Chapter 16
They now had a few thousand in cash between them but it was not going to last them long if they were not very careful. They decided that they would invest some of their money in good jackets and walking shoes and walked into Salisbury to Mountain Warehouse where they made their purchases. It was a good hike to the hospital and they arrived there at midday. The security was very tight. High fences, security cameras and a guard house looking after the barrier to the only entrance to the facility. The two of them walked some of the perimeter making notes on the CCTV installations and other security protection. They knew they would look suspicious if they walked right round the facility and so they decided to try and do it in bits by doing separate segments over several days. How they wished they could use a drone.
They made it back to their lodgings feeling quite tired and most certainly wet and in need of a change. Haggie had left them a message using the dark web which is far less regulated and more difficult to track. He didn’t say where he was but the stream coming in on a live feed was of the same facility, they had just been screening – he was flying a drone around the perimeter. Haggie was in Salisbury! The drone was in infra-red mode, but that soon changed when the whole site lit up like a Christmas tree. A spotlight caught the drone in its beam and it ducked and dived taking valuable images as it did so. Then blackness.
They had their supper in the Lodge because it was cheap and (it had to be said) extremely tasty. They kept their talking to a minimum, because there were a few guests who were eating in that night. The two of them were eager to examine the security of the hospital in greater detail and to come up with a plan of how to get in without being detected.
There were too many security features to disable on their own, so it was decided that they might be able to get in if they could pose as cleaners or maintenance workers. They talked to their server who was a young, pretty girl who was working nights to help pay for her college education at the College.
It seemed that the very menial tasks like toilet cleaning and floor maintenance were carried out be a team of casual labourers managed by a very small local firm who paid badly and treated their workers with little respect. They were continually recruiting and always had vacancies. A van used to leave from the Square at midnight every day to go to the facility and picked up at 008.00 the next morning. The screening requested by the hospital was at best a few ticks on a questionnaire that took less than a minute to complete. A quick photo, a few clicks on the computer and a security badge was produced in minutes.
The supervisor was very quick to explain the rules “no talking, no noise, no main lights are to be put on. The wards have a low-level lighting system that is just about enough to see where you are going. Use the red and blue plastic buckets, blue to apply clean disinfected cleaning water and the red to wipe off and squeeze dry. Start from the far end and work your way to the door. What you see in the hospital stays in the hospital. You new chaps are doing Nightingale ward first then the corridors on floors 1 and 2, with all the toilet blocks. There are doors on the second floor that are secure and you are not to clean in there. All computer stuff and very sensitive. They’re clearly marked and your passes won’t open those doors anyway cos you ain’t got clearance.” Said Vic the boss man (as he liked to be known).
The mini bus contained six of them and the security guard was efficient at checking passes. Julian and Hank were more than nervous that they might be recognised and despite their efforts to improve control, they both felt a warmth in their disposable nappies.
Nightingale ward was next to the sluice room where they picked up their mops and buckets, Julian made up the cleansing solutions while Hank loaded the trolley with rags, dusters, surface cleaners and other cleansing products. He fitted a large plastic bag to the end of the trolley to contain any rubbish that might have been in the bins. Medical waste was not their responsibility and was handled by the staff.
Julian opened the door to the ward. Horror was his first reaction. In the ward were thirty beds laid along each side of the ward with a desk in the centre at which sat a nurse wearing a dark blue uniform. Her desk was illuminated by a green shaded nightlight on top of which stood a large panel with thirty sets of lights all showing green. She raised her finger to her lips to sign that they should be very quiet.
