Chapter 68About Simple Steps

We looked at the boy as he walked past. There was something odd about him, his movements. He walked more like a robot than a kid. Sure of his direction but not sure of his body. Sleepwalking? His eyes were open though. All this went through my mind as I saw him walking off the stairs. He walked past us while we hid in the shadows though I had a feeling he knew we were there. Just as he had known in the circle.

Had he been drugged again? Or did his dreams simply lead him.

He walked to the door leading into the server room and typed in a code. The door went open and the camera light shut down. I wondered why. The boy walked back up the stairs, his eyes not even glancing at us, and left us in silence.

What just happened?

Kai looked as surprised as I was, but we didn't dare say anything. Someone else patrolling might still hear us. We aimed to find out though.

The server room wasn't that big, but quite high tech for a supposedly simple place like this. It had only one server-rack and a desk next to it. Next to it perhaps a backup system of some sorts. I wasn't sure as I had never seen it before. The air was on the cool side but not unpleasant.

We went inside and found a terminal and a place to plug in for Kai. Somehow I had the feeling Isabel was part of this, yet I couldn't really discern how. I let the thought pass. Kai logged in after a while. Too easy almost, I mean, the owner was using his wife's name as a password. That's not even trying.

Kai smiled at me silently as he made his way through the network. Every passing second I thought we might be captured. Every key-press by Kai seemed to echo loudly and reverberate through the room. But it was all alright. Until I heard Kai gasp. I looked at his screen, wondering what made him gasp.

Some diagrams... Test results... Experiments...

Wait... hold on.

I started to read again. An experimental drug to strengthen dreams and keep someone in a sort of waking dream. It gave you powerful visions but only for a very short time. Based on a substance in the human body that it uses to dream, mixed with another drug to keep them awake. It was really disconcerting to see they did their test on young children.

Children... Isabel.

I poked Kai and mouthed 'Isabel' to him. He nodded in understanding and went through the filed of children current and past in the orphanage. It didn't take him long to find her either. And... Irony... The boy who helped us was her little brother. But where did they come from?

We continued our browsing when we heard steps coming down the stairs again. This time they were heavier, and hard soles too. Definitely not a child. I looked around and noticed we could hide next to the server rack if we closed the door quickly. I didn't see the code the boy keyed in though, so we wouldn't be able to get out.

Kai nodded to me to close the door. I guess he had a plan. We hid next to the server-rack where we would be out of view unless someone sat down at the terminal. Kay kept his laptop linked so he could continue, pressing the keys only very softly to make sure they were not heard. Somewhere I hoped he was looking for the code to get out of here.

We heard the footsteps outside, no glass to see anything so we had to guess by sound. He stopped and I held my breath. We still sat there, as silent as humanly possible.

The man left and I looked at Kai. He was smiling, he pointed to the screen. I was expecting him to show me the code to leave the room, but he had something far better. It was Isabel's and the boys parents... But I had seen them before. The gypsies. They had aged, as the children had been here for four years. Stolen? But I was sure.

It was the woman who warned me... apparently for her own daughter.

The Gypsy seer.