“Pewter?” Teal’s expression mirrored Ruby’s. “Did he say why he wanted me?”
“No, but he was really worried.”
The last of Teal’s annoyance evaporated. He began to rub his palms together. “So where’s Pewter now?”
Ruby nodded at the revolving door. “Went to check if you’re on the harbour or something.”
“It’s pouring out there!”
Ruby nodded again, faster now. “Yeah, it’s that serious.”
Teal nibbled frantically at a fingernail. “I’d better find him.”
“I’d say so. Could be bad.”
“It’s got to be!”
With that, Ruby spun Teal by the shoulders and shoved him towards the revolving door. “So go, Teal! Go find Pewter! Fly like the wind!”
Teal was off. The moment he was out of earshot, Cyan turned to Ruby. “What was that all about? Why’d you wind him up like that?”
“It’s for a good cause. Just follow me and play along.”
Together they scuttled in a speedy arc towards Ms Ferryman. Ruby called out, “Ahoy, Ms Ferryman!”
The head orderly turned her attention – somewhat irritably – from the piano to the pair of them. “Hello, Ruby. Hello, Cyan.”
“You seen Teal?” Ruby pointed at the revolving door, so that Ms Ferryman looked in time to see a flustered Teal leave the building.
Ms Ferryman’s neat black eyebrows lowered. “He’s looking particularly tortured today.”
“Yeah, Teal’s been a lot worse lately. He’s found something new to wind himself up about. Not that I’m sure we can do much about it.”
“Can we ever?”
Ruby snorted.
“Perhaps he should visit Dr Haven,” suggested Ms Ferryman.
Cyan looked cluelessly on while Ruby tutted. “That’s part of the problem.”
“How so?”
“It’s stupid, really. Teal said that last time he was in Dr Haven’s office, he saw some papers when the doctor opened a drawer.”
“What’s so bad about that?”
“He thinks he saw some files, and now he’s got it into his head that Dr Haven isn’t careful enough with keeping stuff out of sight. He’s convinced there’ll be some sort of slip-up, and that he’ll see something about his past that messes up his treatment.”
“That’s highly unlikely, Ruby. You can tell Teal to stop his fussing. He’ll never see anything of the sort in Dr Haven’s office.”
Cyan caught on to Ruby’s game. He spoke to Ms Ferryman. “That’s what I said. I told him residents’ files’d be tucked safely away. Probably not even in Dr Haven’s office.”
“No, they’re not.”
Ruby shoved her hands into her skirt pockets. “They’re probably somewhere residents can’t go. Somewhere super-secure, right?”
“I assume so, since even I don’t know where they are. None of the staff are allowed to know. It’s a security precaution. Only Dr Haven knows.” Ms Ferryman adjusted the hem of her tunic. “But I do know they’re kept away from this floor. Having them here would pose a risk to residents.”
Cyan gave a nonchalant shrug. “Good call. Keep them safely out of reach. I’ll tell Teal. Should help his latest stress-fest.”
“Until he thinks of something new to agonize over.”
“Too true!” hooted Ruby. She punched Cyan’s arm as if he’d made the joke. “Anyway, we’d best be off. Going to the library for a bit. Sometime-somewhere, Ms Ferryman!”
“You too, Ruby. Goodbye, Cyan.”
Ruby and Cyan turned to go, but faltered when Ms Ferryman called after them. “Oh, and, Cyan?”
Cyan pivoted. “Yes, Ms Ferryman?”
“How are you feeling these days?”
A sudden flush of heat beneath Cyan’s collar. “How do you mean, Ms Ferryman?”
“After your fever?”
“Oh.” Cyan swallowed and smiled. “Shipshape as ever, Ms Ferryman.”
“So you say, but you’re even paler than usual. And quiet too – by your standards, at least. You don’t seem quite…yourself.”
“Don’t worry about me, Ms Ferryman. Nothing a sit-down with a good book won’t fix.”
Ms Ferryman nodded. “Quite right. But don’t hesitate to trouble Dr Haven if you’re feeling out of sorts. I’m sure he’d be happy to see to you.”
