The night passed somehow. Preston did not find anything unusual although something was nagging him. He could sense it. It was around eleven in the morning and Dr. Baker had checked Valarie's condition. Her situation was stable and she would be waking up any time soon.
Preston and Ryder were still in the ward waiting for her to gain consciousness and their wish was finally granted.
Valarie opened her slowly, the sudden light stung her eyes. Her head felt heavy and she had no strength in her body. Even a slight movement caused her a lot of discomfort. She groaned and tried to lift her hand. But it took a lot of her strength and she felt intense pain.
"Relax dear. Take a deep breath." Dr. Baker said gently as he held her hand to check her pulse. When he felt that everything was fine, he made her sit with her back leaning against the headrest.
"Now dear, I am going to remove your bandages. Tell me if it hurts, okay."
Valarie nodded with great difficulty. Even that felt a lot of work for her.
Dr. Baker removed her bandages gently so as to not hurt her. He then cleaned her wound thoroughly. The cut on her forehead was healing, but it still needed to be covered. So he put a new bandage on her. Every now and then Valarie would whimper, making Dr. Baker stop his work.
"Do you feel pain now?" Dr. Baker had finished tying the bandage.
"No." Valarie croaked out.
"Here have some water."
Ryder held a cup of water and helped her to drink it.
"Do you remember everything that happened before?" Dr. Baker asked when she had finished drinking.
"Yes."
"Good. There is nothing wrong with you now. But it will take a few days for you to recover completely. I want you to rest until then, no working, no stressing. Okay?"
"Yes."
"I'll look into it that she follows your orders doctor," Ryder assured.
"Please do. Now are you hungry dear?"
"Yes."
"Good, someone amongst you go get her some soup. It is light and will enrich her taste buds."
"I'll go." Preston volunteered and walked out immediately. He directly went to the canteen and ordered some soup. As he waited for the soup, he heard a woman talk.
"I pity Dr. Aria." One of the nurses spoke.
"Why? What happened to her?" The other woman beside her asked.
"She has had a lot of work to do this month with little or no breaks."
"Is it?"
"Yes, first she had two operations in a day and then she had to look after Dr. Davis' patients along with hers when he was on leave. Then, immediately after he returned, she had to attend the conference in London. Now, that she is back, she has to look after Dr. Davis' patients again. And after a week, she will be going to the borders."
"Oh, she has had a lot on her plate. It is the same with Dr. Ian too."
"Yes, what a weird duo. Have you seen them together? They make a good couple though."
"You are right, they look so good together."
Preston coughed hearing their words. He did not know why he was feeling weird about it. He immediately took the soup and went back to Valarie's ward.
He handed her the bowl of soup and sat on the stool beside her. Dr. Baker was nowhere to be it. It was only him and Ryder.
The smell of the soup was tantalizing, she started drinking it immediately. Her taste buds became alive as soon as she tasted the first spoon.
"So, Val. How did you even get involved in an accident?" Ryder started.
Valarie stopped drinking her soup.
"Break fail." She uttered two words and continued drinking.
"Do you suspect anyone?" Preston asked.
"The Vipers."
"Oh."
The ward became silent.
"Chief, Ivy had come to meet you."
"Is it?" She answered them using only two words at most.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"She thinks that there might be chances of a virus leakage."
"Hmm."
"Chief, David is dead," Preston said looking at her still swallowing the soup.
"Murder."
Preston and Ryder looked at each other surprised. How did she even deduce that? They had not told her anything much about his death.
"How?" Preston asked after coming out of the shock.
"Knew it would happen."
"Ohh."
"Get my bag and your laptop."
Preston held her bag while Ryder places his laptop on her desk. By then Valarie had finished drinking her soup and was contented with it.
She took her bag from Preston and pulled out a pen drive. She connected it to the USB port of the laptop and opened the contents in it. There was an audio clip. She played it.
"How are we going to deal with David now that he is in jail?" It was a man.
"We will just have to kill him." Another man replied.
"How do we do that? There is not much time before the court proceeding starts." The first man asked again.
"Simple by tricking him."
"I don't understand."
Preston and Ryder listened to the audio intently.
"I am going to meet him in two days. I have my men in the prison. While returning, I will give him a bottle of pills."
"Okay, then?"
"Those pills are actually poison. One pill will make a person unconscious for days while two will lead to death."
"Oh, great. But how will you make him eat it?"
"I am going to trick him to eat it."
"How?"
There was no reply, the audio clip ended.
"What the heck!" Preston cursed.
"We have proof now, we can do voice recognition test and find out who the two men are," Ryder suggested.
"I tried but it does not match with anyone in our database," Valarie replied.
"How is it possible? We have all the voices of the people in our country in the database." Preston questioned.
"It is possible if they have changed their voices," Ryder said after some analyzing.
"Oh."
"Valarie, how did you get this audio clip by the way? Is this the reason those bastards attacked you?" Ryder enquired.
"No, I was attacked for a completely different reason."
"What?" Preston and Ryder looked at her waiting for her answer.
"Revenge."
"What revenge?"
"The Vipers lost two of their men. So, they are taking revenge on us."
"Okay and who sent you this clip?" Ryder queried again. He was dying to know the answer. Nobody knew who was the one working behind the scenes in the mission. So, how did Valarie get a hold on it? However, her next words stupefied the two men.
"Margeret sent it to me."
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