The Hourglass

by Donaldson, Casey

  April gave a soft, low whistle of appreciation. “That is some ask.”

  “I know,” said Sarah, her stomach heavy.

  “What do you think is going to happen? It must be bad, right?”

  Sarah shrugged. “We don’t even know if it’s something that’s going to happen on the ship. As far as we know, it could just be that the Queen has a super important event to get back to on the mainland.” She said it sarcastically, but on reflection she realised that as far as she knew, that could actually be the case.

  “How would she get out of the hospital on the mainland?”

  “I don’t know!” replied Sarah, more loudly than she had intended.

  Marland gave Sarah’s hand an affectionate squeeze. Unlike the Queen’s touch, Sarah appreciated it. She squeezed back.

  “What do you want us to do?” Marland asked, a nervous tremor in her voice.

  It was one thing for April, who was usually so confident, to offer help. It was another thing entirely for Marland to. Unless she was chatting about her conspiracy theories or compiling evidence, Marland could hardly keep it together at even the first hint of a threat.

  Sarah smiled at her weakly. “Nothing big,” she said. “Just ask around, quietly, you know? See if you can find out what happens in a week. But if you guys think you’re starting to draw attention to yourselves, then stop asking and don’t start again, ok?”

  They both nodded.

  “And whatever you do,” said Finn, “make sure the King or his buddies don’t overhear you.”

  “Yes, definitely,” added in Sarah. “Otherwise it’s going to be bad for all of us.”

  Marland and April spent the rest of the lunch mumbling together about different approaches they could make to find out about the Event. Sarah could almost hear the capital they had given it. Finn spent it eating in silence. Sarah couldn’t help but feel that he was ignoring her on purpose. After a moment she got up and went to the toilet. She spent the rest of the lunch period on the toilet, crying. It had just hit her how impossible the task was and how completely out of her depth she was.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Thief and the Forger

  They didn’t talk much on the way back to the factory floor. Both Sarah and Finn were ignoring each other and Marland and April appeared to be giving them their space. As Sarah sat down at her usual seat in front of the conveyer belt she made a decision. She was in this position whether she liked it or not. It wouldn’t help her at all if she just moped about and said it was impossible. She had to try. No, she had to do better than that. She had to succeed. She liked her eyes and her friends too much not to.

  “Boulder,” she said, strengthened by her new resolve and throwing caution into the wind. “If I wanted to get off this ship, how would I do that?” She had been thinking about their options if they failed to get the paperwork the Queen wanted. So far she hadn’t come up with much. Finn rolled his eyes, obviously thinking her less than discreet, but she needed the opinion of someone who had been there more than a week or so.

  Boulder snorted. “There’s only three ways you can get out of here early,” he said, sorting through multiple tubes with a fluid motion. “One, you die.”

  Finn nodded his head, interested. “Go on…” he said, like it was an entirely plausible option. Sarah waved a hand at him to be quiet.

  “Two,” resumed Boulder, ignoring Finn, “you join the army. Three, you volunteer to be experimented on.”

  “Experimented on?”

  Boulder nodded. “The Hourglass Group takes volunteers god knows where and uses them to try out new drugs, superweapons, you name it. The deal is that if you live through the trial, you get to go free.”

  Sarah’s eyes flickered to the boxes that lined the walls of the factory floor. They all had the symbol of the Hourglass Group stamped on their sides. The scar on her shoulder-blade prickled and she thought again of the striking similarity between the symbol of the Hourglass Group and her scar.

  “And people actually volunteer?”

  “It’s a risk, for sure. You don’t know what trial you’re signing up for, you see. On one hand you could be used to test a drug that makes you faster and stronger, on the other you could be in the firing range of some new weapon. Either way it gets you off this damn ship. More people volunteer for it than you think. Some people actually think it’s a safer bet than the army. At least with the Hourglass Group you have a fifty percent chance of getting out alive.”

  “Surely that’s illegal, right? Maybe not the increased strength, but testing the weapons out?”

  Boulder shrugged. “They’re volunteers, they all signed on the dotted line, and in case you forgot, we’re in a war. A war where resources are running out. Both sides need something big.”

  Finn frowned. “You’re remarkably well informed.”

  A sly smile appeared on Boulder’s face. “I have my sources.”

  “Do you know what’s happening in a week?” This time it was Finn asking the revealing questions. Sarah quickly glanced at Finn and then back to Boulder. She had figured that her question wasn’t entirely unexpected from a newbie. Surely everybody at some point in their incarceration wanted to get off the ship? Finn’s question was specific and tied into hers too easily. She crossed her fingers out of sight under the conveyer belt and hoped that Boulder didn’t know all the answers because he was trading information with the King. If it got back to the King, it would all be over for them before they even started. At the same time, if Boulder knew, the information could be invaluable. She hoped Finn realised what he was risking.

  Boulder also seemed to find this question oddly specific. He leaned back on his stool and surveyed them through narrowed eyes. “Why do you ask?”

  Finn shrugged casually. “Just heard on the grape vine that something was happening.”

