Pandora Jones: Deception

by Barry Jonsberg

  ‘I want to take this back to the ward,’ she whispered. ‘Use that night light.’

  Pan wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. The original idea was to explore the interior of the building, not go snooping through files, but she had to admit that she was curious about what they might contain. It was also possible they could get more information from a file than by mapping the layout of the building. But the longer they stayed, the greater the risk of discovery.

  Jen retraced her steps, and Pan followed. When they got back to the ward, Jen took the file to the dim red light on the wall. The documents, about ten or fifteen sheets of papers stapled together, appeared to be information on one of the students. There was a photograph of a girl in a summer dress, her head tilted to one side as she regarded the photographer. She was smiling and had an ice cream cone in her right hand. Under the photograph, in bold print, was a name – Janine Abbott – and a date of birth. Beneath those details were closely typed sentences. Pan could make out only a few words. ‘Singapore’, and some initials. Was it ‘AIS’? Jen flicked through the remaining pages, but there were no more photographs and the rest of the notes were too faint to read in the dim light.

  ‘She must be a student here,’ Jen whispered. ‘And that top drawer is packed with these files. There must be one file for each of us.’

  ‘Medical details?’ whispered Pan.

  ‘Get out of here,’ Jen replied. ‘These aren’t medical records. They seem to be personal records, if anything.’ She clicked her tongue in annoyance. ‘I wish I had a torch. I’d be really interested in reading my file.’

  Like Jen, Pan was desperate to read what information The School had on her, but she couldn’t think how they could find a source of illumination. They had no matches and they certainly couldn’t risk turning on the main lights.

  Jen put the papers back into the manila folder and closed it.

  ‘I’m going to take one,’ she said. ‘Tuck it into my jacket. We can read it later. It would be great if we could find ours, but one at random is better than nothing. At least we’d know the kind of information they have on us.’

  ‘That one?’

  ‘Nah. Too easy to spot it’s missing. I’ll take one from the middle. Then I’ll lock up the cabinet again. With luck it could be months before they notice it’s gone.’

  ‘And in the meantime, we could track down the student whose file we’ve got and check out the details.’

  ‘Let’s do it,’ said Jen. ‘Then we see what else we can find and get the hell out of this place.’

  It took little time to return the file and select another one at random. Jen took it from the second drawer, towards the back, and tucked the file inside her jacket. Then she went about the business of locking the cabinet, which took slightly longer than unlocking it. After a couple of minutes, though, Pan heard a click as the lock engaged. Jen pulled at the top drawer to check and it didn’t budge. She stood, put the lock picks back in her pocket and looked around. There was a door directly behind the desk, and she indicated that to Pan and spread her hands in a gesture of enquiry. Pan shook her head. She had been through that door many times. All that was behind there was a short corridor and the conference room where she conducted her experiments with Dr Morgan and where the group had had the counselling session with Dr Macredie. It was a dead end, no other doors leading from it. Pan jerked her thumb to her left, to the corridor that led past the nurses’ desk. Jen shrugged and led the way, her feet making no sound against the floor.

  Ten metres beyond the nurses’ station they reached a T-junction. They glanced right and left, on the lookout for telltale bars of light issuing from under doors. But the darkness was complete. Pan tried to let her instinct take over. Dr Morgan had to be somewhere in the building, and it was unlikely he was in the conference room. That meant he was almost certainly in a room somewhere off the corridor they had come to. But which room? It’s just like finding a lost thing, Pan thought. Hot or cold?

  But it didn’t work. Yet another infuriating reminder of how her ability seemed to defy any attempt to control it. She opted for the corridor on the left. They passed three doors before the corridor came to a dead end. Jen turned and approached the closest door, put her ear to it. Then she tried the doorhandle. Locked. She plucked the lock picks from her pocket once again and held them out to Pan. Probably Dr Morgan’s bedroom, thought Pan, knowing their luck, but she simply nodded.

