‘With the catering service,’ said Leo. ‘The driver gives Gunnar a small package and Gunnar puts it in my room. But the next delivery isn’t for another week.’
‘Yeah, that’s too late.’
Deep in thought, Leo rubbed his index finger over his lips. ‘How big d’you think the package will be?’
‘No idea. About a kilo in weight and maybe about the size of a small shoebox.’
‘My nephew asked me for a drone for his last birthday so he could drop water bombs,’ Leo explained. ‘I had no idea what I’d bought but two days later, he sent me a video of his first attempt. He’d used GPS to drop the bombs on a neighbour’s conservatory . . . right to the centimetre. And I doubt your friend’ll have any issues with the technology considering my nephew’s only eleven and not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.’
‘Don’t really know much about drones. Aren’t they pretty loud?’
‘Yeah, but some things around here are much louder,’ said Leo. ‘It’ll just be a matter of timing.’
Chapter 11
The morning darkness and heavy snow made it easy for Nik and Leo to hide. Fighting their way through some heavy undergrowth, away from the main driveway, they made their way over to a small storage shed. As they arrived, they saw a man pushing a wheelbarrow loaded with shovels. He was wearing old dungarees and a dirty, thick winter jacket. His wispy grey hair was sticking out from underneath his woollen hat and his full beard sparkled with drops of melting snow. His boots crunched with every step.
‘That’s Hans Ziemer,’ Leo whispered. ‘Plumber by trade but looks after all the outdoor grounds here and the drainage system. Doesn’t exactly fit the clinic’s desired image, so he’s not allowed inside the main building, which doesn’t seem to bother him in the slightest.’
‘And what use is he to us?’
‘Well, good old Hansi’s work might not be the best when it comes to quality, but in terms of efficiency, he works like clockwork. Starts every day at 8 a.m. when he clears the driveway – in autumn it’s the leaves and in winter the snow.’ Leo pointed to a machine that looked like a lawnmower, with a large shovel attached to the front. ‘That’s his petrol-powered snowplough,’ explained Leo. ‘Loud as an old tractor. We don’t hear it inside the clinic ’cause the windows are triple-glazed. But if you go outside at eight in the morning, you can’t hold a conversation.’ Leo pointed up to the sky. ‘It’s going to snow again tonight, so we can be pretty sure that Hansi will be at work on time tomorrow to clear away the snow. And believe me, you wouldn’t notice a plane landing in that racket.’
‘Or a drone,’ added Nik.
Leo nodded proudly. ‘As well as drugs, I also smuggled in a smartphone. I’ve got this app I use when I go hillwalking in case I get lost. We could use it to send your friend the exact GPS coordinates of the little forest clearing behind the building. Then he can land the drone there just after eight tomorrow and no one will notice. After that, we grab the package, and the drone can start back up after one minute.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ said Nik.
‘Great. Let’s get going then,’ said Leo, taking out his phone. ‘I’ll get the coordinates for the clearing.’
Nik got up impatiently the next morning at seven o’clock. Having to wait twenty-four hours before he and Leo could kick-start their plan had been torture. He put on some clothes that were suitable for a walk in the snow and went for breakfast. It was a sunny, still morning. Perfect for flying a drone. Jon would be nearby already, somewhere on a woodland path. Jon was still raging at Nik and his demands from the day before. Not only did he have to find a drone, he also had to build a mini computer with hacking software that would establish a connection with Jon’s computer from inside the clinic. He’d worked all day and night. Nik had known he was asking a lot, but he saw it as a way of getting even for having to suffer the clinic’s high-fibre vegetarian meals.
At one minute to eight, Hans came around the corner pushing his snowplough. Nik said hello as he walked past him on his way towards the clearing. Shortly after, there was a thundering roar. Nik took out his phone and called Jon. As planned, he let it ring once before hanging up. As Nik was forcing his way through layers of snow-covered spruce branches, he bumped into Leo. The plaster on his swollen nose made him look like a hardened boxer, but his mischievous grin gave away his excitement. They had only just arrived at the clearing when they heard a high buzzing sound, barely audible over the snowplough. Seconds later, a white drone landed in front of them, exactly where it was supposed to. Snow sprayed out from underneath, forcing Nik to look away until the four rotor blades had stopped spinning. A box, barely bigger than a mobile phone, was attached to the underside of the drone. Nik ran over, removed the package and put it under his jacket. The humming of the rotor blades started up again as he walked back over to Leo and a couple of seconds later, the drone was gone.
