The Hourglass (12 page)

“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 office 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.

“We have to do
it soon, you’re starting to heal,” said Sarah, critically examining his
bruises. The cut on his lip had clotted up neatly and the swelling had gone
down.
“And we only have a week.” He straightened his shoulders. “Better get it over
with then. I’ll pretend to fall over something and convince the guard that I
need you to assist me to the infirmary. Easy peasy.”
“No, wait, you can’t go tonight. If I get sent away I’ll be locked up in my
stupid cell so I won’t be able to find another way to meet up with you.”

“How do you know
you won’t just get sent away if we do it tomorrow?”

“I don’t, but at
least tomorrow I won’t be locked in a cell with no guards in sight to persuade.”

“I could do this
myself,” he offered.
Sarah bit her lip. It was tempting. Then she shook her head in mild
self-disgust. “Even the Queen thought it was too hard for one person to do.
We’ll do this together or not at all.”

“Tomorrow then,”
said Finn, trying hard not to look relieved.

The Attempt

“Good morning,”
said Sarah as she joined Finn at their usual table.

“Morning,”
replied Finn through a mouth full of food.

She was just
about to sit down when a flying spoonful of porridge splattered over one side
of Finn’s face. Sarah leapt back to her feat, outraged and trying to find the
culprit. Two boys sitting a table over were giggling and smiling smugly.

“You idiots. You
absolute idiots. What the hell did you do that for?” demanded Sarah, enraged. She
grabbed her spoon and loaded it up with as much porridge as she could before
thinking better of it and grabbed the whole bowl. She was just positioning
herself for maximum aim when Finn reached out a hand and tugged her back into
her seat. He wiped most of the porridge off his face and wiped his hands clean
on his pants.

“Calm down,
psycho, it’s just porridge. Five minutes ago it was a fork. This is definitely
an improvement.”

“What? What happened?
Why are they throwing stuff at you?”

Finn grimaced.
“I had a little meeting last night with the King. He was very interested to
know what our deal with the Queen is. I didn’t tell him, of course,” he added,
in reply to the panicked expression that blossomed on Sarah’s face.

“Are you ok? Did
he hurt you?”

“Nope. Whatever
deal it was the Queen struck with him worked. He didn’t touch a hair on my
head. However he made it clear that he couldn’t stop ‘boys from being boys.’ So
far I’ve been tripped three times and breakfast has become more dangerous than
I thought. The sooner we get this over and done with, the better.”

He looked up to
find Sarah assessing him. In her opinion he was a frustratingly good healer.
His bruises had started to yellow already and the swelling had completely
disappeared. It wasn’t really going to convince anyone that he needed to see
the doctor.

“I know, right?
I need to be fresh. Don’t worry, I’ll sort it out once we get to the floor.”

Sarah frowned in
reply. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I’ll get
Boulder to hit me and make this,” he waved at his bruised face, “look a bit
more recent. The ribs will still pass muster though. I was going to get you to
do it, but they might not let you help me get to the infirmary if they think you’re
the one who hit me.”

Sarah was about
to protest that she wouldn’t have hit him, but she stopped herself before the
words came out. If they wanted to survive on that ship, they needed to get into
that infirmary. Punching him in the face was better than them and their friends
dying.

April sat down
at the table, followed shortly after by Marland.

“Have you guys
seen the Queen’s new eating partner?” asked April, pointing across the
cafeteria at the Queen’s table. Sarah looked over. Colt was sitting with the Queen,
his body positioned so that, although they were sitting side by side, he was
almost directly facing her. His thumb was stroking the back of her hand. The Queen
looked pleased.

“I’m guessing
that was more her choice than his,” said April.

Marland snorted.
“I doubt he minds, getting close to all that power,” she said, then she quickly
glanced at Sarah, worried that she might have offended her.

“Good luck to
them,” said Sarah sarcastically.

“Any luck about
finding out what this mystery event is?” asked Finn, trying to change the
topic.

“No,” said April.
“Everyone we’ve asked has no idea. They all say the exact same thing.”

“What’s that?”
asked Sarah.

“That every
single day is exactly the same as the last,” said Marland with a sigh. “Nothing
is ever different, apparently.”

“We’ll keep
trying though,” said April. “Someone will know something.”

“Just be
careful, ok?”

April gave her a
wry smile. “I think you need to be more careful than us.”