  Boulder rocked on his seat for a moment before leaning forward again, sorting through the tubes. “If this has anything to do with the Queen’s little meeting with you guys just before, you can keep me out of it. I want nothing to do with any of it. From now on, just keep your questions to yourself.”

  “If it was something big though, you’d hear about it, right?”

  Boulder chucked one of the metal tubes at Finn’s head in reply. Finn dodged it narrowly.

  “Alright, jeez, I get it, topic closed.”

  They didn’t discuss the job for the next hour until Boulder was escorted to the bathroom. Sarah glanced around to make sure that there was nobody listening nearby. She had been thinking about something the Queen had said.

  “So,” said Sarah softly, her words only just audible over the sound of the machinery, “you’re a forger.” She tried to look nonchalant but failed.

  “Ah, yeah, I suppose so,” replied Finn.

  “You suppose so?” Sarah threw a metal tube in his direction. It landed with a metallic thud in front of him. “It is not fair that the Queen gets to know about you and I don’t.”

  “I’m not the only one keeping secrets.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe whatever is happening between you and Colt? Besides, why should I tell you anyway?”

  “Because I’m your… I’m your friend,” spluttered Sarah.

  “Are you?” replied Finn, his eyebrows crossed. “Don’t you think it’s a bit of a coincidence that the two of us, with our particular skill sets, become ‘friends’ and then those skills are needed for us to work together?”

  Sarah stared at him, surprised. “Are you saying that I am involved in the Queen’s plan?”

  Finn just shrugged in reply.

  “In case you’re forgetting,” said Sarah coldly, “I don’t actually have a skill set, so if I was involved in this, it would be pretty damn stupid of me.”

  Finn paused in discarding one of the tubes and a sheepish look spread across his face. “Oh, right.”

  Sarah didn’t say anything, she just went back to work. Finn ruffled a hand through his
hair. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m thinking anymore. It’s just, well, this is shit.”

  “Yeah, I know,” pointed out Sarah, “I’m under threat of an eye gouging.”

  “An eye gouging?”

  “Yeah, it came up in our previous conversation.”

  “Oh. Shit.”

  There was an awkward pause. “My parents used to run a fruit store. They died in a bombing attack five years ago when they went out to pick up supplies, so my older sister took over the business,” blurted out Finn, not looking at her.

  “I didn’t know you had a sister,” said Sarah, her voice softening.

  “She’s dead,” replied Finn. “The soldiers just took what they wanted from the store without paying, making us bankrupt. She was forced to join the army to get by and support us. She died two years ago. They told me that she was shot protecting one of the farms. Ironic, right?” He gave her a sad grin. “Anyway, by that point I had realised that I had a knack for writing in other people’s hand-styles. Some other people found out and started employing me to fake signatures and things. Just petty stuff, you know, like redirecting a crate of food supplies away from the army barracks and into a shop where they could then break it up and sell it on the black market. I didn’t mind doing it.” Sarah could picture it. He would have felt like he was getting some kind of revenge on the soldiers who bankrupted their parents’ business. “Then one day one of the guys who knew about me got caught and sold them my name to get a leaner sentence. And voila, I’m here sorting through metal tubes giving you my sob story.”

  “I’m sorry about your family.”

  Finn shrugged. “Don’t be. It wasn’t you who killed them.”

  Boulder returned from the bathroom and sat down. He looked between the two of them. “You lot look mopey.” He held up a hand to stall any reply. “You know what, don’t tell me.”

  “Do you have much family?” Finn asked Sarah, ignoring Boulder.

  “I have my mum and uncle. We live in this tiny little flat. Although it looks pretty good now compared to my cell.”

  “Friends?” He hesitated for a second. “Boyfriends?”

  “I have a friend called Abby,” said Sarah, consciously omitting the fact that Abby was nine.

  “No one else?” asked Finn, surprised.

  “Not really,” said Sarah, feeling oddly defensive. “You?”

  “You talk a lot for being a loner,” said Boulder before Finn could reply. Sarah flushed a dark red and threw a tube at him. It hit him on the chest. “And yet I understand why you were,” said Boulder, rubbing the spot where it hit.

  “Shut up, Boulder,” said Sarah and Finn in unison. They grinned at each other.

  Boulder rolled his eyes. They tried once more to discuss ways to get off the ship but Boulder put an end to it by drawing the attention of a guard. He separated from them as soon as the bell rang for dinner, as if even by association he would find himself in the midst of whatever it was he suspected them of being part of. Sarah didn’t blame him. If she could have stayed invisible, as she had planned from the very start, she would have. It just turns out that the immovable Boulder was more successful at it than she was.

  “Any bright ideas?” asked Finn under his breath as he watched Boulder depart.

  “It must be something bad. The Queen is at the top of her game on this ship. She’s not going to be treated the same on the land. For her to give it all up…” she trailed off.

  “But,” said Finn, cutting to the point, “is it something that is bad only for the Queen, or is it something that will be bad for everyone? If it is, we might be in need of those forms just as much as her cowness.”

  Sarah blinked, surprised. It honestly hadn’t occurred to her that maybe they too should escape the ship. “But what if they catch us? And where would we go? I’ll never be able to go home again. I won’t see my mum or my uncle. They’ll go mad worrying about me. I’m only here for three months.”