  It took Jen only ten or fifteen seconds before the lock clicked open. Even in the very dim light, Pan noticed the look of satisfaction on her friend’s face. Jen might be rusty, but the old skills were coming back. She put the picks away and then turned the handle once more. Pan held her breath and prayed the hinges weren’t prone to squeaking. They weren’t. The door opened noiselessly and Jen slipped inside. Pan followed.

  The girls had difficulty making out the interior of the room. There was a sense of space, with something bulky occupying the very centre. There was little choice. This room would have to be explored largely through the sense of touch. Jen moved to the right and Pan took a few cautious steps.

  The shape in the centre of the room turned out to be an operating table. Pan could just make out the circular shapes of the lights suspended from the ceiling, and she recognised the table from countless television shows in the past. She brushed her hand along the table’s surface. It was cool to her touch, and she became aware of a distinctive smell. Antiseptic. The clean, clinical smell of hospitals, masking the underlying smell of sickness. She was certain of one thing, this wasn’t the room she’d seen in her vision.

  Pan jumped when Jen tapped her on the shoulder.

  Jen leaned in and whispered. ‘I’m no expert but the technology in this room seems pretty state-of-the-art to me. Row upon row of machines and, as far as I can tell, no dust on any of them. Who do they operate on in here, Pandora? This room leaves me with more questions than answers. Seen enough?’

  Pan nodded. She was becoming increasingly nervous. And their expedition had been productive. A filing cabinet of information, a student’s file, an operating theatre prepared for use. And, somewhere in the building, a doctor who could be anywhere. Maybe waiting outside in the darkest reaches of an already dark corridor. Pan shuddered.

  ‘We should get out of here,’ she whispered.

  ‘One more room, Pandora,’ Jen replied. ‘One more and then we go.’

  ‘Why? Haven’t we got enough to go on?’

  Jen giggled, a strange sound in the echoing space. ‘Why? Hell, Pandora. Why not? Come on.’

  Pan had no choice but to follow. This time, Jen turned left out of the door and walked to the other end of the corridor. Once again they were in new territory. This branch appeared a mirror image of the one they had just explored. Three doors to their left and a wall ahead of them. But whereas the other branch had a featureless wall, this one contained a door. Jen made straight towards it, her hand already dipping into her pocket for the lock picks. She tried the handle anyway, but it was locked.

  Pan tapped her on the shoulder.

  ‘Is it likely this will be Dr Morgan’s bedroom?’ she whispered.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe because it’s out of place. It doesn’t fit the pattern of the other rooms in this corridor.’

  ‘Would he lock his bedroom? I don’t think so. Anyway, Pandora, I’ve been doing some calculations based on the outside of this building and the distance we’ve travelled. I’ve been counting our steps. Provided I haven’t got it wrong, this door shouldn’t be here at all. We are at the outside wall of the building.’

  ‘Then maybe it’s a cleaner’s closet.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Jen grinned. ‘Only one way to find out.’ She bent towards the lock and this time Pan kept quiet. There was something unnerving about that door, and Jen was right – it would be useful to see what was behind it. We should just get the hell out of here, she thought. But curiosity won.

  This lock, it turned out, was m
ore difficult to pick than any of the others. Jen was on her knees for five minutes and her body language expressed frustration. Pan kept glancing behind her at the dim corridor. Did those shadows shift every time she turned back, as if someone was sneaking up on them? She imagined that whenever she turned her back on the corridor someone would inch forward a few more steps before freezing as she turned. She shook her head to dispel her fears. Jen stood.

  ‘Tellya one thing, Pandora. This is not a cleaner’s cupboard. No one would use such a sophisticated lock to protect a couple of mops and a bucket.’

  ‘Can’t you unlock it?’

  ‘Course I can. It’s just a mongrel, that’s all, and taking time. Couple more minutes.’ She knelt again and pressed her ear against the wood next to the lock. With her left hand she jiggled the picks inside the keyhole while Pan tapped her bare foot against the cold floor and glanced over her shoulder. After a few minutes, Jen got to her feet.

