The Vanishing Complex

Chapter 12

A full day of activities transpired before Sofia was able to get Harper alone in their room. Her mind had gone through various scenarios that could have occurred, but one thing remained certain: Harper had covered for her. Falconer Hilda shut the door behind them, turning the spin lock until its tumblers clicked into place. Harper reached down the back of her pants, pulling out the folded pieces of napkin Sofia had written all her notes on. From her shoe she produced a slender gold tube, the pen. Sofia reached for it, only to have Harper place it between her fingers and snap it in half. She could only gape at her roommate, imagining that she was one of them. Maybe this was a trap and Dr. Flores had used Harper as a means to spy on her.

The idea flew right out of the window when Harper pointed out a small black device that fell out of the barrel. She dropped it onto the floor and stamped on it with her shoe. It took a few tries before the device crackled under her weight. Sofia soon realized that it was a tracking device and suddenly Dr. Flores' face when they found nothing made sense. If every pen used by staff had a tracking device, then they knew this nurse was always located in two places. They followed the other signal to her room and could probably see it as being active. She met Harper's eyes. She hadn't really noticed how young she looked in her uniform.

Guilt rattled in her mind but mostly in her heart that Harper had risked taking the fall for her. For just one second she thought she saw her sister's face, but when she focused the moment was gone. She managed to thank Harper then looked through her notes, all were accounted for. The questions wanted to burst out of her, she had so many. Why she covered for her was the biggest. Sofia glanced up at the ceiling, straining her eyes to find a small flashing light or a black something that was out of place. They surely had cameras in every room, she had accounted for that when taking notes. Secondly, they likely had some type of audio recording. Harper seemed to think the same way and motioned for Sofia to go towards the door. They sat crisscross from each other pressing their heads against the door.

Sofia could hear the echoes of voices from the Falconers and the occasional straggling patient. If there was audio recording somewhere, it would pick up the sounds from the hallway too. She wanted to grin at Harper's quick thinking but chose to keep the moment sober. She placed the notes underneath her leg and whispered the question she'd been dying to ask since lunch: what happened? Harper leaned close, putting a hand to one side of her mouth to shield it from wherever the camera was.

Falconer Frank and Falconer Hilda had arrived shortly after Falconer Denver had taken Sofia away to her session. The warning had come in just seconds prior, a series of knock that travelled from wall to wall. She'd only had a single breath to swipe the notes and pen. As the Falconers inspected their room, tossing up the mattresses, and rummaging through their drawers, she was sure the look of fear would give her up. They seemed to be looking for something specific and was sure it had to be the contraband she was now hiding in her underwear. Sweat broke on her forehead and underneath her arms. The inspection took twenty minutes, and if it had taken any longer, she would have been drenched in sweat and ready to crack.

The Falconer left the room in complete disarray for Harper to put back together. Her hands trembled as she moved from one side to the other making sure everything was back in place before she was taken away to her own session. The notes and pen remained on her person all throughout the day. Sofia couldn't believe her ears and felt her heart clench as Harper sheepishly apologized if her sweat made the ink run. She shook her head, lifting up a hand to cover one side of her mouth.

"What you did for me, I can never thank you enough." She said in nearly whisper. "Why did you do it?"

"I'm not sure. I-I'd seen you writing and when I heard the knocks, I panicked. Maybe it was to save my own skin too, but what are you doing? Who are you?"