About The Scarlett Kite
Hi! I'm Scarlett Kiteway, I'm 20 years old, a journalism student in Perplex City and this is my blog all about the excitement over the search for the Cube. I'll be keeping track of what the media over there is saying about it, and maybe a little bit about my life as well!
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Friday, December 9, 2005
Lana Metzger
Category: story, 02:42 PM
I've been sitting here, in the woods, by my small campfire for 24 hours trying to work out what to tell you. Trying to work out what just happened. It's not that I'm confused. The device in my key is still working, the confusion field protecting Viendenbourg hasn't got to me. I've tested myself, just in case, listing the names of the seven founders of the Academy and their dates, running through my multiplication tables. I'm fine. I'm healthy. I'm not injured. I even found Allain. But it didn't go like I expected. Perhaps I should start from the beginning.
Like I said last week, I spent a few days watching the comings and goings at Viendenbourg, to get an idea of what the best time to get in would be. I also carefully scouted around the perimeter, after dark, and staying in the cover of clumps of trees or rocky outcroppings. The place is large, about 2 miles all the way round, with many more buildings in it than I thought. There's the main building, the long, low grey one. It's huge, probably at least 150,000 square metres. That's the building which the noise of drilling comes from about 14 hours a day. There are also other buildings though; offices and houses, what look like dorm rooms and even a few stores. The more I watched, the more lax their security systems seemed. The gates areall the time; people walk in and out easily, not even showing their ID to the guard. They even come out to go running! A couple of them have come scarily close to my campsite; they seem to be convinced that no one could have got through their confusion field.
So, the whole thing was in one way really simple. Yesterday at lunchtime, when there's a lot of milling around anyway, I changed into a smart business suit I'd bought in Tanraga Town, made a bundle of some papers and a file, and just walked through the gates like I knew where I was going. I've seen my sister Violet do this kind of thing loads of times, it's her special skill. She always says she "doesn't like dealing with receptionists", so she just walks straight through as if the place belongs to her. I've always thought it was kind of cheating; like, if you were supposed to be somewhere you should be able to get in by asking, but it's certainly a useful thing to be able to do.
Anyway, I did know where I was heading. As I walked through the gates, purposefully, I was heading for the small cluster of office-looking buildings to the west side of the complex. You might wonder why I didn't go for the long grey building, I guess. It just seemed to me that that was where something important was going on, and therefore the last place they'd be likely to keep a dangerous prisoner. So I headed for the offices. I had my plan all worked out. It was really simple.
Inside, the building looked like any municipal facility; inoffensive cream walls and thick beige carpet, a man and a woman sitting behind the desk. I know Violet doesn't like talking to them, but it was part of my plan.
"Hello," I said, in my best crisp, I'm-so-bored-with-this voice. "I'm here to see Allain Castille. I'm Lana Metzger, I've been brought in to evaluate him."
I thought that, whatever they'd done to Allain, he would need to be "evaluated".
The man tapped at his key, and looked up: "I'm sorry, there's no one of that name here."
I hadn't expected this, but thought quickly.
"You know, the young man who was found in the woods," I pretended to check my notes, "nine weeks ago."
The man blinked at me. I tried to make my face into a stern I-don't-have-time-for-this expression.
"Oh," he said, "*that* guy. You've found out his name have you?"
I nodded. He smiled.
"Great. I guess you had to get it eventually, huh? After all the stuff they've been doing to him. He's in building 12, observation room F."
He handed me a key-card and even pointed which direction I should be heading in.
I couldn't quite trust it was going to be this easy. If Allain had been held here all this time, why hadn't he just been able to escape, the same way I'd got in? I didn't like to think what that "stuff they've been doing to him" could have been.
As I walked up the steps of building 12, I could hear my heels clicking very loudly on the concrete. My heart was thumping. The building was laid out with separate front doors to each set of rooms; as if he were their guest, instead of their prisoner. Room F was on the upper level. I walked round to it, but the curtains were drawn and I couldn't see anything through them. I waved the key-card in front of the reader; the light flashed from red to green. And Id the door and there was Allain, sitting at a desk, writing.
I couldn't believe it. It had been so long since I'd last seen him, but he looked just the same.
He looked up as I walked in, surprise and bewilderment on his face.
"Come on," I said, "let's go! Quickly!"
He looked hard at my face and said: "Who are you?"
I stood there for a few moments, just staring at him. There was no recognition in his eyes. And so I apologised, said I had the wrong room and walked, confidently, slowly, off the compound. And I've been here for the past day trying to work out what to do now. I can get into the compound any time I like, but I don't know what to do with that. And I don't know what to tell Major Castille. What have they done to Allain?