The Asylum Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Pete was doing the rounds. Emptying the chamber pots through the bars of the cells was a pretty disgusting job, and it didn’t seem fair to make Ariadne do it with her bare hands while his were protected by his metal gauntlets. Jonas, he could have a sensible conversation with. The experiments Dr Wolvercote had been performing on Jonas were – alas – working all too well. The alloy he had been trying to graft to Jonas’s skin was taking nicely – hands, feet, his skin was slowly turning into metal. “I need to get your doors open. Set you free.”
“You won’t manage it with me, Elise or Amelie. Not until you can get into the computer code for it. He made Amelie’s locks all extra secure – over-rides everywhere - and he wired this one and Elise’s the same way. He was going to extend the system to yours and Olaf’s – let’s be thankful that he didn’t.” “Jonas – I want to stop what’s happening to you. I want to set us all free.”
“Olaf. He’s probably your key. Get him out and get that visor off him, and the rest of us might stand a chance. He did work for Wolvercote, he knew his systems. Why do you think Wolvercote took his sight away? It wasn’t just to try and break him down.” Eloise looked the same as ever, gazing hopelessly at the grey wall. She was still pulling her hair out in handfuls. Telling her that Wolvercote was dead had made no difference at all – Pete needed to get her out of her cell if she was ever going to recover. And from what Jonas had just said, that was going to be hard to do. Amelie was lying on her bed with that creepy and dangerous smile on her face. It usually meant that she was plotting something. Her suit was made of the same metal as his, but much lighter in weight. What was special about it though was the electronics embedded in it: Dr Wolvercote had had an over-ride key that enabled him to lock all the joints in the suit so that Amelie couldn’t move. It was hard to believe that she’d once been a talented musician – just occasionally though, Pete heard her humming something. Pete wasn’t sure what Olaf was seeing, or if he was capable of listening at that moment.
“Olaf. Can you hear me? We need to get you out of here, and your visor off you. I think we can crack your lock, if you can put your wrist through the bars for us, so that I can get at that band.” “I can try.” Olaf was gritting his teeth as he spoke. “How long will it take?” “I don’t know. She’s never done any electronics. I can tell her what to do, but…”
“Who is she, anyway? Another prisoner, like us?”
“No. She’s Wolvercote’s heiress. And I intend to see that she receives all of her inheritance.” Seeing the state the other four had been reduces to filled Pete with a cold and calculated anger against Francis Wolvercote. He took and almost savage pleasure in locking Ariadne into her cell that night. She was going to reap her full inheritance – debts and all. He muttered this under his breath as he went to his own bed, never dreaming that Amelie could hear every word as clearly as if he’d spoken them aloud. When Olaf was in too much mental discomfort to let them work on his wrist lock, Ariadne and Pete went through all the medical journals in the attics. The journals went right back to the founding of Wolvercote House. Pete knew roughly what he was looking for from talking to Olaf – curtly, he ordered Ariadne to search for certain key words and phrases. The only time Ariadne felt remotely happy was when she was out in her garden. Even Pete could see the sense of growing some food for themselves and, reluctantly, let her go outside alone. Climbing the ladders was just too hard for him in the heavy suit. He let her go through the old clothes in the wardrobe too. If she wanted underwear, and another layer of warmth, she had no choice but to lace herself into an old-fashioned corset – which was not easy.
Ariadne looked at herself in the mirror. She was paler, thinner – one meal a day wasn’t really enough – and in the dress she’d hastily chosen, a bit ghost-like too. She pressed her hands to her face, trying to force back the tears. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing how much he was hurting her, frightening her. And yet, sometimes, a different person seemed to show through – someone warmer, more sociable. She’d made an intelligent suggestion about the way the files were organised in a particular directory and he’d almost smiled at her. And when, some two hours later, she was having problems keeping her eyes open, he’d noticed and told her to go to bed before she fell asleep on the keyboard. Jonas was the only one Ariadne felt she could talk to. Unlike Pete, he didn’t blame her for being Francis Wolvercote’s heiress. He’d had to come to terms with the idea that his family had chosen to have him locked away: he could tell the difference between deliberate betrayal and an accident of birth.
One morning though, she walked past his cell on the way to Olaf’s, and he looked so dejected she had to stop.
“What’s wrong?”
“The alloy. It’s spreading. It’s taking.” She looked more closely through the bars at his hand, and saw what he meant. The area of skin that could be seen was definitely less. And they hadn’t even managed to free Olaf yet, much less get the visor off him. But it seemed that this was destined to be a day of triumph! As she followed Pete’s instructions to the best of her ability, there was a sudden click, and then a clang as the tongue of the lock shot back. Olaf was free! Well – he could get out of his cell anyway. If he had been able to see. Ariadne’s happiness evaporated fast as Pete reminded her how much else there was to do. “Okay, Olaf, I think we’re ready.”
It had been six weeks of preparation, but they’d moved Olaf’s bed into the laboratory, as the best substitute for an operating table.
“We’ll need feedback from you, but I think this should be fine.”
Ariadne wasn’t so sure, but she didn’t say anything. She was the one who was going to have to do everything – Pete was just the instructor. Three gruelling hours later, though, they’d succeeded. Poor Olaf – the first people he’d set eyes on in months, and one was a metal monster, and the other one was wearing an ancient dress and a spiked collar! They hauled Olaf’s bed back to his cell, where he instantly lay down and fell asleep – sleep with no disturbances. And for the next ten days, all he did was eat a meal, sleep, use the toilet, sleep some more, take a shower, sleep…Ariadne was beginning to worry about him! Two weeks later, though, Olaf was functioning again – and his brain was back to firing on all cylinders.
“Okay, I think I can get your mask and helmet off at least. But it’s going to take two pairs of hands – Ariadne will have to help. You’re going to have to let her out.” Since Olaf had woken up, Pete had had no need of Ariadne – and she was now spending most of her days locked up in her cell. He’d let her out to do the garden, use the toilet – and that was about it. She had to stay in there, reading through the journals, working backwards through time, looking for any references to the machine in the old attic that Dr Wolvercote had used on Pete. And she hated it. “I need you to help me get this helmet off Pete’s head,” Olaf began.
“No,” Ariadne said, summoning up her small store of courage. “I won’t help unless he stops locking me up all the time.” Olaf was surprised. It seemed as though she minded being locked up. But he could see the logic of it.
“She’s got a point, Pete. We’re going to go on needing her – not least to get you out of that suit.”
“Very well,” Pete said grudgingly. “If you get me out of this helmet, I’ll stop locking you in during the day. But not at night.”
Ariadne would settle for that. She hadn’t realised that standing up for herself might work! Maybe she should have tried it at work as well, when her supervisor gave her impossible tasks to do, and then marked her down for not completing them. It was odd, seeing his face again. It didn’t look like he remembered it. His hair hadn’t grown back – probably the friction of the helmet kept rubbing it off. He supposed he’d have to keep his promise to Ariadne – they had got the helmet off him. But he was still going to make her pay somehow.