“I’m very sure he would. Thank you, Ms Ferryman.” Cyan tapped his non-existent cap, then headed with Ruby for the corridor to the library.
Once in the corridor, Ruby murmured beneath her breath. “So only Dr Haven knows where those files are.”
Cyan checked over his shoulder. They were alone. “Yeah,” he whispered. “But at least we know that now.” He tapped Ruby’s elbow with his knuckle. “That was a sly move! You’re pretty good at this stuff.”
“Way better than you.” Ruby gave a smug shrug. “I just saw a chance to get some clues. I know how much you love your…intel.” She smirked at the word.
Cyan’s eyes rolled behind his glasses. “Yeah, yeah, all right. But whatever you call it, it’s useful information. Narrows things down. Now we can focus on Dr Haven – figure out how to get him to reveal where those files are. Then we’ll have a good idea of where –” he lowered his voice further, checked the corridor again – “of where Jonquil is. And hopefully the others too.”
Ruby didn’t look so sure. “But Dr Haven’ll be more tight-lipped about this stuff than anyone else. How can we get him to reveal where the files are?”
“We’ll figure something out.” Cyan led the way, and they entered the cosy hush of the library.
Cyan was brooding in a pod chair when a series of beeps sent residents reaching for lockets. Cyan pulled out his own, opened it up and saw its warning: reconfiguration in thirty minutes. He looked up at the ceiling, in the direction of the rooms that were soon to shuffle, until the locket drew back his gaze.
Cyan considered it carefully. He tilted it in his hand, so that the light from a nearby lamp flexed across its curve. Slowly, he began to nod. “Bullseye.”
Ruby was on a beanbag just below him, eyeing her own locket. “Bullseye what?” she whispered.
A vague smile began to dawn on Cyan’s lips. He wriggled his white eyebrows.
The longer Ruby looked at his face, the more she shook her head. “I don’t like that look, Cyan. I don’t like it one little bit.”
Cyan spent most of the next day in the foyer with a book, and was in the same spot the following day too, on a couch that hadn’t been there the previous evening.
He held his book up to cover his face but peeked regularly over its pages to watch residents and staff leave the canteen. He and Ruby had already eaten. They’d landed the same breakfast shift, but had sat at separate tables, each of them barely touching their food.
A flash of lab coat between red uniforms: Professor Vadasz. With a coffee in one hand and a folder in the other, he left the canteen and entered the corridor that passed Dr Haven’s office.
Cyan got up and made for the foyer’s exit, just in time to see Professor Vadasz enter the lift at the corridor’s end.
When the professor’s eyes rose from the lift to the foyer, Cyan jumped into the revolving door. He walked swiftly along the side of the sanctuary and pushed his book into his satchel. When he reached the corner he saw Ruby, reading on one of the benches facing the cove. She had her back to him and was thankfully alone.
“Psst.”
Ruby jolted before swivelling around. “You scared me!”
“Being on standby’s tense, right?”
“It’s not…time, is it?”
Cyan’s voice lowered. “Afraid so. The professor’s heading to his office and we’re both available. It’s now or never.”
“How about never?”
Cyan tried to look brave but it wasn’t easy. He could feel his heart beating harder, spurred on by thoughts of what was coming. “You know we have to do it this way. Unless you’ve got any better ideas?”
Ruby put her book away and got up. “You know I haven’t. Which is ridiculous, because your plan –” she made speech marks with her fingers – “is what you see when you look up ‘stupid’ in a dictionary.”
Cyan bobbed tersely on the spot. They didn’t have time for this. “Are you done?”
Ruby crossed her arms. “Yes.”
“Then let’s go.”
While Ruby checked around the sanctuary’s corners, Cyan scanned the rear windows in case anyone was watching. The coast was clear, so they unclipped their lockets and buried them in sand by the benches.
They sped along the building’s side, up its steps and into the foyer. After turning right, they paused by Ms Ferryman’s door, as if waiting to go in.
When no one was looking, they ran to the restricted-access door at the corridor’s end. Cyan whipped out the access card he’d stolen from the orderlies’ staffroom. He swiped it through the electric lock and – with both of them flinching at its buzz – they slipped through the door and closed it behind them.