All the beds were identical. Hank took a duster and started to wipe the rails of the adult sized cot which was constructed from stainless steel. Lying on his back was a young man clothed in a blue onesie that bulged from the large bulky nappy that he was dressed in. A bib was round his neck and the figure suc-ked passionately on a substantial dummy that was attached to his bib by a ribbon that was secured with a nappy pin. On the bedside table was a substantial stack of fluffy terry nappies with a shelf beneath that was stacked with plastic pants. A woollen cellular blanket had been kicked aside. On his head he wore a woollen baby bonnet with a small blinking light into which a loom of wires disappeared. The side of the bonnet had small bulges over each ear where he presumed a small set of headphones were concealed. Over the headboard of the cot was a large flat screen display filled with moving signals that showed his cerebral activity. A circular pie chart on the display showed various sectors of brain activity. He carefully cleaned the screen with a window cleaning solution and finished off with a clean duster to leave the screen spotless.
On the foot of the cot was a simple box with two green lights. He cleaned these carefully, noting that a pair of wires led between the legs of the patient. Suddenly, one of the lights changed from green to red. Hank was startled, fearing he had disturbed something. He stood back as the nurse rushed over and signalling him to move away grabbed a clean nappy off the pile and took a caddy that contained her cleaning kit. She had the poppers opened and the wet nappy and plastic pants removed in a trice. The man was totally clean shaven and his skin was as smooth as a baby’s. His masculinity was decidedly small and Hank could see that he had received recent surgical procedures in that area as the scarring looked recent. A sensor was glued to a spot by his pen-is and another was attached to his bottom, they looked permanent. The nurse pushed a button on the side of the cot and the mattress change its shape to lift him so that she could slip a new, clean nappy beneath him. He was creamed and powdered, the new nappy tugged between his legs and firmly secured on each side with large nappy pins, before a large pair of crinkly plastic pants being threaded over his feet and pulled into place. The patient mumbled “Nana” from behind his dummy and resumed his intense suc-kling. A line of signals peaked as his nappy was being changed and Jake thought he could detect some sounds coming from the bonnet, was it? “Good baba” he could had sworn he heard some sort of infantile gobbledegook.
Julian watched mesmerised, but was pulled out of this state by the nurse hissing at him to get on with his work. He moved on to the next cot and began to carefully clean the screen. He noticed that the number on the corner was one less than the previous cot and was number “124”. He knew that there were five wards to be cleaned, so the potential number of patients was 150. This baby was dressed in pink and looking at the bulge in her chest region was a woman. Her head was turned to the side and he was shocked to see that some sort of cranial implant was transmitting signals via Bluetooth to a central receiver. She too had a bonnet connected to a huge array of fibres. Apart from their gender differences this poor soul was identical to all the others in the ward. Her mind emptied of all thoughts, reduced to the simplicity of a baby that eats, sleeps, wets, and soils their nappy but denied any mental stimulus except the soft caress of their environment. There was no noise, no light, just the occasional reassuring baby babble to sooth away any mental spikes. A brain that had been drained to leave a vast capacity that could be filled with the neural network and traffic of their kidnappers.
As he was staring at her from the other side of the cot, where he was cleaning the changing cabinet, he recoiled in surprise as the ‘she baby’ opened her eyes. Not slowly, like one coming out of a natural sleep, but with a jerk as if a switch had been pulled. The brain signals were going mad, with huge spikes. The two green lights at the foot of the bed went red. The baby started to convulse and jerk in her cot. The screen showed a large “ALERT” in a central display box and was making a shallow beeping sound.
The nurse physically pushed him out the way and two men in white coats came rushing in with a crash cart or something that looked similar.
“It wasn’t me” said Julian “I was just cleaning the cabinet and she just started to spasm.”
“You and the other cleaner must go” ordered the nurse “come back when all the toilets have been cleaned. Not your fault,” she added with a little compassion.
Hank and Julian made their way to the main doors and as they were passing into the corridor a woman dressed as a Matron almost collided with them. Julian wet himself in total fear. He could have sworn he had just seen Elizabeth Bridger. There was a very brief moment, when the two made eye to eye contact.
TBC
Happy New Year
I will do my best to write more soon. I hope you are enjoying this story as it is one of my favourite story lines.
Topic: City Slicker (Read 18061 times)
