Dominator

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 6

Redheart stood in front of her apartment door. She carefully checked the hallway and then put her key in the lock. Opening the door, her eyes went left and right. She wasn’t going to be surprised. This time, Caricature did not seem so scary as when Redheart discovered him in the apartment.

“What’s this?” he asked, holding up the slip of paper she’d gotten from the hotel clerk. While Redheart knew how easily he got past the locks on her door, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t already suspected him of going through her belongings.

“It’s a name and an address,” she said. “Look familiar?”

“How did you get this?” Caricature demanded. His tone didn’t impress her like it used to. The dressing down that his boss—if that’s who the mare at the hotel was—had given him in front of Redheart had changed the nurse’s opinion.

“I think you should be more concerned with what I could do with it,” she said. Caricature considered that. There was nothing that would disturb the status quo faster than looking bad in front of subordinates. Redheart having the ear of a superior above his head could easily cause that.

“You don’t know if that address is even real,” he said.

“I doubt anypony in this crazy business would use their real place of residence,” agreed Redheart. “Or even their real name. That doesn’t mean a letter sent there won’t find her eventually.”

Caricature looked like he was fighting to control all-out rage. Several seconds passed, and he appeared to calm down. “What do you want from me? As you’ve so irritatingly laid bare, I’m not in charge here. Whatever you expect to get from me, I can’t just do.”

Seeing him stripped of his pretend power felt strange. Redheart realized that while he’d never truly been the all-knowing figure she’d thought of him as, that weakness was now plainly visible.

“Can you at least be a little more civil?” she asked. “I can honestly say that I’ve never met anypony as unlikeable as you.”

Caricature’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing. He dug in his bag and took out a small bottle. It looked like a normal container of pills. The way it rattled, there were only a couple inside. “Does this look familiar?”

Redheart glanced at the label. “It’s a high-grade anticoagulant used for treating heart patients. Without help, a victim of a heart attack could quickly have another one.”

“That’s right.” Caricature set the bottle on the table. “Substituting that medication for this useless placebo would likely kill a patient.”

Redheart thought she saw where he was going with this, but let the stallion go on.

“We need you to make that substitution,” he said. “There’s a pony in the Neighton hospital right now that we don’t need to go on living.”

“I can’t kill somepony!”

“You wouldn’t be directly. Just swap the pills and leave.” Caricature shrugged. “I already told you, not all of us get to pick what we want to do.”

“Can’t you get Dominator to do it?” asked Redheart.

“For merely taking care of a heart patient lying in a hospital bed?”

The mare looked at the floor. “This is wrong.”

“Breaking into houses isn’t? What about sneaking around amid dead bodies and collecting information that could be used to create more?”

Redheart looked up. “Why can’t you do it?”

“What makes you think I’m not already doing something worse?” Caricature glared at her. He pulled a piece of paper from his bag and tucked it under the bottle of fake pills. With a last look, he went out the door.

The note was brief, as usual. It contained simple instructions for finding the pony in question. It used the cold, unsettling word “target.” There were further directions for afterwards, arranging a meeting at a “safe house” located near the hospital in Neighton. Perhaps, the note said, she’d be interested in taking a position at the clandestine clinic located inside. Apparently, secret government operatives sometimes needed surreptitious medical attention.

Redheart snorted. Stitching Caricature had been bad enough. She didn’t relish the idea of practicing medicine on the sly, even if it did get her closer to being a doctor and able to do it for real.

She could think about that later. There was a job to take care of first.

+

Redheart managed to get to Neighton in time to position herself for the job. She still had doubts, a lot of them, but she hadn’t backed down yet. Not even after making her way into the hospital, avoiding the nurses who actually worked there, and finally getting a look at her target.

He was an older stallion named Gold Bullion. Judging by the fine coat and monocle carefully positioned next to his bed, he had some affluence, or thought he did. Redheart pushed the medication cart into his room. The bottle of false pills sat on top. A scalpel was positioned beneath a towel and within easy reach, just in case.

“Good evening, Mr. Bullion.”

He frowned. “I prefer just ‘Bull.’ Didn’t the others tell you?”