Marland let out
a small yelp as a knife, sharpened by someone outside the kitchen into
something a lot more lethal than it was intended for, imbedded itself into the
table next to Finn’s hand. Finn’s hand twitched and the expression on his face
flickered to something darker, something that Sarah had never seen before, but
it was gone as quick as it had come. He turned around briefly to find the
culprit and then turned back to the table.
“Everyone ok?” he asked.

April nodded and
Marland followed suit with a trembled nod of her own.

“Are we ok?”
asked Sarah. “Are
you
ok? You’re the one who nearly lost his hand to a…
to a bloody shiv! Finn, if this keeps on happening they’re going to kill you.”

“No, they won’t.
Queen’s deal, remember?”

“Yeah, well,
this ‘boys will be boys’ business has gone on too far.” She stood up.

“Sarah, sit
down.”

“No, I-”

“Sarah, they
can’t break the deal. As much as the King wants to know what’s going on, he
also clearly wants to keep the deal or he’d already have me over hot coals.
Which means I’m safe. It’s fine.”

Sarah sat down
slowly. She actually had no idea what she was going to do anyway. She sighed.

“The sooner we
get this over and done with, the better.”

“Agreed,” said
Finn. “Excuse me.” He stood up and followed another boy into the bathroom.

Sarah watched
him go.

“He’ll be
alright,” said April, patting Sarah gently on the hand. “He’s right, you know,
it’s been
agreed
that he’ll be alright.”

“Yeah, maybe,”
mumbled Sarah.

Finn joined then
a few minutes later, just as the bell went for them to head back to the factory
floor. As they stood up to head out a bow with a bloodied nose stumbled out of
the bathroom. It was the same boy Finn had followed in.

“Finn, did
you..?”

Finn shrugged.
“The shiv really was too far,” he said.

Sarah just stared
at him, flabbergasted.

“Are you
coming?” he asked.

“Ah, yeah, just
a moment,” she said, her thoughts whirling around in her mind. “Actually, I’ll
meet you there, I just need to have a word with Marland.”
Finn shrugged and walked off.

“Hey Marland,
will you do me another favour?”

“Ah, sure,” said
Marland cautiously.

“Let me know if
you hear anything about why the Queen hates the doctor from the infirmary so
much, ok?”

A look of relief
swept across Marland’s face. “Yeah, sure,” she said with a smile, “I can do
that. Hey, um, Sarah?” added on Marland a bit nervously.

“Yeah?”

“You know how we
were wondering why the Queen chose you and not one of her usual people?”

Sarah nodded.

“Well, I don’t
think she did just chose you.”

“What?”

“People have
been talking. Apparently a whole bunch of the Queen’s lackeys were thrown into
solitary just before we arrived. Apparently they were found in random places
throughout the ship. You know, like they were looking for an alternative way
off the ship.”

“So you’re saying…”

“I don’t think
you were her first choice. I think you’re her only hope left. Everything hinges
on you.”

“Well,” said
Sarah, processing the idea. “That’s shit.”

They followed
Finn and April to the factory floor and separated to their different sections
of the conveyer belt. Instead of taking his usual seat Finn walked up to
Boulder.

“Punch me in the
face.”

Boulder frowned,
his eyes flickering around the room. “No.”

Finn stared,
momentarily surprised. “Why not?”

“Sit down.
Idiot.”

“Look, I’m asking
for this. It’s not like I’m going to take it personally,” began Finn, working
on what Sarah considered was the insane idea that Boulder was worried about
Finn’s feelings. “It’s just that-”

Boulder stood up
and socked him heavily on the nose. Finn reeled backwards, tripping over one of
the stools and clutching his face as blood gushed from his nose. Two guards ran
over.

“What’s going on
here?” one of them demanded.

Boulder shrugged
innocently. “I don’t really know. One moment I’m doing my work, the next he’s bleeding
all over the floor. I think he tripped over the stool.”

The guard gave
him a disbelieving look. “See anything?” he asked the other guard.

The other guard,
a thin, weedy looking woman, shook her head. “Nah, I’d just turned away too.”

Sarah, who had
by this time crouched beside Finn, helping him as best she could, raised an
eyebrow. Boulder clearly had no issue with punching Finn in the face. He had
just been waiting until there were no witnesses.

“I saw it,” she
piped up. “He did trip. He landed awkwardly over the top of the stool as well.
I think I heard something crack.”