They were in the stairwell that led up to the engines and down to the staff floor. Cyan listened out; no sounds from above or below.
Ruby shook her head while whispering. “Do we really need to do this in the daytime? There’ll be people about. We’re bound to get caught.”
Cyan whispered back. “After what happened on the staff floor, I think they’ll be more on guard at night. They’ll be less cautious during the day. Wouldn’t be expecting it.”
“Because it’s stupidly risky.”
“Yes. Because it’s risky. Plus, we need Dr Haven available for this to work. You know we do.” He straightened his tortoiseshell glasses. “So, let’s keep going.”
After they’d snuck down the stairs to the staff floor, Cyan crept to the door and peered through its window into the corridor. “We’re in luck. There’s a trolley not far from the professor’s office. It’ll—”
He ducked suddenly.
“What?” hissed Ruby.
“Technician. Just left one of the rooms.”
Cyan inched his eyes back up to the pane. “It’s okay. He’s gone.” He turned his head to Ruby, who was crouching by the door frame. “We’d better go for it. Before someone else comes. You remember what you need to do?”
A reluctant nod.
“Then here goes nothing.”
Cyan pushed the door and the pair of them slinked into the corridor. They tiptoed hastily across its linoleum floor, with Ruby stopping by the professor’s office to take a DO NOT DISTURB note from her bag and stick it to the door.
Cyan kept moving, grabbed a trolley loaded with furnishings and wheeled it back towards Ruby. When it was in position outside the professor’s door, he took a folded note from his own satchel and put it on a cushion on the trolley’s top.
Ruby was already crouched behind the trolley, hidden from the office doorway. Cyan lifted his fist, about to knock, when he heard a creak from down the corridor. He dropped to the floor, hid behind the trolley’s narrower side and made space for Ruby.
Three orderlies left the staffroom. Their staff cards flashed against their waists while they walked, heading to the lift at the corridor’s other end. They chattered and laughed, unaware that two residents – with breath held and foreheads beading – were watching from behind a trolley.
The lift doors closed. Cyan wiped sweat from above his lip and gave Ruby a nod. He mouthed a word – “Now” – and shuffled back to the professor’s door. Ruby returned to her position behind the trolley’s wider side.
Wincing all the while, Cyan knocked on the door, then scrabbled to take cover beside Ruby. He took a white plastic cartridge from his blazer, readying its needle.
Professor Vadasz’s voice came from behind the door. “Come in!”
Cyan and Ruby were silent, motionless.
“I said you can come in!”
They continued to crouch, then heard footsteps, an opening door. Through the gap beneath the trolley’s upper shelf, Cyan saw trousers and the bottom of a lab coat. The coat swayed a little, and Cyan heard a papery rasp; the professor was picking up the note.
The professor read its front beneath his breath: “For the attention of Professor Vadasz.”
Then the crinkle of an unfolding sheet.
Cyan’s palms were sticky. He clamped his lips together, doing his best to ignore the dry, flame-like crackle of the paper.
“We’re really really sorry,” the professor read on. “Honest.”
Keeping close to the floor, Cyan crawled silently around the trolley’s base. He steadied the cartridge in his hand and saw the lab coat swing while Professor Vadasz turned to search the corridor. “Who’s sorry?” he muttered. “For wha—”
Cyan plunged the needle into the professor’s thigh. Professor Vadasz gasped, stiffened and gargled, then stumbled against the door frame before sliding to the floor.
The moment he saw that the professor’s eyes were shut, Cyan pocketed his cartridge, shoved the trolley back along the corridor, snatched up the note and helped Ruby drag Vadasz into the office. He shoved the professor’s legs aside, so he could close and lock the door.
Ruby staggered backwards from the body. “Yuck. He’s so floppy.”
“Let’s hope he stays that way.” Cyan had already whipped the blinds down over the room’s two windows. He moved to the desk and studied its computer screen. “Over here, Ruby. This is where we need you.”
Ruby wiped her palms on her skirt and joined him.