  ‘Got it,’ she said.

  She put the picks back in her pocket and turned the handle. This time there was no resistance and the door swung open. For one moment the girls stared into a black recess, but then a bright light flooded from the open doorway and they instinctively shielded their eyes from the glare. Pan’s heartbeat accelerated and it felt like someone was thumping her in the ribs. She turned to run, but then her eyes adjusted and she saw what was behind the door. Jen also had taken a few steps back. The girls froze.

  ‘What the hell?’ said Jen.

  Chapter 12

  ‘It’s an elevator,’ said Pan.

  ‘Yeah, thanks, Pandora,’ said Jen. ‘I can see it’s an elevator. But an elevator to where?’

  There was a glass panel screening off the interior of the elevator. On the rear wall was a row of buttons.

  ‘Let’s go,’ said Pan. ‘I don’t like this.’

  ‘Come on,’ Jen replied. ‘Don’t chicken out now. A freakin’ elevator, for Chrissake.’ She pressed her face against the glass. ‘I would’ve been really freaked if there was an up button,’ she said. ‘But look.’

  Pan joined her at the glass. Four buttons, marked one to four. The cliff on which the Infirmary sat must have four floors beneath its surface. The Infirmary was sitting on top of . . . well, who knew? There had to be at least four rooms buried in the mountain, but possibly there were entire floors, each containing a number of rooms. What was down there?

  ‘What do you think?’ Jen said. ‘All the way down to the bottom floor, or do you want to check out level two first?’

  ‘Are you crazy?’ said Pan. ‘We have no idea what or who is down there. Apart from Dr Morgan.’

  ‘Yes, I am crazy,’ said Jen. ‘We don’t know what’s down there and there’s no chance of finding out unless we go now. Think it’ll do any good if we just rock up to Dr Morgan tomorrow and ask? “Hey, Doc. We were prowling around here last night and noticed your express elevator to hell. Care to take us on a tour?’’’

  ‘We’re bound to get caught. They could kill us.’

  ‘Oh, please. Don’t be so paranoid. You only live once.’

  ‘Tell that to Cara.’

  ‘Look. You go, if you like. Maybe that’s better. At least one of us would still have this information if they catch me.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid. I’m not leaving you here.’

  ‘I feel safer already.’

  It was then Pan noticed the panel on the right-hand side of the glass doors. There was a box etched into the glass and inside that, an outline of a hand. There was nothing else. No handle. No call button. No instructions.

  ‘So how do we get in, Jen?’ she said, pointing to the panel. ‘It looks like some kind of fingerprint recognition technology.’

  ‘You’ve watched too many CSI shows, Pandora. Come on. How would The School have that kind of technology?’

  ‘Who knows what level of technology The School has?’

  ‘Well, I’m going to try it.’ Jen lifted her hand to the outline.

  ‘Wait,’ Pan hissed. ‘Are you nuts, Jen? If that is fingerprint identification, you are going to set off alarms because you don’t have authority. Let’s get out of here. We’ve got information, we’ve got that file. Let’s not take any more risks.’

  Jen smiled. ‘How did you think we were going to get out past the motion detector?’ she said.

  ‘Well, I assumed you had a plan.’

  Jen’s smile broadened. ‘Never assume, Pandora. True, I did have a plan. That was to bust out of the ward’s doors, set off the alarm and then run like hell. You know? Like we did it last time?’

  ‘Oh, terrific.’

  ‘Works for me. So, it doesn’t matter if I set off an alarm now, does it?’ Jen didn’t wait for a reply, but pressed her palm against the outline in the panel. For a second or two, nothing happened. Then a red light flashed on the elevator’s control panel, indicating the lift was moving up to the ground floor. Two seconds later they were blasted by the piercing shriek of a siren. Jen pulled her hand away.

  ‘You’re right, I’m wrong,’ she said. ‘Back to my original plan. Run like hell.’

