** Content note: Description of treatment is purely fictional **
Philip was poisoned by the same chemical that killed MP Kerry. He had already been exposed to a lethal dose and the effects were taking hold by slowly shutting down his vital functions. With no one else to turn to, he reached out to Sofie for help. But did she get to him in time?
Sofie sank down next to his slumped over figure. He was barely conscious and his breathing was slow and laboured.
"Philip, I am here now. Let me have a look at you."
She shone the light of her phone into his eyes. His pupils were tiny needle pins even in the pitch black of the night. This was a bad sign. The Tabun poisoning had already affected his nervous system and his lungs were filling up with fluid.
Sofie needed to block this neural storm. And she needed to do it fast.
With the phone between her teeth for light, she rummaged through her medical bag with both hands. There it was, the vial with Atropine she was looking for. Poking the thin membrane of the bottle, she drew up the clear liquid into a syringe.
"This will help you breathe easier" She did not expect a response from him, he was already too far gone.
She pinched his arm muscle and pushed in the dose. That's the easy bit. Giving him the antidote was what she dreaded.
He stirred, the drug started circulating his body. When he opened his eyes, his pupils were dilated and he looked like a startled cat. He clapped his hand over his chest. There was panic in his eyes.
"What is happening to me?"
"Your heart-rate has gone up. It's the drug I gave you. All perfectly normal." Sofie continued with her preparations, there was no time to lose. "Try to stay calm."
His eyes followed her hands. If the effects of the Atropine had not unsettled him the various packages with needles and bandages she'd laid out surely was.
"What are you doing?"
"I need to put a line into your arm for the antidote." She tried to sound matter-of-fact but her apprehension was auditable.
"Are you trained to do that?" His voice hitched and he inched away from her.
"No."
He tried to get on his feet.
"Look, I feel fine now. Just get me to a train station. I can manage from there."
Sofie put a hand on his arm to keep him in place.
"Philip, the Atropine will wear off, but the chemical won't. You will be right back to where you were in about 3 hours. You need the antidote. And potentially another shot of Atropine to keep you going later in the night."
He looked miserable. Anyone in his situation would have. No one should have to put their life into the hand of an amateur.
"Do you trust me?" Sofie asked, knowing that the answer was rightfully 'no'.
"This is all your fault." His voice was barely above a whisper. "You do realize that?"
"Of course I do."
Her work was hazardous. More than once, she had put people's lives in danger in the past. But usually they were people who were guilty. Who had been caught up in the net of lies and consequences. Who knew they were doomed already.
But Philip definitely did not see this coming. Whether he was an innocent bystander or plain ignorant, she could not tell.
"Everything was lined up perfectly," he continued, "I had a clean way out and then you came along. With your morals and ideals. Making me feel things I have not felt… "
He went silent and his face looked pale in the harsh light of her phone.
"What?"
"I've not felt like this... ever. And I don't like it, Sofie. My life was simple before you. And now?"
Now, everything had fallen apart. In just one afternoon, he was disowned by Elanda, cast out by his fiancé, and was left to fend for himself with a lethal dose of poison in his system.
"What did you expect? A slap on the wrist?"
"I did not expect to die!" His tone cut through her sarcasm. "I thought Kerry would resign and that's the end of it."
He shook his head and a hopeless smile distorted his lips.
"Well, you got me into this," he said holding out his arm, "You get me out of it."
"I'll try, Philip. I'll certainly try."
That was the honest answer. She knew how to do it. She had done it before, except last time it did not end well. She probed his arm with her fingers as the pungent smell of the alcohol wipe filled the air. Her hand trembled holding the needle. Sinking it into his flesh, she missed the vein and Philip winced in pain.
"Shit… Shit!" It wasn't like her to curse but this called for it. "I'm sorry. I need to try again."
He did not complain and to her relief the needle went in the second time without a hitch.
"This is Pralidoxime," she explained, "The antidote. But your system cannot tolerate high dosages all at once so I need to give you small amounts every 5 minutes over the next 30 minutes."
"I don't feel different," he said after the first dose went in.
"It only dislodges the Tabun from your body's enzymes." Seeing his puzzled look she clarified, "It breaks down the poison. It does not have any other effect."