  Finn put a hand on her shoulder. The physical contact made her pause and she realised that she had been working herself up into something close to hysterics again.

  “Sarah, its fine. If whatever it is that the Queen is so afraid of only affects her, then we can leave her to her escape attempt and be done with it. But if it affects us, I mean…” he trailed off, trying to find the right words. “We don’t know what it is she is afraid of. What if Marland’s actually right?” Sarah gave him a dubious look but he ploughed right on. “What if our numbers are getting too large to sustain and they have to cut it down by chucking some of us overboard? If it’s something like that then we’re better off trying to escape and make things work once we’re out, then staying here and courting death. We just don’t know yet.”

  The idea of life on the run terrified Sarah, but she grudgingly accepted that he had a point.

  “How can you be so calm about this?” she mumbled.

  He shrugged. “I have no one to go home to.”

  “Oh.” There was a pause. “Marland is not right though,” she said stubbornly.

  “Yeah, probably not,” said Finn with a grin. “But crazier things have happened.”

  “I think one of Marland’s conspiracy theories coming true would top that list.”

  They reached the cafeteria and collected their dinner before returning to their usual seats. Dinner consisted of a brown chunky soup. Much to her disgust Sarah had discovered on her first night that the chunks weren’t meat, simply diced protein bars covered in sauce and gluggy rice. By this point in the day Sarah wasn’t even the slightest bit surprised when the girl with the red curly hair sat down at their table uninvited.

  “Hey, I’m Winter,” she said, shovelling the soup into her mouth with a speed that fascinated Sarah by its very improbability. “The Queen sent me to tell you about where the papers are kept.”

  Sarah and Finn exchanged glances. Winter seemed to know what they were thinking. “I’m the one who told her about them,” she explained. “You, me and the Queen are the only ones who know.”

  “How did you find out?” asked Sarah.

  “My twin was on this boat with me. She developed a bone cancer. I was with her when he signed the papers and transferred her out.”

  Sarah kicked herself. “Oh, damn, I’m sorry.”

  Winter shrugged philosophically. “At least she’s off this boat.”

  “And you didn’t tell anyone else?” asked Finn sceptically.

  “The Queen paid me enough to keep it to myself.”

  “What do people think happened to your sister?” asked Sarah.

  “Official story? She volunteered for a drug trial.” Winter shovelled three heaped spoonfuls into her mouth without pausing to chew or swallow.

  Finn watched her, frowning. “So what can you tell us?”

  “Right,” mumbled Winter through a mouthful of food. She swallowed noisily. “Sorry, talking with my mouth full. That’s rude. So there’s the main room,” she used the end of her spoon to draw out a map in the remaining sauce on her bowl as she talked. “There are six beds, three lining the two walls opposite each other. At the end of the room there is a door that leads in to the doctor’s office. There are windows set into the wall so that he can see what you’re doing while you’re in bed. If you go into the office his desk is right in front of you. He has filing cabinets behind his seat on either side. The bottom draw to the filing cabinet on your right hand side as you enter is actually fake. That’s the safe. The papers are inside the safe. The safe is old-school though, you only need a punch-in code to gain access.”

  “So do you know the code?” asked Sarah, actually impressed.

  Winter snorted in amusement. “No, of course not.”

  Sarah stared at her in disbelief. “So how are we meant to crack the safe?”

  Winter shrugged. “Don’t ask me, you’re the thief. Anyway your main problem is getting a moment alone. The doctor is either with the patients, in his office, or in his room. His room connects to his offi
ce so he can spring up at any moment, which he does. The only regular thing he does is the morning rounds every day, and once a week he has dinner with the warden.”

  “Morning rounds?”

  “Where he goes and examines the patients,” Winter explained. “The forms you want are written on a faint pink paper,” she added as an afterthought. She swallowed her last mouthful and stood up with the tray in her hands. “Any questions? No? Good. If you think of any just make sure that no one else is around before you go shooting your mouth off.”

  She disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared.

  April and Marland, who had been made to stay behind on the factory floor to clear up a box’s worth of spilled metal parts that Marland had accidently dropped, arrived at the table with their food.

  “What was that about?” asked April.

  “It was an update from the Queen telling us where the papers are kept.”

  “That’s good, right?” asked Marland.

  “Not really. It’s in a safe and we don’t know what the passcode is.”

  “Oh.”

  “Have you cracked safes before?” asked April.

  “No.”

  “Oh.”

  There was a pause.

  “So when we were cleaning up the screws that I dropped,” said Marland, changing the subject, “the guards around us were complaining about how boring their jobs were and how they couldn’t wait until their holidays came around in a month’s time.” She glanced at April. “It didn’t sound like they were expecting anything to change at all.”

  “We think that means it can’t be something too terrible, or at least too big,” added in April. “So the event might just be something that’s personal to the Queen.”

  “Maybe,” said Sarah, who was feeling incredibly despondent after her talk with Winter. “Or maybe the guards don’t know what’s about to happen either.” She rubbed her eyes, which suddenly felt extremely heavy and tired. “Either way we still need to get into that infirmary.”

  “And I’m the ticket in,” said Finn.