Leo hit Nik jovially on the shoulder. ‘That went well,’ he said. ‘What do we do now?’
‘If I understood Jon correctly, I have to connect the device to a computer inside the clinic. The built-in radio module means Jon can access everything without having to be anywhere nearby.’
‘And how are you going to attach it?’ Leo asked as they made their way back to the clinic.
‘Alois’s computer sits underneath his desk, beside a shelf. I’ll stuff the thing between the cables and no one will notice it’s there.’
‘You’re gonna break into his office again?’
‘No need. I’ve got my session today,’ said Nik. ‘And we always start off with Alois fetching me a fresh coffee from the machine in the staff room. All the filing cabinets are locked and the computer’s password protected, so he feels fine leaving me alone in there. And while he’s out, I’ll link up our little magic box.’ Nik moved a bit closer to Leo. ‘And then later tonight, we’ll take a trip to the basement. God knows what we’re gonna find down there.’
Nik put on some jogging bottoms, a T-shirt and some trainers. If he bumped into anyone, they’d think he was on his way to the twenty-four-hour gym. His phone was tucked into the elastic of his trousers and he was wearing headphones with a microphone in his right ear. The clinic was quiet at this time of night. No conversations, no patients in the corridors and even the reception was unoccupied. The night porter was lying on a lounger in the room behind the reception, snoring softly. The carpet absorbed Nik’s steps as he walked over to Leo’s door. He knocked lightly. Leo came out instantly, also dressed in sports clothes. He looked up and down the corridor, like a thief on his way to a robbery. ‘Everything OK?’ he whispered.
‘Almost,’ answered Nik. ‘We just need to wait for Jon to get us access to the lift.’
‘But you’ve got a staff card.’
‘Luckily, Jon checked it before I set off and it wasn’t programmed to get in here,’ explained Nik. ‘Jon needs to copy someone’s profile to get us access.’
‘Not just someone’s profile,’ Jon’s voice suddenly sounded on the headset. ‘Dr Gawinski’s. He has access to everywhere.’
‘How long?’ asked Nik.
‘Almost there,’ Jon replied.
Nik moved towards the lift and waved Leo over. The door fitted seamlessly into the wall. If it wasn’t for the small reader at the side, you wouldn’t even know it was there.
‘That’s it,’ said Jon.
Nik held the card to the reader. A green light blinked and they heard the lift start up. ‘Hopefully, no one will hear it,’ remarked Leo. He was moving nervously from one foot to the other.
‘It’s three in the morning. Most people are in a deep-sleep phase at this time of night. I’m more worried someone will be working downstairs. As soon as we’re down there, it’s not as easy to say we got lost on our way to the gym.’
‘Gunnar told me nobody’s been brought downstairs recently. The sick room is empty. But he didn’t know anything about the research lab.’
The door opened. Nik went in first, with Leo behind. He
pressed the button for the basement. The door closed and the lift started to move. Nik squeezed his fists together. Entering highly unpredictable areas was standard when he’d worked for the CID, but the difference then was he’d always been armed. And he’d been on the right side of the law. Now he was the burglar.
The door opened and a gust of cold air and the harsh smell of cleaning product hit the men. Everywhere was lit with long neon tubes that were set into the ceiling. They stepped out of the lift into the lower level of the building. It looked just like a hospital. Sterile and white with laminate on the floor. Nik could see two mobile beds and two surveillance monitors on the wall. Next to that were two cupboards full of medication and a sink. In front of the beds was an ultrasound machine and a heart-lung machine.