"How come you know so much about this?" His eyes met hers.
His face was barely visible in the dim light of the phone, but Sofie could tell there was admiration in it, she could also hear it in his voice. Most people had a romantic fascination with someone's dangerous past, especially when that someone was rehabilitated or apparently harmless, like Sofie.
But she could not bear him looking at her like this. There was nothing romantic or fascinating about her past. And his question brought back memories that she was not ready to deal with right now.
"I had a run-in with this before," she said trying to brush off the topic.
"Yourself?"
"No, and I don't want to talk about it, ok?" It was harsher than she intended, certainly harsher than he deserved. Sofie turned away to wipe a stray tear from her eyes hoping he had not noticed. It was years ago. Why she still felt the pain so keenly was beyond her. She should be over it by now.
"I am sorry for your loss," he said, placing a hand on her back.
It felt warm and reassuring, if it wasn't for the fact that he read her like an open book, once again. They sat in silence until Sofie's phone alarm went off. It was time for the next dose.
"You'll be fine Philip," she said, feeling the need to explain, "I got to him much later than I got to you. That's why he died."
Philip let out a sharp breath, it had worried him, of course it had. Learning that someone else had died under similar circumstances would have phased anyone.
"So, what now?" he said, diverting the conversation.
"After we are done with this, you need to have a similar dose again in about an hour. So, I'll take you home with me. I have a safe-house in London. We can stay there, for a couple of days while we figure out what's next."
"But what can be next?" He sounded hopeless.
"For starters, we need to figure out who murdered MP Kerry."
"Sofie." He reached for her hand. "I am really grateful. You didn't have to do this. You could have... let me die."
"And miss out on your company?"
A weak smile came into his face. She was parroting his line from yesterday. Gosh, was it really only yesterday? It felt like a lifetime ago.
A sudden shiver ran through Philip's body.
"You are freezing," Sofie remarked, "It's from all the fluids I'm pumping into you. It'll be warmer in the car. Can you walk?"
Philip nodded and scrambled to his feet. It took them almost the full 5 minutes between injections to walk the short stretch to the car. By the time Sofie put down the syringe, Philip had stopped shivering inside the warm car and the car windows were foggy from the condensate. It had placed them in a protective bubble of their own, away from the world.
"Why didn't you want to go to the hospital?" Sofie asked.
It still puzzled her why he had taken such a big risk.
"The police were there way too quickly." He recalled the events. "Someone knew Kerry was going to die and called them before she even entered my room. Someone was planning all of this and wanted to make sure I had no time to run. Someone wanted to pin this on me."
"But they poisoned you too, wouldn't that have proven your innocence?"
"I don't think they meant to poison me. Kerry and I, we were never... physical. I've never even touched her, not even a handshake. She liked me to watch and tell her how to satisfy herself. So if she hadn't collapsed against me, I would have never been exposed."
"So? Once you realized that you were poisoned, you could have safely gone to hospital, rather than risk your life out here."
"Once I was poisoned, they would have to make sure I'd disappeared. What are the odds of two people randomly having a heart attack. I would not have made it to the hospital."
"I see. So How did you escape then?"
"I climbed over the roof. The Police were already on their way up."
"Sofie," He absentmindedly dragged his fingers through the condensation on the window, leaving little sad trails behind. "I'm not sure what's to become of me now. I cannot go back to Elandra. I cannot access my bank accounts." He let his head droop against the glass, "All the sacrifices I made, the games I played... and won, all of this was for nothing. I lost everything."
Sofie interlaced her fingers with Philip's. Her hand fit his perfectly and it felt like home. Just like that, finding the proof that Kerry was involved in the opposition leader's death had lost its appeal. She did not care anymore about who murdered whom or what the consequences would be for the world. Instead she pictured lazy Sunday mornings with Philip, hearing the leaves rustle during long walks together in the autumn forest, or kissing him on New Year's Eves. It had taken her a long time but she finally made up her mind: she was ready to love him.
"You are with me now and together we'll find a way, Philip."
She smiled at him, even if it was too dark for him to see. Or for her to notice his response.