The Hourglass (16 page)

The Envelope Plan

The next morning
she walked into the infirmary with an envelope in her hands. Somehow the Queen
had managed to find her one overnight. One of her lackeys must have been saving
it. The warden didn’t trust prisoners with anything electronic, and so they had
to resort to the incredibly old-fashioned process of physically writing letters
if they wanted to get word to home. Inside the envelope was the order form that
she had stolen only a few days ago. Finn had been practicing with it ever since
she had first handed him the piece of paper, and he was now confident that he
could mimic the scrawled signature blindfolded. If their plan worked, the
doctor need never discover that it was missing. To her surprise the doctor was
in his office, having not yet emerged to start his morning rounds. Slowly,
thinking through her next steps carefully, she walked over to the sink and
filled a cup with water. Holding the full cup with one hand and the letter in
the other, she made her way over to the office and knocked quietly.

“Come in.”

Sarah opened the
door and slid through.

“I was told I
was to give this to you for safe keeping,” said Sarah, holding out the envelope
in front of her. The doctor didn’t take it. He simply frowned at it, as if it
was something unpleasant.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know,
Sir. I was just told to tell you to keep it in a safe place until the Warden
can collect it later.”

“What? That
doesn’t make any sense. Why doesn’t she just keep it herself?”

“I’m just doing
what I was told,” said Sarah, pleading now as if she was afraid of getting into
trouble if they found out that she didn’t do her job.

The doctor
sighed, exasperated. He snatched the letter out of Sarah’s hands.

“The Warden, you
said?”

Sarah nodded.
There was a moment where Sarah could practically feel him deciding on where to
put the envelope. To her immense relief he turned around and crouched down to
the fake cabinet drawer that held the safe. This was by far the weakest link in
their already highly unlikely plan, but the doctor was carrying out his part
perfectly.

“You can go,” he
ordered over her shoulder. She could hear him mutter to himself as she left
about how busy he was and how his time shouldn’t be wasted by stupid,
inconsequential things like this. The soft sound of the safe hissing open hit
her ears as she walked out through the office door. Without hesitation Sarah
walked straight towards a mobile stand that contained medical equipment and
tipped it over. By this point she was so tense and the crash was so loud and
jarring that she didn’t have to fake her shocked reaction. The hand not holding
the cup flew to her mouth automatically and she stood stock still, as if
worried that by moving more she would make things worse. The doctor slammed his
office door open in his rush to get out and see what had happened and Sarah
spun around, the movement causing her cup of water to spill all over the
Doctor’s shirt and pants. She stood there, shocked, with one hand still raised
to her mouth.

“Argh! What the
hell happened?” demanded the doctor angrily, wiping specks of water off his
face.

“I’m so sorry!”
she squeaked. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.” She dropped down to her knees
and started picking items up. The doctor joined her.

“You stupid
girl,” he snarled. He knocked the now empty cup out of her hands, making Sarah
flinch involuntarily. “I’m going to have to clean all of this. I don’t have
time for that. Not today.” He paused as he picked up one of the special lights
he used to look in people’s eyes. The lens was cracked across the middle. He
leant forward and smacked her across the face with an open palm. The force of
it pushed Sarah back on her behind. The pain came a second later and she felt
tears well up in her eyes. The doctor sighed and rubbed his temples wearily
before standing up. “Clean it up,” he ordered, his voice flat. He walked back
into his office, slamming the door behind him. The force of the slam made the
door bounce back open a sliver, but he didn’t notice. Through the window Sarah
could make out that he didn’t sit down at his desk, but rather passed straight
through the other door to his personal quarters.

“What the hell
did you do that for?” asked Talbot, amazed. “Accident my ass!”

“Shut up
Talbot,” said Sarah, the tears disappearing from her eyes as quickly as they
had come. She quickly gathered all of the remaining instruments and dumped them
back up onto the tray. Then keeping an eye on the door leading to the doctor’s
quarters, which was firmly shut, Sarah slipped through the office doorway,
biting her lip in anticipation. The fake cabinet was still open, and so was the
safe. Sarah couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe that had actually worked.
She felt like high-fiving herself. Her timing was perfect. She crouched down
quickly and opened the safe’s door wider. It mostly contained papers. Her
envelope was sitting on the top of the pile. She ignored it and concentrated on
the rest. If Winter was to be believed, the document she wanted was a pale pink
colour. She used her thumb and forefinger to flip through the pile of paper
quickly. A flash of pink caught her eye and she went back through the papers
one by one until she found it. She drew it out of the stack. The words ‘Medical
Transfer’ were printed in bold across the top. Still with her heart in her
mouth, she folded the paper neatly and stuffed it in her sock. She couldn’t
believe it. Finn’s plan actually worked. The sound of the doctors voice reached
her and her whole body stiffened. The voice was directly behind the door that
led to his private quarters. The phone must have rung before he could have
gotten changed. He would walk through any second now. Her heart beat madly in
her mouth. She glanced around quickly, panicked. The office door was too far
away. He would see her if she tried to make a run for it back out into the
infirmary. As swiftly as she could she ducked behind the edge of the desk that
was furthest away from the doctor, grateful that the sides of the desk were
solid. At the same time the doctor’s door creaked open. She held her breath,
waiting for him to cry out and demand what she was doing there, but it didn’t
come. He continued to talk to whoever it was on the other end of the line. His
footsteps led to the office’s main door, which remained open.
Walk through
it,
wished Sarah.
Walk through it and leave the office.
She could
slip out behind him if he did. Instead he closed the door and then headed back
to his desk. He rounded it on the side opposite to Sarah, for which Sarah
blessed everything that she could think of. Crouched down and moving softly,
she rounded the desk in direct opposition to him. There was a pause and then
she heard the sound of the safe being pushed closed. The chair creaked slightly
under his weight as he sat down. Sarah was now facing the door that led out to
the main section of the infirmary, her back against the doctor’s desk. She
could make out Talbot peering in at her with a look of horror on his face. She
shook her head at him angrily and he looked away, realising that he would only
draw attention to what was happening if the doctor happened to look up and
notice his expression. She was surprised that the doctor couldn’t hear her
heart beat in her chest. It thundered in her own ears. When he still hadn’t
moved after a minute she felt herself calm down enough to tune in to what he was
saying on the phone.

