All That She Can See(66)

Even if that was the case, Cherry still didn’t want to risk exposing themselves so she dropped her voice. ‘I’ve got a plan.’

‘To get us out of here?’ Chase whispered.

Cherry threw up her hands. ‘No, a plan to turn these cells into a nice permanent two-bedroom home. You don’t mind spending the rest of our lives here, do you?’ Before Chase could answer she growled, her voice rising, ‘Of course it’s a plan to get us out! I found an old friend who was being held here. It’s a long story and I don’t have time to explain everything now but he’s like us, and he sees the bad stuff like me. I trust him and he told me things about this place and he said that all the lenses are linked to a central system. If we can find the control panel for the system and destroy it, then all of the lenses will go down and everyone will get their sight, their real sight, back again.’

‘We’ll see everyone’s Meddlums again?’ Chase crawled to the edge of his cell and knelt up against the bars.

‘Since when did you call them Meddlums?’

‘Since you,’ he said, smiling.

‘That’s lovely, darling heart, but can I hear the rest of this plan?’ the Australian voice called out.

‘Shh!’ Chase hushed.

‘If we can destroy that control panel, Peter will take it from there.’ Cherry knelt up against the bars of her cell too, mirroring Chase’s pose.

‘Peter?’

‘My friend, the one who used to be in here.’

‘What kind of friend?’ Chase said.

‘What does that matter?’

‘Just seems weird, that’s all.’

Was he seriously sulking? ‘Really, Chase?’ Cherry said gently but firmly. ‘With everything that’s going on, you’re worried about another man? Look I trust him and so should you.’ When Chase didn’t respond, Cherry said more softly, ‘Trust me.’

Chase’s eyes softened. ‘I do trust you.’

‘Good, because you need to trust me now. We have to find that panel and switch it off.’

‘That’s it?’ Chase said.

‘That’s it!’

‘Sounds too simple, love,’ said the Australian. ‘Something always gets in the way.’

‘We’ll be fine,’ Cherry said, although the chain connecting her wrists rattled against the bars of the cell as her hands shook.

‘Of course we will,’ Chase said. He smiled at her and she instantly felt better, knowing that they were in this together.

‘601!’

Cherry jumped, the sudden shout startling her. The bars to her cell began to vibrate as they started to lift from the floor. Cherry skittered back, the floor cold against her skin, and she could feel a sore spot where the dart had hit her.

‘Come forward, 601.’

Cherry pushed herself off the floor, careful to keep her hospital gown flat against her legs. She winced as the pressure from her hands caused sparks of pain to shoot up her legs. She looked down and saw that her legs were covered in scratches. She wondered if the three men in blue suits had dragged her the same way she’d seen them drag Chase: with no compassion or consideration. She walked out of her cell and into the corridor. Chase reached his hand through the bars as far as he could before the cuffs stopped him and Cherry held onto his fingers.

‘We have to find that panel,’ she whispered. ‘And when it happens, run.’

‘When what happens?’ he asked.

‘601. You are due for an examination. Please move forward.’

‘Just run,’ Cherry repeated urgently, before letting go of Chase’s hand.

A woman stood at the end of the corridor near a small green door that had a keypad next to it, mounted on the wall. She had straw-like hair that stuck out on her shoulders, making her head look triangular, and she wore a lab coat and held a clipboard like the man that had visited a few minutes earlier. ‘Follow me,’ she said curtly. She slotted the card that hung by a lanyard around her neck into the reader and entered a seven-digit number. The door juddered open to reveal a long silver corridor, reminiscent of an air vent, and the smell of disinfectant stung Cherry’s nostrils. She tried to pull her robe closed behind her but in doing so the front lifted higher, exposing more of her uppermost thigh. She took a deep breath. You are in your pyjamas, she told herself. Really baggy, breezy pyjamas.

Cherry followed the woman as she walked quickly down the corridor. They turned left into another corridor, this one lined with windows on one side. Cherry seized the chance to look outside – if her plan didn’t work, she might never escape the Guild and she wanted to see the sky one last time – but instead all she saw was the inside of a huge grey hall. Men and women dressed in blue suits sat behind desks that lined the floor of the hall. On each desk there was a large screen displaying what looked like some kind of first-person shooter video game.

‘The lenses,’ Cherry said under her breath.

‘What did you say?’ the straw-haired woman said, turning back to see Cherry had stopped halfway down the corridor.

‘Er… the lenses you put in my eyes. They’re great. Thank you,’ she said through gritted teeth.

‘Lenses?’ the woman said, her own eyes glazing over. Then as if a light had been switched on, ‘Oh! Yes. The lenses. Marvellous, aren’t they? Clearer vision means a clearer mind!’ she recited. ‘Follow me.’