The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Detective Acharya meets the Doc (13)

AIDEN WOKE up to a headache. No, seriously. His head really, really hurt.

"How are you feeling?" The doctor named Mini asked. "I heard from some of my patients that waking up after a medically induced coma is like waking up to the worst hangover ever, while some say it doesn't hurt. Which one of these groups are you in?"

"Uh, woah," Aiden said, clutching his head. "Sorry. Could you repeat? I cannot process all of that since my head really hurts."

"First group, then," Mini concluded. "That's unlucky for you. Now let's check your eyesight. How many fingers am I holding?"

She held up a five and Aiden gave her the answer. She nodded and said, "Okay. You're doing great. Which is good, since you inhaled a medium amount of cyanogen cyanide, or CNCI, which affects the body's ability to use oxygen, which sometimes causes a rapid loss of consciousness. Any more of that stuff and it could've caused cardiac arrest."

She continued, "You were lucky Aru could handle it and got you out of there, otherwise cardiac arrests could-"

"Wait, doesn't cardiac arrest cause death?" Aiden asked, his brain finally clearing up and working.

Mini looked faintly annoyed and adjusted her glasses to regain her flow. "I was getting to that. Severe cardiac arrest can sometimes lead to death. Well, most of the time anyway."

Aiden nodded. Then he remembered his work partner. "Oh yeah. Um, how's Shah? She was there too, wasn't she? Is she okay?"

Mini smiled. "She held up a lot better than you did. You've been in the hospital for 3 weeks."

"3 weeks?"

Aiden sighed. That wasn't good. It had already been more than a month from the start of the investigation. They weren't getting anywhere.

"Aru's wrapped up her physical therapy. She'd lost sensation in her hands due to the excessive inhalation of CNCI. Do you have anything like that?"

After the check up, Aiden texted his work partner.

Shah

I'm alive

thats unfortunate

"What did she say?"

"She said it's unfortunate."

Mini sighed. "Don't listen to her. I bet she's relieved."

Aiden shrugged. "I'm used to it at this point."

"Aru can be really difficult but she's a good person," Mini smiled. "She was pretty much my first real friend. She cares about everyone. She just...has interesting ways of showing it."

"Like threats?"

"Maybe."

Aiden nodded. "Yeah. She threatens me a lot."

Mini snickered. Then her face turned serious. "I'm sure she's not going to tell you this, so I'm going to. It's something important. She's told you about her brainwashing?"

"Yeah."

"Here's the story how we know it."

———

Mini anxiously stepped into the Council meeting room.

It wasn't everyday the Council called a meeting. The only times she'd ever been invited was when Aru had a new case.

It was strange she was called now. Aru was already solving a case.

"Please sit, Mini," Urvashi told her, trying for lightness. Mini hated when people concealed their true emotions with happiness in a situation where they were going to make the mood darker anyway. It was like making things happy then saying your dog died. It's instant depression.