  The lights came on as the girls started running, a flickering series of fluorescents that lit up first the corridor they were in and then the connecting corridors. They raced past the nurses’ station and turned in to the ward. This too was fully illuminated. Jen passed Pan and reached the French doors first. She laughed as she opened the latch and slid the door to one side.

  ‘What the hell’s so funny, Jen?’ Pan panted.

  Jen turned in the gap and grabbed Pan’s hand. ‘Everything,’ she said.

  Then another alarm blared, the alarm set off by the motion detector. Jen laughed harder. ‘God, I love this. Thanks for bringing me along. I wouldn’t have missed this excitement for the world.’

  It took them only fifteen seconds to reach the steps leading down to The School and, once again, Jen led the way.

  Pan was acutely aware of the drop to her left and the fact that, in bare feet, the steps were more treacherous. Her boots banged against her chest and made it difficult to see where she was stepping, but there was no time to stop and put them on. She ran as fast as she could, the sounds of two alarms fading slightly as she descended.

  Even as they reached the bottom of the steps, it was clear they were being pursued. Mixed in with the sounds of the alarms was a hubbub of voices. From somewhere above, a series of flashlight beams crisscrossed the landscape. No rush torches this time, thought Pan. We are enough of a threat for them to reveal they have hi-tech torches. The beams were brilliant and focused; there had to be at least ten of them.

  ‘Follow me, Pandora,’ said Jen, turning to her right. Pan obeyed without question. To step out into the area away from the cliff would be like stepping onto a floodlit stage. There would be no way to escape detection. But Jen was keeping them in the shadow of the cliff where, for a time at least, they couldn’t be seen. Not until the pursuers caught up with them.

  Already Pan’s feet were hurting. The rocks that she had spent so much time clearing during her physical activities program were not the problem. It was the small stones that bit into the soles of her feet. She cursed her stupidity for not insisting the two of them put their boots on before they tried to activate the elevator, just in case they had to run for their lives. She gritted her teeth and put one foot in front of the other, but both girls had slowed considerably. Their pursuers wouldn’t have such limitations on their movements. Pan glanced over her shoulder and saw the beam from a torch issue from the area where the bottom of the steps must lie. She forced her legs to keep pumping away.

  She had no idea where Jen was going until she saw the dark bulk of a pile of stones loom up before her. The monument to Cara and Nate. Jen slipped behind it, Pan following a few seconds later. The cairn would protect them . . . for a while. When their pursuers had explored the surrounding areas and found nothing there would be only one place where the intruders could be hiding. Jen had bought them a little time, but not eno
ugh.

  ‘Get your boots on, Pandora,’ Jen ordered, slipping her head through the necklace of her own laces. Pan sat on the floor and pulled on her boots. The soles of her feet were tender and slick. Blood. She winced as the pain pierced her adrenaline high.

  ‘So what now, Jen?’ she asked as she tied her laces. ‘We can’t stay here forever. What are we going to do, just walk out of here?’

  ‘Exactly that,’ Jen replied. She took the file from inside her jacket and placed it on the ground. Then she removed one of the larger stones from the cairn and placed that next to the file. Jen reached into her pocket and removed the lock picks, placing them deep inside the small cave she had created in the side of the cairn. The file followed it and then she replaced the stone. In the dark it was difficult to see whether she had managed to hide them sufficiently, but it would have to do.

  ‘We walk straight into the search party,’ she continued.

  ‘They’ll know it was us in the Infirmary.’

  ‘Yeah, but they won’t be able to prove it. It’s not unlikely that a couple of friends of Cara and Nate would visit the monument when they couldn’t sleep. We were sad, we came to pay our respects and then we saw the commotion.’

  ‘It won’t work. We are going to be deep in the shit.’

  ‘We are deep in the shit, Pandora. Right here and now. But that don’t mean we can’t be confident in wading through it.’ She stepped out from behind the cairn and strode out onto the running area.