“My apologies. It’s my first day in this wing.” Redheart prepared the dose of pills and picked up his chart to mark it down. When the actual nurse came with the real medication, she would see the modified chart, and the stallion would confirm that he had taken pills. Then he would have a fatal heart attack.

That may have been the plan, but it quickly went off the rails. Bull said, “I want another nurse.”

“I’m afraid one isn’t available.” Redheart pushed a small cup towards him with the dose of pills in it.

Bull just stared at it. “I don’t believe you.”

“Why not?”

“Lady, ponies have tried to kill me before.”

Redheart’s face twitched involuntarily. Bull started, as if surprised to be right. “Who sent you? Was it Caricature?”

Her hoof crept towards the hidden scalpel. “How do you know about him?”

“If you’re who I think you are, we both work for him.”

“What does that mean?” Redheart relaxed, just enough so that Bull wouldn’t think she was about to attack.

“Exactly what it sounds like," said Bull. "He asked me for a favor and offered to pay. Pretty soon I was sneaking around doing all kinds of things. Sound familiar?”

“Why-why do you think he wants you dead?”

Bull’s eyes went hard. “I figured a few things out. I was running to tell somepony—literally running—when my heart gave out. It was a bad situation, and frankly I’m surprised I wasn’t killed then.”

“What do you know?” Redheart had gone nearly breathless with anticipation.

“Did you know Tincan?” asked Bull. “He was killed by a psycho guitar player.”

Redheart nodded. The stallion went on. “He was just like us. Tincan and I had been sharing notes. Some things weren’t adding up. For instance, who had been passing out warnings about Dominator? We didn’t want to just throw out accusations willy-nilly, but who besides Caricature knew enough to be able to do that?”

That seemed like a big jump to make, but Redheart couldn’t help but feel that it made some sense. She certainly didn’t know enough to be able to leak anything.

“What do you know about Dominator?” she asked.

Bull shook his head. “I’ve seen what Dominator does. That’s all.”

The two of them were silent for a moment. “What are we going to do now?” asked Redheart.

“I’ve been trying to figure that out,” admitted Bull. “I don’t know who to go to.”

“I think I know somepony.” Redheart thought back to the information she still had for the mysterious mare.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind if you took care of that sooner rather than later.”

Redheart nodded and went out door, thoughts of insubordination on her mind. She returned the cart to where she’d found it and tossed the fake pills in the trash. The scalpel she kept.

Rapier was in the lobby, probably having followed her from Ponyville. He was talking to the receptionist, but seemed to be finishing his conversation as Redheart went out the front door.

She paused on the street. The so-called “safe house” seemed like a dangerous place to go at the moment. Perhaps if she could get Rapier’s attention, she could pass along word of what Caricature might be up to.

Redheart headed down the street in the right direction. She didn’t want to be obvious about watching the place, as Caricature was expecting her to actually go inside. She needed a convenient place to observe from.

A dumpster behind a building presented itself. She waited there, hoping Rapier would come by.

It was difficult to be aware of everything at once. The nurse's attention was focused mainly on the safe house. The brick to the back of her head took Redheart by surprise.

Comments

[Out of Place]

Sneak attack!

[Cades]

Mysterious pony used sneak attack! Redheart fainted...

[AppleTank]

Ah crap. She's doomed.

[Lithl]

I swear I very nearly changed my thumb up to a thumb down and unfavoritied this story when Redheart took this job.

Glad I stuck it out for the whole chapter!

Analyzing a murder scene is one thing. Somepony who wants to be a doctor going around killing ponies is B. A. D. BAD.

[sockeye101]

I checked DeviantArt before I checked Fimfiction tonight... damn spoilers, I know exactly where this is headed...

[D4ddy D15Cord]

-Hea -Hea -HeadShot!

Skip to 0:55 For the Drop.

[AssortedCreme]

Something that came to mind between my reading of the last chapter and this one, what would happen if somepony took a photo of the enchanted Dominator files? The magic keeps unauthorized ponies from seeing them, but a camera isnt a living being, so would the enchantment extend to the picture?
Also shame on Redheart, agreeing to murder a guy without knowing a thing about him.