“No, Sir… no,
that shouldn’t be an issue… Yes I have the list here… Yes, ages fourteen to
seventeen, all in peak condition, if you can call the teenage body that.” He
chuckled. “Ah, no, Sir, that was a joke. Sorry. They are all perfectly healthy
specimens… There are always more prisoners on the mainland who can fill their
place on the factory floor… Only the Warden and the senior guards are aware…
Yes, they’re ready for tomorrow.” The doctor cleared his throat nervously. “Ah,
Sir, may I ask what the experiment will involve?” There was a long pause as the
doctor listened to the person on the other end of the line. “Oh. But surely
that would leave them unable to-” he was cut off abruptly. “Yes of course, I’m
sorry, it’s not my place to question the Hourglass group, and can I just say
that I greatly appreciate the opportunity to help out.”

The next minute
was spent in exchanging polite platitudes and Sarah tuned out as the full
realisation of what she had just heard hit her. This was what the Queen was
trying to avoid. It wasn’t just some event that would inconvenience the Queen.
The whole ship was going to disappear into some experiment that was clearly so
unethical they had to kidnap the subject. People in her apartment block used to
tell her horror stories about the experiments done in the name of the war
effort, trying to scare her with a spooky story. She never really believed them
until now.
Fourteen to seventeen,
she thought.
That’s me. That’s me,
that’s Finn, and Marland. But April is safe. She’s only thirteen.
She
realised that the doctor had stopped talking. There was a thud as he dropped
the phone onto the table. One of the drawers slid open and a biscuit packet
crinkled. She wondered how long she would have to stay there, crouched against
his desk. What if he noticed that she wasn’t outside cleaning? He was munching
loudly now. A sharp pain shot up Sarah’s leg. She winced as the cramp
intensified but she was too scared to straighten it out in case the doctor
noticed or she made a noise. Outside the window Talbot’s eyes occasionally
flickered to where she was hiding and then away again. He was clearly trying
not to draw attention to her, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. Just as she
was certain that the doctor was sure to notice what he was doing, the doors to
the infirmary opened and Finn walked in to collect his daily pain medications. The
chair creaked as the doctor stood up to go out to meet him. Sarah tensed and
then moved quietly and quickly to her left, gambling that the doctor would walk
around the same side of the desk as he had last time. If she was wrong then she
would run into his knees. Her luck stayed with her. The doctor passed the desk
on the side opposite to her, striding out through the door to meet Finn. Sarah
stood up, her cramped leg screaming at her in pain, and slipped out through the
door behind him before he could close it properly, her heart in her mouth. The
Doctor’s back didn’t waver. She took in a deep breath, realising for the first
time that she had been holding it. The Doctor hadn’t noticed. Finn, however,
had. He drew the attention of the Doctor even more firmly to himself by
talking. Still behind the Doctor’s back, Sarah lifted the edge of her pants up
slightly, revealing the pink piece of paper tucked into her sock. A small smile
played across her lips. As soon as Finn saw it she covered it back up again. Finn
couldn’t help himself either, he grinned.

“What the hell are
you smiling at?” asked the Doctor grumpily.

“Ah, nothing.
Sorry.”

Sarah stifled a
laugh that was threatening to burst out of her mouth. Her leg still hurting,
she hobbled over to the collection of instruments that she had pushed over only
minutes before and began rapidly sorting them into a more orderly fashion. She
thought back to what she had overheard and the feeling of elation she had felt
when she had seen Finn disappeared. After a minute the doctor extracted himself
from Finn’s questions and walked back to his office, ignoring Sarah completely.
Sarah glanced up at Finn. He could tell from her expression that something was
wrong. “Are you ok?” he mouthed at her just as the guard, who had gotten bored
with waiting outside, walked in and grabbed Finn by the elbow and tried to pull
him away. Sarah nodded quickly. She didn’t want him to resist the guard. If
they were going to get out of here, they needed to go as unnoticed as possible.
The medical transfer document felt foreign against her skin. She could use it
on herself, she knew. She was even fairly confident that Finn would fake the
doctor’s signature for her. Then she would be off the ship and free to find a better
alternative. Even if they realised she was not sick and returned her back to
the same ship she would have missed the selection process for the Hourglass’
experiment. But she knew that she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t leave Finn and
Marland to be taken while she escaped. It would haunt her forever. Besides, if
she didn’t give the Queen the document tonight the Queen would probably get to
them before the Hourglass group could.
The Queen can have it,
she
thought. She would find another way.

She sorted the
last of the instruments and stood up, looking around and stretching her leg at
the same time. The doctor was enclosed firmly in his office and Finn and the
guard had left.

“Are you mad?”
demanded Talbot. “What the hell were you doing?”

Dalton let out
an awe-struck chuckle. “You were so nearly dead in there,” he said, impressed.

“The Hourglass
group is coming tomorrow,” she said, her voice low so that it had no chance of
carrying into the doctor’s office. “They’re going to take the prisoners.”

All of the
colour drained from Talbot’s face while Dalton’s mouth dropped open.

“All of them?”
Talbot whispered back.

Sarah shook her
head. “You guys should be ok. They said something about the fit and healthy
ones.” The two boys’ expressions relaxed visibly. “Guys, is there any way I can
get off this ship without being dead?”