‘That’s the toilet.’ Leo pointed to a side room. ‘If we keep left, we should come to the lab.’ Nik led the way. After three metres, the corridor came to an end and they arrived at a large, unlabelled metal door. Nik held the card to the reader and the door slid to the right with a soft hiss. The rooms were just as Leo had described them: four laboratories with glass walls and lots of expensive, complicated machines. Nik also noticed a microscope, piston pumps for drug production and numerous computer screens. The larger machines looked like photocopiers. At the end of the corridor was another lift.
‘What now?’ asked Leo.
‘First of all, we need to connect the USB device to a computer.’ Nik took the stick out of his pocket. ‘Jon said something about an isolation unit or something . . .’
‘It’s called an isolated solution,’ Jon corrected him over the phone. Thankfully there was still good reception downstairs. ‘Basically, it means the clinic computers are not connected to the lab computers. The USB stick downloads everything and we have to organise all the data ourselves later on.’
‘OK, so it means someone’s trying to hide something?’ Nik asked.
Jon laughed. ‘It’s what you call paranoia to the highest degree. It doesn’t matter what you find, the clinic doesn’t want it going public.’
Nik turned on a computer and put in the stick. ‘How long does it take?’
‘Should say on the screen.’
The screen had gone green and a progress bar with the words ‘Copy in Progress’ appeared. ‘Fourteen minutes,’ Nik told Jon before turning to Leo. ‘I’ll take the two rooms to the right. Look for anything interesting that’s not on a computer. Handwritten patient files . . . or experiment records. And anything that shows what the lab’s used for.’ Leo nodded and went to start searching.
The computer room was packed with cupboards and tables. A maximum of two people could fit in there to work. Most of the cupboards were unlocked but all Nik found were flasks, test tubes, Bunsen burners, centrifuges and instruction manuals. The room next door had a mortuary fridge. Nik opened it but all the stretchers were empty. Next to that was a fridge with a glass door. Inside were hundreds of test tubes, all dated and labelled ‘Disulfiram Beta 4’.
‘I’ve found something,’ Nik said into the mic. ‘Samples of disulfiram.’
‘Take some with you,’ said Jon. ‘Along with the test records and patient files, the evidence is indisputable.’ Nik filled three unused test tubes with the samples and put the empty ones back in the fridge. That way it wouldn’t be so obvious samples were missing. Just as he was putting them in his pocket, he heard a loud beeping from the room next door.
‘Nik!’ Leo called loudly. He found his new partner in crime standing in front of a large cupboard. On the outside of the cupboard was an electric display with four little lines, blinking in red. It needed a code. ‘It only came up after I tried to open the cupboard.’
‘What’s inside?’
‘No idea. It’s locked.’
‘Jon, can you get the code?’
‘Not from here,’ replied Jon. ‘An alarm is probably about to go off.’
‘Then we need to go.’ Nik ran to the computer room and a piercing ringing started. It reminded him of school fire drills.
‘How long has it got?’ Leo called through.
‘Fifty seconds,’ Nik answered, looking at the screen.
‘That’s too long!’ cried Leo.
‘Do not take the stick out before it’s finished,’ Jon said over the phone. ‘The files are compressed. If one is damaged, they’re all worthless.’
‘Security’ll be down any second,’ Leo said.
Nik held his fingers in preparation around the stick. ‘Hurry up, for fuck’s sake.’ Thirty seconds.
‘We need to go!’ Leo shook Nik’s shoulder.
‘We won’t get a second chance, Leo,’ Nik said. ‘When Gawinski finds out about the break-in, they’ll close the lab. He might even delete all the data and move the lab somewhere else.’
‘We’re getting visitors.’ Leo pointed to the lift. A green arrow-head above the lift signalled it was going upstairs. The progress bars disappeared. ‘Finished.’ Nik pulled out the stick and the men ran out of the room.
‘Hide over there.’ Leo pointed to a column beside the lift. ‘When they’ve got far enough down the corridor, get in the lift and go upstairs.’
‘They’ll see me!’ cried Nik over the alarm.
‘Not if I distract them.’
‘No, we’re both going!’ said Nik, pointing to the lift they came down in.
