The doctor finished his examination and said, “Well, good news. None of you show signs of what has affected the others.”

“Because we didn’t eat the burgers,” Gabi said.

The doctor smiled warmly. “That’s the working theory anyway. A possibility that may not have been self-evident without your insight, Mrs. Deshpande,” he said with a wink.

Was he flirting with her? “Miss Deshpande. I’m not married.”

She glanced at his hand to check for a ring almost subconsciously. No ring. Not that her head was in the right place to start a relationship of any kind, but he was kind of cute, and charming. She supposed even her parents would have approved of her dating a doctor. Well, if he was a doctor and Indian, or at least Hindu. Maybe he could convert?

What was she doing? Had she been hit in the head or suffered brain damage from smoke inhalation? She could barely keep her thoughts on the current moment.

With another warm grin, he said, “Well … I had better get back to the others, and there is a sketch artist waiting outside to meet with all of you. But I will be back to check on you again soon.”

“Thank you, doctor,” she said.

He stood and moved to the door. “You’re very welcome.”

Once the doctor had left the room, Deb said, “Do you absolutely have to bat your fake lashes at every man with a fat wallet right now? Our friends are out there dying.”

“Deb, you were barely even in there before receiving a reprieve. I had to fight for my life against an armed man twice my size, who then tried to blow me up. And if I wouldn’t have stood up for them, all of ‘our friends’ would still be hostages instead of receiving medical treatment. So next time you think about opening that sphincter you have for a mouth, maybe you should consider to whom you’re speaking.”

The blonde woman with the scarred neck typed a message onto her left forearm, and from the speaker on her right, the sensual but mechanical voice said, “She is tigress. Hear her roar.”

Gabi thought about a female tiger she had once seen at a zoo in New Delhi. Although she knew they were in the wild near where she had grown up, she had only glimpsed one in captivity. Still, even at a distance, behind protective barriers, she had sensed the tigress’s fearsome presence. It was all muscle, but with an elegant feline grace and agility. She felt honored to be compared to such a majestic beast.

She smiled and said, “I’m not sure that I live up to that description, but same to you. I could tell in there that you had a bit of tigress in you too.”

The blonde typed and said, “I like to think of myself as more of a lioness actually.”

“Isn’t the tigress bigger and stronger and more aggressive?” Gabi asked, laughing.

The blonde smiled. “I think that’s accurate. Why? Are you challenging me to a fight?”