‘I’m not sure how much charge it has in it, but we’ll see.’ Joe busied himself, firing up the laptop and opening up a fresh internet page. ‘Is this what you want?’
‘Thank you.’ Xavier took back the laptop and his fingers flew across the keys. ‘This was Delphine, yesterday.’
He turned the screen for Joe and Kim to see. Kim gasped. They were looking at a mortuary room, with large sinks along one side and metal gurneys ranged beside them. Delphine was clearly identifiable, lying immobile on her back on one of these, with a large tag tied to her ankle.
‘What on earth-’
In a quiet voice, Delphine began to explain.
‘My purchasers seemed to be afraid of me. They didn’t want to keep me and didn’t know what to do with me. Eventually one of them suggested they should dump me. I didn’t know what that meant. They brought me in a moving box like this one and we went along for a long time in the dark. When it stopped, they pushed me out.’
Kim’s hand flew to her mouth, horrified by Delphine’s words. ‘What happened then?’
‘I was cold and I did not know where I was, or what to do. I couldn’t get Xavier to respond to my communication at that time. There were lights coming towards me. I tried to reach them, thinking whoever it was might help me. Something hard hit me, pushing me into the air and then I fell on hard ground. My system powered down.’
Xavier picked up the story. ‘She was disorientated and her life signs were barely functioning. We think she must have been found by the authorities-’
‘The police?’ said Joe.
‘We believe so. Delphine was aware of some of them talking. She was cold and unresponsive, as her system was down. They assumed she was dead and brought her to this place.’ He pointed to the screen. ‘When her system had finished its maintenance and she resumed consciousness, she found herself like that.’
‘I knew I wasn’t back in the incubation sling in the facility but I didn’t know where I was or what to do. I kept still and sent out an alarm signal.’
‘Which I picked up,’ said Xavier.
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