“Look.” Cyan’s finger zipped along the dots that peppered the screen, before settling on two by the lower rear of the grid. “Those are our lockets. Keep a close eye on mine. We need to know exactly where it goes. When you see it back by the benches, that means I’m done. That’s when you need to come join me. But be careful when you sneak off this floor.”
“Really? I was planning on stamping my feet and singing at the top of my voice.”
“Sarcasm’s the lowest form of wit, Ruby.”
“You’re the lowest form of wit.”
“You’re the lowest form of anything.”
Ruby walloped Cyan’s arm. “You really want to do this now? Don’t you have an idiotic plan to pull off or something?”
“I do.” Cyan massaged his arm, returned to the door and gripped its handle. “Lock this door behind me. It’ll buy you some time if someone ignores our do-not-disturb sign. If someone does try to get in, you can escape through that window. It’ll take you to the side of the building.”
Cyan hesitated for a moment, then let go of the handle. “In fact…” He went to the large porthole window and lifted its blind to peer through the glass. “Slight change of plan. There’s no need for either of us to go back into the corridor. These windows are a safer way out.”
Ruby looked at the blind and began to nod. “Good call.” She raised an eyebrow. “You know, Cyan, sometimes you have your moments.” Her lip began to curl. “Super-rarely, though, so don’t let it go to your head.”
Cyan mustered the best smile he could, but it became a twitching squint. That hot pain was back, prickling behind his eyes. It grew in fierceness while Ruby looked on.
Her forehead wrinkled. “Are you okay?”
Cyan blinked several times, trying to ease the burn. “Ruby. Listen… Whatever happens after I leave this office, I wanted to say…” His voice began to hoarsen. “I hope you’ll be okay. I…I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”
Ruby’s eyes softened – just for a moment – before she narrowed them and jerked a thumb at the window. “You’d better get going. Otherwise this’ll all be for nothing.”
Cyan took in a trembling breath. “Okay. I’m going.” He nodded at the computer. “Keep your eye on my locket.”
Cyan released the window’s latch, pushed it open and checked the sanctuary’s east side. It looked safe, until a loud revving sent him ducking back into the office. He watched through the glass as some residents raced by on quads.
Once they�
�d disappeared into the hangar, Cyan reopened the window and dropped onto sandy flagstones. Seeing the blind fall back into place, he closed the window and sprinted to the benches behind the sanctuary. He skidded to dig up his locket, got to his feet and sprinted back the way he’d come.
The residents he’d seen on quads were leaving the hangar. Throwing a quick salute, he took the corner and vaulted up the marble steps.
A moment later he was banging on Dr Haven’s door. “Hey!” he called. “I know you’re in there! I heard what you said!”
A buzz from the lock. Cyan threw the door open, bolted into the office and slammed the door shut. Flushed and panting, he let his eyes dart around the room: the bench by the wall, the various cabinets, the grey vinyl curtain, the psychiatrist’s couch.
His gaze fell upon the director, who was sitting at his desk, with the nib of his pen poised above an open folder.
Dr Haven gazed back. One of his grey eyebrows lifted. “Can I help you, Cyan?”
Cyan’s fluster gave way to confusion. “There’s… There’s no one here…”
“We’re here, aren’t we?”
“No, I mean…” Cyan let his eyes roam the office again. “An orderly. I heard an orderly.”
“We all hear orderlies.” The doctor’s lips creased into a smile. “They have mouths. They can speak.”
“Well, yeah. But this one…” Cyan pointed back towards the door. “I was upstairs. I heard an orderly talking to someone. Said he was going to make copies of residents’ files.”
The director’s smile faded. “That’s not possible, Cyan. Orderlies don’t know where those files are kept.”
“This one said he’d found out – said there’d be money in using them as bribes or something. Said he was going right now to get them. But…”
Dr Haven capped his pen and placed it parallel to his folder. “And what did this orderly look like, exactly?”
“Didn’t see. I just overheard him. When I went to look there was no one there. He was gone. On the way to the files, I guess. But…” Again, Cyan scanned the room. He pushed a hand through his hair and frowned. “But there’s no one here. Unless they’ve already stolen them? How long have you been here?”
The Memory Thieves Page 14
