’ve got more important things to worry about. You’ve got to arrest Taylor!”
O’Toole: “What?! Oh, hell, no!”
Townsend: “He committed a murder! Right in front of my eyes! He killed a very important source.”
O’Toole: “Yeah, you can tell it to the guys who take statements later. Right now, there’s just me and I don’t [fornicating] feel like trying to arrest the kung-fu-fighting former Green Beret with only my [male member] for back-up!”
Townsend: “He’s no longer armed, Agent O’Toole. He left all his weapons in here. You’ve got a rifle, pistol, baton and even grenades.”
O’Toole: “[Excrement]! That’s wicked pissah! You mean all the weapons the trained guard force here had? Before the unarmed GI Joe American Ninja, that you want me to arrest alone, beat them all to [fornication] and took all the weapons away from them? Don’t be a [slang for penis], Townsend. I’m the only agent on the island who can walk and we’ve got a [fornication] ton of problems without making new ones. There’s plenty of wounded. We haven’t accounted for all the hostiles yet. And, yeah, there’s a fire in C Wing. Should probably have [fornicating] led with that.”
Townsend: “I… uh…”
O’Toole: “C’mon, until we can ask the former hostages if the doctor here has [fornicating] hooves and a tail, let’s just assume he might possibly be dangerous and one of us can watch him at all times. And we should probably get someone to check on that fire. But first I’ve got to clear the rest of the third floor here, so we don’t get [fornicating] blindsided.”

While the conversation in the hall was going on, Dr. Anderson had looked around for a clean vial or specimen jar. He doesn’t find any, but it turns out that Deputy Warden Brad Tyrrell was a hobbyist. He made model ships inside bottles. There is a lot of small tools, miniature rigging and tiny nautical objects of all sorts on his desk. Dr. Anderson manages to find an empty bottle of a size he likes in short order. Using a tool from his first aid kit, Dr. Anderson kneels down and scoops substantial quantities of the deceased Dr. Cotton’s brain tissue into the empty bottle.

Dr. Anderson is still doing this as the door opens and Townsend, accompanied by Dr. McKinney, steps into the office. They stare at him, in shock and horror. The phone rings, but no one reacts to answer it.

Dr. Anderson: “I needed some tissue samples. For science.”

Dr. Anderson closes the glass bottle and moves slowly to a miniature fridge in the office. He opens it and places the brains-in-a-bottle on the top shelf. Idly, he also takes out a can of Coca Cola and puts it in a pouch on his tactical gear for later.

Dr. Anderson: “Is anyone going to answer that phone?”

Townsend grabs the phone and answers, seemingly halfway between shock and anger. As he hears the voice on the other end, anger wins out and he turns to Dr. Anderson.

Townsend [coldly]: “It’s for you, Doctor.”
Dr. Anderson: “Yes. Dr. Anderson speaking.”
Taylor: “Yeah, doc, you figure you gonna be much longer? I could really use ya here, I’ve got one burn victim inna critical condition, lots of concussions an’ some strange seizures, one eye trauma an’ the Warden still got his intracranial haemorrhaging, if'n he even still alive. I need a crash kit an’ a real doc.”
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Last edited by Icelander; 01-27-2018 at 09:59 PM.
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