Evil Genius (Part 8)

Chapter 5
Speeches. They always felt the need to give speeches.

That was the thought going through the Doctor's mind as he quickly flipped his would-be assassin over his head and sent her crashing to the floor. Before she knew what had gone wrong one forearm had the knife-hand pinned to the ground while the other forearm was on her throat cutting off her air supply. The Doctor surveyed his foe with a mixture of curiosity, annoyance, and disdain.

“Tricky little minx; you’ll be dropping the knife now.” He spat at her. He could see the fiery hatred in her eyes. She clung to the knife and he could feel her pressing harder in vain to try and get at him.

“That was not a request; merely a statement of fact. Whether voluntarily or through unconsciousness, I promise you that the knife will fall from your hand momentarily.”

The hatred was still there, but it was starting to give way to panic as her lungs started to burn and her heart continued to race. Her face was turning a scarlet that deepened with each passing second and she began to shake uncontrollably. Finally, her grip relaxed and the knife fell to the ground.

Ivan continued to look down at her and contemplated whether or not to release his grip or finish the job and eliminate the threat. The part of him that was curious won out, and he released her as he picked the blade up from the ground.

He took a few steps back and surveyed her again as she began coughing and gasping for air. The threat was over; he had won. But along with a sense of triumph and a modicum of relief, he suddenly felt very angry.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he glared at her. “How long have you been planning this for? How many nights have you sat at home and thought about that one moment when you would have me at your mercy?”

He started pacing back and forth, and the anger was flowing freely.

“I haven’t the slightest idea how the hell you managed to get in here – and believe me that yours will not be the only head to roll for that infraction – but the fact that you did so already made you 95% more effective than any of the other delusional fools who thought they were a match for me.”

Now he knelt down next to her and put his face close to hers.

“And you know what? You almost pulled it off. You happened to pick just exactly the right moment where my thoughts were elsewhere. Ordinarily I’ve got the awareness of a gazelle. I’ve long assumed, rightfully I might add, that at any given time there were at least 100 people actively plotting to kill me. But I’ll admit that you caught me completely off my game tonight. I honestly had no idea you were there. Do you know how I discovered you were there?” He looked expectantly at her. She remained silent.

He suddenly grabbed her by the collar and shouted, “When you opened your mouth and told me!!!” He let go of her shirt and she collapsed in a heap again. He got up and started pacing again.

“God, the stupidity! I mean, what is the point of sneaking up on someone to gain the element of surprise if you’re just going to broadcast your presence the very second you’re in reach. It just defies belief. Do you realize that you chose the exact, precisely worst moment to do that? Honestly, you did, and I’ll prove it to you. Had you waited until after you slit my throat there’s a good chance I would have retained consciousness for a good couple of minutes before bleeding out. Plenty of time for speeches then. But let’s say you were insistent on saying your piece before the cutting. You would have been better off shouting at me from the doorway! At least then you would have had a chance to throw the damn knife at me! But you know what upsets me more than anything else?” he asked rhetorically; “It’s the fact that someone this stupid almost succeeded in killing me!!”

As the Doctor stood ranting, Meg was staggering onto all fours and, for lack of a better plan, was crawling very slowly towards the door. As the Doctor started railing about it “being like Hitler getting assassinated by Elmer Fudd” she had almost managed to reach the door when she ran headlong into two pairs of legs that belonged to two of the Doctor’s henchmen. The Doctor turned and noticed them.

“Ah; at long last my loyal, faithful, completely worthless security detail. Either of you two gentlemen see something in here that seems a bit amiss?”

The henchmen said nothing as they picked Meg up and secured her.

“Any idea how this happened?” he inquired of them. The cold stare and colder smile bore into them. Meg was not the only one in danger now.

The henchman on the right cleared his throat. “Your excellence; we found Frank’s body by the back door. He was stabbed.”

“Ah, so the minx does know how to act after all.” Ivan stood in front of Meg and lifted her chin with his hand so he could look into her eyes. “Bet you didn’t have any speeches for him did you? No? Well, then I guess we’ve learned something today haven’t we?”

He turned to his men and said “Take her out front. Cut her head off and display it along with the rest.”

He turned to head back to his desk when he suddenly became aware of something. His pulse was racing and his temper was flaring. He was angry and triumphant, satisfied and full of disdain. In short, he was feeling more alive right now than he had in months. He turned back to his men as they began to lead Meg to her execution.

“Hold that order, gentlemen. I might have found a better use for this one.”