Page 82 of Ringer
“We heard,” the girl said. She avoided Lyra’s eyes. Lyra knew the girl was afraid she wouldn’t be able to find the difference between them, the reason she had the key to the room where Lyra was getting sick and not vice versa.
“Did Caelum get his medicine?” she asked. This made the girl and boy turn to stare at her. “The other one,” she clarified. “The male.”
The girl looked worried. “What medicine?” she asked loudly, as if Lyra might otherwise fail to understand.
“He has medicines,” Lyra said. “He always takes them. Otherwise he’ll get sick worse than I did.” She held her breath as the girl chewed on her thumbnail. If she went to get Dr. O’Donnell, Lyra would have to admit Caelum didn’t take medication.
She counted heartbeats, one, two, three.
“Can you go and get Sonja?” the girl said finally, turning to the boy. Lyra let out the breath she’d been holding. “Can you ask whether the other one said anything about medicine?”
“Now?”
“Just ask,” the girl said. “I don’t want to get in trouble.”
The boy leaned to hoist himself to his feet. He grabbedhis ID, winding the lanyard between his fingers, and Lyra’s heart skipped down into her fingers. “In one of the cold rooms?”
The girl nodded. “Sub-Two,” she said, and Lyra had to bite her lip to keep from smiling. Now she knew where Caelum was.
But she was careful to keep her face blank, to look as dumb as they thought she was. To watch without seeming to pay any attention at all.
She saw: the way the boy slipped his ID in his back pocket when he stood.
“I really need to pee,” Lyra repeated.
She saw: the girl relenting. “Come on. Make it quick.”
Lyra followed her into the hall, head down, obedient as a cow. Dumb, docile, harmless. The boy glanced at her with barely concealed pity before turning to lock his office door.
She saw: the loop of lanyard visible above the stitching.
All she had to do was hook it with two fingers as she was passing.
Harmless.
In the bathroom, she used the toilet and washed her mouth out in the sink. There was no time to waste. Once Dr. O’Donnell returned, Lyra would lose her chance.
The girl had waited in the hall. When Lyra emerged,she saw the boy retracing his steps, making a search of the hallway.
“I had it right here,” he was saying. Another sleepy-looking employee had come to her office door, blinking and yawning, as if she’d just been napping. “Right here, in my pocket...”
When he looked up and spotted Lyra, he blinked, and Lyra was seized by sudden panic. But his eyes traveled through her down the length of carpet.
Of course. He wouldn’t think to check her or look in her pockets. They thought she wasn’t capable of it. Too dumb to lie. Too dumb to plan.
Lyra followed the girl back to the empty office, taking a seat quietly as the girl tried, and failed, to make the key work. She made a face when she saw the gum jamming the lock. “I don’tbelieveit,” she said. Suspicion tightened her face. “Did you do this?”
“Do what?” Lyra asked stupidly.
The girl rolled her eyes. “Worst night ever. Just stay here.”
Lyra nodded, dozy as an animal.
She counted the girl’s footsteps until the carpet had absorbed them completely.
She stood up, steadying herself against the wall. She had to be careful, to stay clear of any holes that might grab her.
For the moment, the hall was clear. She went quickly, scanning for hiding spots, checking door handles lightly with her fingers, looking for open offices. She ducked into the bathroom again when she heard voices, but the sound of a closing door quieted them. They had gone into an office, whoever they were.