A third guard
joined them. It was Mr Painter. There was an anxious moment when Sarah thought
they would just be sent back to work, and then Finn started making retching
noises and all the guards took a hurried step back.  

“Take him to the
infirmary, Gragur,” Mr Painter ordered the first guard. He turned to the weedy
woman. “Get back to work, Nadia. That Stickler kid in your section is playing
up again.” Nadia gave him a harried look and slunk back to her usual position
on the factory floor as Gragur bent down to help Finn up, carefully ensuring
Finn was facing away from him. Mr Painter’s notifier buzzed at his waist and he
moved away to answer it, to everyone’s relief. Gragur managed to heave Finn to
his feet and walk a step before Finn’s knees sagged and he groaned pitifully.

“I think my ribs
are broken,” Finn muttered. “I can’t walk.” Finn’s weight dragged Gragur down
with him so that he was now standing half-hunched over, trying to support
Finn’s heavy body.

“Bloody hell,”
muttered the guard resentfully. “How can you weigh this much and be so skinny?”

Sarah suppressed
a grin. She had said the same thing only a day or two ago. The guard glanced
around at the surrounding prisoners, who were all watching his progress with
interest.
“Get back to work,” he growled. The prisoners reluctantly turned around. Sarah
ignored the guard and stepped forward, slipping Finn’s other arm around her
shoulder. Gragur grunted but didn’t complain as he was now able to stand a
little straighter, and the three of them headed out of the room. The infirmary,
as it turned out, wasn’t too far away. It was down the far end of the ship one
level above the factory floor. At one point they passed a set of stairs that
led up to the open deck. Sarah could feel the fresh air on her skin and she
broke out in goosebumps. It felt delicious.

They arrived at
a single door with the word ‘INFIRMARY’ printed neatly on it in block letters.
Below the word was printed a little hourglass symbol. The guard swiped the door
open and they walked into a clean room that smelt of disinfectant and something
slightly off. There were six beds in the room, three on either side, their feet
pointing at each other, just as Winter had said. At the far end of the room,
directly opposite from them, was the office. The office was as wide as the
ward. On either side of the door were set two large windows. All three of the
current patients were in the beds closest to the windows. Clearly, the doctor
liked to keep an eye on what was happening on his ward. The two patients to
Sarah’s right were badly bruised and battered. One had both arms in plaster,
the other his leg. The single patient on Sarah’s left looked completely
unharmed. He was sitting on the bed, his arms wrapped around his knees, rocking
backwards and forwards.

“Justin!” yelled
Sarah, unable to stop herself. Justin didn’t even blink in response. It was
like he hadn’t heard her.

Finn’s head
jerked up quickly at Sarah’s exclamation. Before either of them could do more
than stare the door leading into the doctor’s office opened and a man strode
out. He wasn’t what Sarah had expected at all. She had been picturing a middle
aged man in a white lab coat sporting an expression full of evil intent. What
she saw was a young, good looking man with a strong jawline and hair that was
swept back stylishly. He was wearing scrubs and comfortable shoes. The doctor’s
eyes flickered over the three of them, coming to rest on Finn.

“Put him down
here,” he ordered, directing them to one of the spare beds. They walked over,
awkwardly squeezed between the beds and lowered Finn onto the mattress. Finn
groaned pitifully, clutching his side. “What happened?”  

“Apparently he
tripped over a stool,” said Gragur, disbelief clearly evident in his tone.

The doctor
raised an eyebrow. “Some fall.” He turned to Finn and started to ask him
questions about what happened and how he landed. Much to Sarah’s relief Gragur
sat down on the spare bed next to Finn’s and watched the interview. He was
clearly as reluctant to return to work as she was. Sarah understood why. All he
did was stand in the same area of the factory, watching people do the same
repetitive thing day in, day out. It was almost as bad as what the prisoners
had to do. He must be bored out of his mind. He obviously welcomed the variety.
This also suited Sarah. She knew he couldn’t send her back without an escort,
and the more time she stayed in the infirmary, the better chance she had of picking
up something that could help her later. Their first plan, that Sarah would try
and slip away to see what she could find, was clearly not going to work. Gragur
was positioned so that he was facing the office door. He would spot her in
seconds. Still. The more time she spent there, the more opportunity she had to
learn something useful. She looked over at Justin again. He hadn’t moved an
inch and appeared completely unaware of their presence.