Free Soul Full of Guns: Dave vs the Monsters by John Birmingham Page B

to prove something to you.”
    Oksana barked out a short, dry laugh. “Yes, you will!”
    Karin held out her left hand, palm down.
    “I need you to cut my hand,” she said, and as expected the doctor looked at her as though she was crazy. Even crazier than she had seemed with her talk of invisible injury and missing wounds.
    “This is ridiculous,” she protested, getting up as though to open the door and call Vladimir back in.
    “Please,” Karin said softly, laying a gentle hand on the woman’s shoulder. Oksana could no more push past it than she could pass through a locked steel gate.
    She fell back into her chair, confusion running free on her pretty face.
    “Please,” Karin repeated. “A light cut will do. You must have a scalpel in your bag?”
    At this the doctor’s expression turned suspicious and Karin struggled to maintain her patience.
    “Oksana, please. If I wanted a weapon I could have taken one from any of those gorillas downstairs. They are all carrying handguns and knives. For that matter the Tokarev pistol in Vlad’s shoulder holster is unsecured by any safety clip. Probably to allow a faster draw. I could have taken it from him on at least four occasions in the last half hour. I do not want a weapon. I do not need a weapon.”
    Karin smiled, warm light coming into her eyes.
    “Look,” she said, pointing to the bundle she had laid on the bed. “But don’t touch. Seriously.”
    Karin carefully lifted the bath towel by one corner, allowing it to unroll and spill the katana onto the thin blanket.
    “I do not need to trick you into giving me a weapon, Doctor. Now, if you would make a small incision on the back of my hand and have a swab ready to clean away the blood?”
    She could tell Oksana was unsettled by all this, not reeling with confusion, but not far off.
    She will be reeling soon enough, Karin thought. She knew the doctor’s mental state, not just by the rapid coloring and discoloring of her face, or by the jerky movements of her arms and legs as adrenaline flooded her neuromuscular system, but because she herself could feel it. She could almost taste it in a way. Oksana’s distress was a physical reality to Karin. Something she could hold and even mold.
    Vladimir’s voice boomed through the door.
    “Are you all right in there, doctor? Is everything well?”
    “Yes,” Oksana said, sounding distracted. “Just a minute more.”
    She rustled about in her medical bag, eventually producing a small foil packet and a cotton swab.
    Her hands were shaking.
    “Maybe I should do this,” Karin offered and Oksana gave the items up gratefully. Glad to be free of the responsibility for whatever was about to happen.
    The foil pack contained a disposable scalpel blade, which Karin unwrapped carefully. Without delaying she used the razor’s sharp cutting edge to open a shallow wound on the back of her hand. Shallow, but serious enough to allow quite a lot of blood to flow. Rivulets of blood coursed down her hand and bright red drops began to fall to the floor. Before she made any more of a mess, Karin crossed to the small sink and turned on the cold water.
    “Come and see,” she said. “Quickly. This doesn’t take long.”
    The doctor’s chair scraped on the bare wooden boards and she needed only two steps to close the distance and stand beside her unusual patient. Karin turned off the faucet. The pink water drained away and she held out the cut for Oksana to inspect.
    The doctor sucked in her breath audibly as the wound closed up and the flesh knitted itself back together.
    “I did this to myself many times this morning,” Karin said. “An experiment. It is always the same.”
    She knew Oksana was going to faint before the color drained away from the woman’s face. She moved quickly to grab her under the arms, calling out, “Vladimir, quickly.”
    The ex-fil commander kicked the door in and came through with his gun drawn and held out, ready to shoot. His eyes widened only slightly at