Leo shook his head. ‘They’ll turn this place upside down until they find someone. I’ll be fine. They’ll interrogate me and I’ll just spew out some alcoholic’s adventure story. That way nobody will suspect anything from you and you can get those samples and that USB stick out of here.’ Leo grasped Nik firmly on the back of his neck and looked him in the eyes. ‘Find out what happened to Viola,’ he told him forcefully, before giving him a shove and pointing at the column. Leo went to the other end of the corridor, where he would still be visible from the lift. He untucked half his shirt, gave his hair a ruffle and kicked off a shoe into the corner of the room. Nik threw himself behind the column just as the lift opened.
‘I need another drink . . .’ he heard Leo shout over the wailing of the alarm. ‘Must be some around here somewhere,’ he went on, slurring his words. Three men came out of the lift and rushed straight for him. Not one of them looked to the side and Nik jumped into the lift before the doors closed and pressed himself tight up against the wall. The last Nik saw of Leo was him staggering towards the men, gesticulating wildly and slurring some drivel about how much he missed the booze. As soon as the lift doors closed, the sound of the alarm became very faint.
Up on the next floor, the only sign that something was going on was a small red light beside the lift. Other than that, there was no way anyone could know about the commotion just one floor below.
In no time at all, Nik was back in his room. He put the samples behind the water bottles in the fridge and hid the USB stick in the secret compartment in his suitcase. It was almost impossible not to go and look for Leo, but he had no choice. He had to play the role of uninvolved patient, or all their efforts would be wasted. But he’d never be able to sleep. The few hours left until the morning would be some of the longest Nik had ever endured.
Nik made his way to breakfast at the first possible opportunity. He couldn’t bear the uncertainty any longer. He took some muesli and orange juice and sat down at the rear of the canteen with his back to the wall. That way, he could see all the tables and the corridor outside. The room started to fill up slowly. He wasn’t hungry, so he poked at his muesli, watching the staff closely out of the corner of his eye, but nobody seemed to be taking any notice of him. No hidden signals with the fingers, no whispering. Nobody appeared to have seen him last night and Leo must have kept his mouth shut. Fifteen minutes later, all the tables were full and Nik’s impatience had become unbearable. He nodded at a member of staff to clear away his plate and headed over to Leo’s room. He managed to force a smile, like he was looking forward to spending a relaxed day with his friend.
The corridor was emp
ty. He knocked on Leo’s door. ‘Leo!’ he called. ‘Everything OK?’ He waited but the door didn’t open. He knocked again. This time a bit louder. Nik put his ear up to the cool wooden door but there was nothing. No steps, no running water or any other noises to suggest Leo was in his room. He went to the exercise area, the yoga hall and the swimming pool, but still no sign of Leo anywhere. As Nik was making his way back to the restaurant, hoping he’d see Leo at the buffet, there was a public announcement.
‘Dear guests,’ a female voice said over the speakers, ‘we regret to inform you that our patient, Leopold von Waldbach, died last night. Despite all resuscitation efforts and his immediate transfer to the nearest hospital, Herr von Waldbach suffered a heart attack.’ The woman cleared her throat. ‘He was a very well-loved guest and our thoughts go out to his family. He will be dearly missed.’
Nik ran to the nearest toilet, shoved open the door and threw up. The muesli, the orange juice, yesterday’s salad – and probably a whole load of disulfiram – came up. His stomach cramped in excruciating pain and he threw up until it was empty. He stood up and kicked the toilet tank as hard as he could. The plastic cracked and water ran on to the floor, but he kept kicking until the toilet was smashed to bits. Without even thinking, he put his hand up to his neck. But his locket was at home. No cyanide. Ending it all right there and then in the clinic wasn’t an option. He turned around and left the toilet and, walking past two gawking men, made his way to the exercise area. At this time of day most of the carers were there, supporting guests with exercises, helping group leaders or just cleaning up used towels.
Nik saw Gunnar pushing a laundry trolley towards the staff area. He walked towards him. Gunnar was taller and stronger than Nik but in his blind rage, Nik managed to push him into a changing room and hold him on the ground. The man clearly hadn’t expected the attack.
‘What happened last night?’
‘I don’t know,’ replied Gunnar.
Broken Glass Page 18