The doctor coughs politely…

Then Doctor Hamana clears his throat. You all jump; you’d almost forgotten he was still there, standing in the doorway.

‘Sorry, Mr. Jackson, but… there’s something odd I’ve been meaning to discuss with you.’ He looks over at Emma and Alan. ‘Ah, in the interests of patient confidentiality, would you mind waiting outside? This’ll just take a moment.’

Emma looks concerned. ‘Is it anything serious? Is he okay?’

‘He’s absolutely fine,’ the doctor assures her. ‘I just need to confirm something about Mr. Jackson’s medical record.’

‘Okay, fine.’ Emma levers herself out of the chair, groaning softly. ‘Christ, I’ve been sitting there for a while. All right. I’m going to go find a coffee, and think about murdering Justin. I’ll be back in ten.’

Alan gets up after her. ‘I’m going to get another coffee, and make sure she doesn’t do that.’ He disappears after her.

The doctor waits until Emma’s footsteps have faded down the corridor before coming in and shutting the door carefully.

‘James.’ Hamana leans forward, eyebrows knitting together. ‘I’m not sure if you’re aware… but there’s a significant discrepancy on your medical record. When we had it pulled, we discovered – well, not to put too fine a point on it, we discovered that you were diagnosed with HIV a year ago.’ He coughs. ‘Except…’

You meet his stare. ‘Except…?’

‘Except that doesn’t make any sense.’ Hamana huffs, looking down at his clipboard. ‘We found no traces of antiretrovirals in your system, which would mean you hadn’t been taking your medication. And that would mean you would have been HIV-positive, which you weren’t – and the emergency PEP treatment would have been worse than useless, which it wasn’t. So…’ He taps the clipboard thoughtfully. ‘I was going to put it down to human error – admittedly, an extremely large one – unless you can shed any light on this for us. I assume you’re not going to tell me you were part of some secret **** trial that magically cured your disease.’

Against all the odds, in spite of everything, you feel yourself smiling.

It was the last thing you’d been worried about – the only thing you hadn’t mentioned while you were telling the story. But even the cruellest part of Justin’s plan has failed.

‘No idea, doc,’ you say, shifting more comfortably into the mattress. ‘I guess it was human error. Someone checked the wrong box.’

‘That’s what I thought.’ The doctor gets up to leave, and then fixes you with an uncertain look. ‘You do realise… it’s an insane story. I mean, for what it’s worth, I think you might just be telling the truth, but you should probably be prepared for the police to take the opposite approach. On the whole, rich kids don’t just kidnap their rivals and inject them with deadly viruses. No matter how pissed off they are.’

You nod, unconcerned. ‘Yeah, I know. And I don’t have any proof. That doesn’t matter, though.’

The doctor raises an eyebrow. ‘Oh, no?’

‘Nope.’ Outside in the corridor, you hear the doors swing open, and the sound of Emma’s footsteps coming back down the hall. ‘She believes me. That’s the only thing I care about.’

‘There’ll be guards outside your door all night,’ Hamana says, getting up to leave. ‘Emma insisted. You’re a very lucky man.’

You laugh; it’s painful, what with all the cuts on your chest. ‘Yeah, tell me about it. Every day I wake up wondering what the hell I did right. And, doc, by the way… thanks.’

Hamana pauses in the doorway. ‘It’s what we’re here for, Mr. Jackson. Now get some rest.’