David Trevellyan 03 -More Harm Than Good by Andrew Grant

her
hair.
            She invited me back to
her room while she worked, but again I declined. Admin’s bad enough when it’s
your own. She’d already shown herself to be too smart to give anything away in
front of me, even if she was tainted. And the stakes were too high to waste
time going through the motions, or trailing other people around like a nursemaid. Instead, I needed the chance to weigh up
what I’d learned, see what was missing, and figure out what to do about it.
            We
agreed to meet at 6.00pm, assuming everything went smoothly, and take stock
again then. It was just after 3.00pm, so that gave me almost three hours. I
thought about staying in the garden, but the rain had grown heavier and there’s
no fun in getting wet on your own. The coffee I’d had in the canteen was
surprisingly reasonable so I thought about going there, but in the end I just
made my way back to my room. I slipped off my new boots, then picked up the
remote control and flopped down on the bed.
            The TV came back on to
the same channel I’d been watching yesterday, but somehow I couldn’t make
myself concentrate on the show. My thoughts kept homing in on Melissa. I
pictured her six rooms across from me, one floor below, phone pressed to her
ear, taking care of business. Yesterday, I had no idea who she was. Today, it
was down to me whether she kept her job or went to jail. I was starting to like
her, and she certainly came across as honest. But in our business, I knew those
things count for nothing.
            Most of what Melissa had
told me down in the basement made sense, but I still wondered what the
inspection team was going to say in the morning. And if the inventory checked
out, whether she’d be happy. I knew I wouldn’t be, if I was in her shoes. The fact that no caesium was missing
wouldn’t prove there hadn’t been an attempt to steal some, however inept. So
whatever she learned tomorrow - theft or no theft - Melissa would have some
work to do. Her only way out was to prove that the armoured door had been damaged by a fireman , and
that he’d done it by mistake.
            I switched off the TV
and made for the door. The basement was calling me back. Because it struck me
that Melissa had focused on two factors - the human elements, and the
technology. She had those well covered. But there was another angle to
consider. Logistics. I didn’t know much about caesium ,
but clearly it was a volatile substance. You couldn’t just pick some up and
walk away with it, even if you could get into the vault. Which meant you’d need
special clothing, to handle it. Maybe something to transport the containers
she’d mentioned, depending on their size.   And you’d need an escape route. Getting inside the hospital under cover
of the fire alarm was one thing, but getting out again with such volatile loot
was another.
            The next two hours were
lost underground. I must have walked at least two miles without setting foot
outside even once. It was stifling, and the whole time I couldn’t shake the
thought that during the cold war, people actually believed they could live like
that for years at a time. Every time I passed the junction of the four
corridors I was tempted to jump in the lift, head up to ground level and grab a
breath of fresh air. But I resisted. I stuck to the task at hand, and in the
end I was glad I did. Because the hospital may have looked picturesque from the
outside, but it was in the basement where it really became interesting.
            The swimming pool was my
first port of call, but I spent more time in the machine room that lay behind
it. There were dozens of drums of chemicals stored there, bristling with
toxicity warnings, which would have been heaven for anyone with a mind to cause
trouble. I found three boiler rooms. Each had miles of inviting, vulnerable
pipework, which would be a gift for anyone wanting to cause a diversion. There
were four