Hired for secrets

Together, we'll find a way

** Content note: Description of treatment is purely fictional **

Sofie sank down next to Philip's slumped over figure. He was barely conscious and his breathing was slow and laboured.

"Philip, I'm 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. His lungs would be next. Filling with fluids. Until he couldn't breathe. He needed a hospital, not a graduate in combat medicine from dark web university.

"You are too far gone, Philip. Let me call an ambulance. I'll stay with you. They won't hurt you."

"No!" His words barely auditable with the little breath he had left. "Let me die."

Sofie was taken aback. He fully understood his situation yet still refused professional help. What was he afraid of?

"I won't let that happen," she decided with a confidence she didn't really have. She needed to stop this neural storm, raging inside of him. And she needed to do it fast.

With the phone between her teeth for light, she rummaged through her medical bag until she found a vial with Atropine. Poking the thin membrane of the bottle, she drew up the clear liquid into a syringe.

"This will help you breathe easier."

She didn't expect a response. He was slipping in and out of unconsciousness, by the time she pinched his arm muscle and pushed the dose.

That's the easy bit. Giving him the antidote was what she dreaded.

He stirred. The drug started to circulate in his body. When he opened his eyes, his pupils were dilated and he looked like a startled cat. He took a couple of deep breaths before clenching his fist over his chest. Sofie could see the panic in his eyes, as he looked to her for help.

"What's happening to me?"

"Your heart-rate has gone up. It's the Atropine I gave you. This is good. You are responding to the drug." Sofie went back to her preparations. He couldn't lose any more time. "Try to stay calm."

His eyes followed her hands. If the effects of the Atropine wasn't unsettling him already, the various packages with needles and bandages she was laying out surely would.

"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 stared at her for a second before trying 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 poison won't. You will be right back to where you were in about an hour. You need the antidote. And potentially another shot of Atropine later in the night to keep you going. The poison keeps on killing you until the antidote has fully neutralized it. And that'll take a couple of hours."

He looked miserable. Anyone in his situation would. No one should have to put their life into the hands of an amateur.

"Do you trust me?" Sofie asked, knowing that the answer was rightfully 'no'.