The Dream Thief

Chapter 3-2

Karl stepped into the far busier main corridor, wondering what could have happened since he’d left that morning. He saw more gray-uniformed people walking past in both directions than usual for early Sunday evening, and they all seemed more than little bit nervous. It wasn't a full lockdown. Those were rare enough to fade to rumors, but telling folks to stay in at all was hardly normal. Whatever had the guard anxious was hitting everyone.

Andy had asked him to keep an eye out. Well, this might just be a good time to look around if everyone was distracted. He walked until he should have turned to the left to go to the staff apartments.

Without a backward glance, he turned right toward the medical records offices instead.

Karl stood up tall and walked with a purpose, wanting to look like he had somewhere to be even in his street clothes. He was getting a bit tired and frustrated with his job lately, but he didn't want to get fired or demoted for snooping, either.

He saw lights through the windows of several office doors he passed, but thankfully the records office was dark. He looked over his shoulder to make sure the hall was empty, then tried the door. Locked.

Karl pulled out his ring full of brass keys out and sorted through them. A buddy of his, another escapee from an all-Builder family, worked in maintenance and supply. Just a few weeks ago, he'd given Karl what he claimed was a master key, a special one that would open nearly any door in the place.

George Wood had been trying to work out how to make one for weeks, though he never would say why. Karl hadn't believed a word of it, but he hadn't tossed the key. He slid it slowly into the lock, expecting the key to break or nothing at all to happen. After a little shifting, the lock turned.

"I'll be damned..."

Karl opened the door and slipped inside, turning the lock again. He was in here all the time turning in new patient files or getting information, but he'd never been all that interested in looking around. The only thing he really wanted to learn more about was housed elsewhere, in the experimental medicine wing. He'd never manage to sneak into there.

And he couldn't get Andy's worried eyes out of his mind.

He started one of the gas lamps away from the door, leaving it low so it wouldn't be obvious someone was in here. The electrics were far too bright. The skylights let in more light than he expected, so it didn't take much.

The vast room was full of wooden-and-brass cabinets as far as he could see, and every one of them had several thick brown folders stacked on top. The whole thing was an overwhelming mess—one Karl had no idea how to start digging into for answers.

The huge number of new cases a couple of weeks ago that drove everyone to exhaustion could work in his favor. If the towering piles on every cabinet were any indication, this office was as short-staffed as Karl's nursing department.

He walked deeper into the huge office, lighting lamps as he went until he got closer to the windows. The sunset was still an hour or so away, and plenty of light was streaming through. Even with that, Karl couldn't get a handle on how things were supposed to be organized. Some of the labels seemed to be alphabetical, but the system started over again and again. He finally saw the cards tucked into brass holders on the cabinets at the end of each aisle.

They were organized by what was wrong with the new admissions, then alphabetically. Karl frowned, wondering if they possibly had that many patients to organize. He hardly ever went outside his own section, so this huge number he was unfamiliar with was entirely possible.

Karl kept walking, still not sure what he was looking for. He found sections for the people he usually cared for. Mania. Hysteria. Obsessive disorders. He knew what those were and exactly which of his patients suffered from each. Without more to go on, he'd never find anything.

His broad shoulders brushed against the stack of folders on top of the end cabinet for depth syndrome, the insanity that struck Builders who lost the way back to reality after getting too far into their work. Karl barely managed to keep the whole stack from falling over and going everywhere. Several of the folders did land at his feet, thankfully without spilling their contents. He picked them up, glancing at their covers.

"Hang on a minute..."

None of them had the same name, so these weren't just spillover storage. Karl pulled another stack down without seeing any kind of pattern. He was normally great at that if nothing else, spotting a pattern where no one else could see it. These patients had nothing at all in common. Unless...

Karl flipped through the folders again, this time looking at the dates of admission. That was it. These were new patient folders, in order by nothing more than those dates. And unless he was misunderstanding a strong hunch growing in his belly, he was looking at the big surge he'd noticed over the past few weeks. The same surge Andy had spotted.

He grabbed a few more folders and carried them to a long table by the window already overflowing with paperwork. Once they were laid out where he could see them all, another of Karl's talents he didn't give himself credit for kicked in. His memory was beyond good; it was as extraordinary as any Builder's. He recognized several family names he'd known all his life, and a few of the individuals.

Andy was right. Out of almost twenty new patients in a couple of weeks, more than half were from their neighborhood.

Karl got though the stack to the bottom before he realized he'd been straining to read the last couple. The sun had nearly set. He'd been digging through the files for over an hour. Cold sweat broke out all over his body at the thought of a watchman or someone on the cleaning crew walking in and catching him with confidential folders scattered everywhere.

Even worse, there was no rule at all to stop a new admission from coming in at any time during the day or night. If a Director walked in instead, Karl might be on the next train back to Waldron's Gate for a permanent stay.

He managed to get everything stacked up in the same order he'd found it, and remarkably close to the same twisted and tilted arrangement. He thought about grabbing a few pieces of paper so he could write down the names, but that seemed as bad an idea as hanging around here long enough to do it.

Better to just trust he'd remember the names when he needed to than to get caught with the lists. He doused the lamps one at a time behind him as he walked back out.

Karl stepped out into an empty hall, but he could still hear people hurrying around close by. He shook his head, not sure what had possessed him to do such a crazy thing to begin with. Almost as crazy as his patients.

That curiosity, the same thing that had gotten him in trouble as a kid and scolded as a green orderly, had apparently followed him into adulthood. That was all well and good until it got him fired. It was far past time to make himself scarce tonight.

If nothing else, he couldn't even ask questions if he ran into anybody. They'd just ask why he was wandering around the administration building if he wasn't supposed to be here.

He knew exactly who would gossip and who wouldn't on his shift in the patient residential areas and treatment rooms. Tomorrow would be soon enough to find out more. Especially if it meant keeping his job.