Moon rose to his feet but swayed when he stood, the room spinning a little. Harley didn’t have that problem though as he grabbed him at his elbows to steady him.
“You okay?”
“I think the heat is getting to me.”
“Me too but I’m not wobbly. Let’s get out of here.”
Suddenly Fury was there to help, putting an arm around him. It humiliated Moon a little to need help walking but both males kept a firm grip on him as they led him out of the bathroom. Ted pointed to the bed on the far side of the exam room.
“Put him down there.” He glanced at Flame. “Get Paul. Tell him that playtime is over and our patient won’t try to kill him. I need the ultrasound machine. Your people haven’t been trained on them as well as he is.”
“I’m on it,” Flame announced, spun, and dashed down the hallway.
“What do you think it is?” Moon nearly collapsed onto the mattress. His body was wet and he’d gone from sweating to being cold. “Did part of the dart break off in my arm?”
“Where did you feel it?”
Moon showed the doctor by placing the human’s index finger over the area. “Right there.”
Paul drew everyone’s attention as he pushed a machine on wheels into the room. He smiled when Moon met his gaze. “There’s the guy I know.” Paul came closer. “I hear you’re with us again. I’m so glad. Really. Last time you tried to take a bite out of my arm.”
“I’m sorry.”
Paul halted and bent to plug in a cord. “No problem. It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye…or an arm, in my case.”
“Knock it off,” Ted snapped. “Joke around later. That’s the problem with you young people. You’re more concerned about bedside manner than treatment.”
“No one would ever accuse you of that,” Paul muttered as he turned on the machine and prepared it. “What are we looking for? Did he get injured? Does your chest hurt? I told them to make sure they didn’t tighten the straps too much and to make sure you could breathe without difficulty. We should run you through X-ray though if you think you might have fractured some ribs.”
Ted produced what looked like a marker and drew a circle on Moon’s upper arm. “Search this area right here.”
“That makes it easy.” Paul withdrew a bottle of ultrasound gel and hesitated. “Do you want me to warm this?”
“No. I’ve had enough heat to last me forever.” Moon never wanted to be that hot again.
Paul nodded and slathered the clear substance over a handheld instrument attached to the machine. He pushed it against Moon’s arm and watched the screen, which Moon couldn’t see. It slowly moved over his skin but then stopped. Paul pushed a little harder, adjusted the thing, and softly cursed.
“What the hell is that?”
“Damn it. I need a scalpel. We’ll excise whatever it is and examine it.”
“Did the tip break off in the bone?” Moon didn’t like the idea that part of the dart was still inside him.
“No, I’m sure it is not the dart tip. We didn’t check for foreign objects because the dart was intact,” Ted ground out in an angry voice. He appeared unusually concerned. “It’s an oblong object, very small. Definitely not anything that could be part of a dart.”
“Uh-huh,” Paul agreed. “Shit. It’s almost like one of those pet chips my wife had implanted in our dog in case he ever got lost. Maybe a bit bigger.”
“He was tagged with a tracking system of some sort?” Justice had returned. He wore the same type of outfit as the nurse, only in a larger size.
“I don’t know what it is,” Ted admitted. “We won’t know until I remove it.”
“Do it,” Fury demanded.
Moon nodded. “Yeah. Get it out of me. I don’t know why they’d want to be able to track me though. Our enemies know exactly where we are. Here or at Reservation.”
Harley growled. “What if they have some kind of weapon that could target a certain location? A missile of some sort. It could be sending out a homing signal.”
“Get it out of him now,” Justice ordered. “I’m calling Tim and getting his input. He’d know all about military-grade weapons.”
Moon’s first thought was of Joy as he stared up at Harley. “Get Joy out of here. Take her to human housing and stay with her.” He didn’t want her anywhere near him until he could be sure of what was going on. He also didn’t want to lose Harley if Medical came under attack.
“I’m not leaving you.”
Damn stubborn Species. “Are you really a brother?”