att(pirated)

"So that's it? Mr Marcus was weird, and got kicked out?"

"Mr Marcus wanted to take one of us. For some research, or experiment, or something horrible. I think that goes a bit beyond just being weird." I sighed, and looked over at Anders, wishing that he'd take the situation a bit more seriously.

I'd volunteered the pair of us to tend to the plants in the mansion's garden, specifically so that we could talk privately about what I'd overheard a few days ago. I'd already told Valerie, as she'd asked after lights out why I went up to the library rather than heading right back to the recreation room, and she'd gotten pretty scared at the news. I then told Jonah in one of our private one-on-one sessions, with him simply accepting the information without any fuss. The only person who I'd had any trouble with so far had been Christine, who'd rather forcefully denied that Lord Henry had any nefarious intentions for us, and had instead pushed all the blame for the incident onto Mr Marcus. That left only Anders, and he also wasn't taking this as seriously as I would have liked.

If the Scandinavian boy was worried about what I'd told him, he did a masterful job of hiding it. Instead, he simply busied himself with cutting down on the mansion's population of weeds with his bare hands. "Ok, so he wanted to take one of us away. But Lord Henry turned him down, and kicked him out, right?"

"Right, but that's not the point. The point is that Lord Henry wasn't shocked by the whole thing. He only kicked Mr. Marcus out when he said that he wanted one of us for research, not before that." I highlighted the point that I was most concerned about as I reached into one of the bushes, and carefully pruned one of the plants. I had no idea what it was, but Christine had already told me to cut off the discolored bits, so that's what I was doing while me and Anders talked. "Lord Henry didn't have any problems up until Marcus brought up his work. He only stopped the conversation after that."

"So?" Anders asked. Unlike me, he was simply ripping weeds out of the soil and depositing them into a small basket for disposal. His work was simpler, but far dirtier than what I was doing. As evidenced by the layer of soil and grime over his hands.

"So, he had no problems with getting rid of us before then. So what's to say that he won't do it in the future if someone else asks? Or if they offer him something that he wants more than one of us?" I voiced the question that had been worrying me for the past few days. Sure, Lord Henry might have declined to hand one of us over to Marcus, but what's to say that he couldn't be bought eventually?

"Ok. But it sounds like Lord Henry thought that Mr Marcus was nicer than he actually was. From what you told me, it sounds like they were friends. I don't think some of the other adults told him what they knew about Mr. Marcus." Anders suggested, and it matched with what I'd overheard at face value. But that was quickly shoved to the back of my mind as I processed the last part of Anders' sentence.

"What do you mean? Some of the other adults knew that Marcus was bad?" I homed in on the little bit of information that Anders had let slip, barely paying attention to my pruning job as I refocused my attention to this new snippet of information.

Anders shrugged, or simply rolled his shoulders. I couldn't really tell from the angle. "I heard Ms. Anderson talking about how she used to work for Mr. Marcus. It sounded bad."

I raised an eyebrow at Anders, and repeated the last word. "Bad?"

"Bad. She didn't say what happened but… you know when someone doesn't want to say something? She was doing that to the other adults." Anders said, and I sort of understood what he was getting at. Ms Anderson had probably danced around the topic until the other handlers -or whoever else she'd been talking with- had finally gotten the message and had dropped the line of questioning.

And for a second, our conversation also died as I wracked my brain for things that could have been brought up in both conversations. Unfortunately, I had to hedge my bets on the only incident that I knew about, and hope that it had also been brought up. "Did she mention something that happened in seventy eight?"

"Yeah, she did. Why?" Anders asked, looking over at me with a slightly confused expression.

"Lord Henry mentioned that there was an incident in that year which caused a lot of people who used to work for Mr Marcus to leave. Apparently a few of them ended up working here, so she might be one of them." I replied with a smile. It was a slightly forced one, given the topic, but at least we were on the right track.

This time, it was Anders' turn to go quiet as he thought back to what he knew about the topic. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long before he came up with something that we could work with. "Well, she didn't say a lot. But she did mention that she had some stuff from her time with him up in her room. Do you think that we might find some hints in there?"

"I don't think that it will be very easy for us to go and have a look. Ludmila doesn't like it when I wander off." I pointed out as I went back to work. Unfortunately, while I'd been able to avoid getting reprimanded for disappearing from the recreation room, that didn't mean that there hadn't been consequences. The most obvious one was that I'd missed out on desert for a few days as a punishment, but another one was that Ludmila was keeping a closer eye on where I was. She wasn't hovering over my shoulder, like Jonah's handler, but I couldn't just disappear like that anymore.

At that, Anders simply held up his muddy hands, and wiped them on his shirt and trousers as he smiled at me. "I need to go wash my hands, and I need to change. So I need to go up to my room, and Ms Anderson's room is only a bit down the hall from my room. If I'm quick I can probably pick the lock and get in before anyone notices."

"You can pick locks?" I asked as I raised my eyebrow at my Scandinavian friend. I'd thought that I was the only one who was keeping their cards close to their chest, but this was the first time I'd heard about this particular skill of his.

"Papa told me how to do it. He said that it was an important skill for people 'in his line of work,' whatever that meant." Anders replied, even as his smile faltered at the memory. I didn't press the line of questioning any further, but I added him to my internal list of fellow candidates who'd once had families. It wasn't a long list, but it was one to keep in mind.

"Ok, you can get inside. But how am I meant to keep them distracted?" I diverted the conversation to my side of the plan. Anders getting in was one thing, but if he was going to have enough time to properly search the room then I needed to keep as many people distracted as possible.

Anders was quiet for a few seconds as he considered the options, before finally suggesting possibly the one thing that I would have preferred that he'd ignore. "You could always sing to them? Ludmila said that you had a nice voice, and there's a singing contest right now. You could distract them with how good you are!"

"Anders I swear-" I began, only for my friend to jump up and start running back towards the mansion.

"Have fun!" He called back over his shoulder, laughing as he went. I would have cursed after him, but my better sense forced my voice to a low mutter so that nobody could hear my colorful reaction to being essentially forced into performing.

Singing was one of those few skills that I'd retained, but I'd never managed to use properly. It wasn't because I wasn't good at it, in fact I was great at it. But after the war, I'd never found an opportunity to use it to make money, and during the war I'd only ever used it during the Raid on Moskova. And that had backfired completely thanks to that psycho Loria, and his weird obsession with the girl who'd just turned half the capitol into a flaming ruin. I shunted the unpleasant memory out of my mind before it had a chance to ruin my mood any further. That was a memory best left to rot.

Most of the other children were inside, loitering in the rec room rather than rampaging outside. The chilly autumn weather, and the forecast of rain later today, dissuaded most of them from going outside. Like usual, the children had divided themselves up into little groups. I saw Valerie and Jonah sat together, the former teaching the latter something from a thick textbook. Christine wasn't in the room, though given what I knew about here she was probably in one of the study rooms.

Ludmila was already waiting by the door, and she smiled as I approached. I took a moment to drop off the collected weeds and garden waste into a small bin by the door, and by the time I was done the older woman had opened the door, and greeted me. "Ah, there you are. How did you find gardening?"

"It was nice, but Anders got all muddy." I shrugged as I stepped inside. Anders had run completely past her, tracking dirt into the room and the mansion as a whole, creating a mess for the cleaners to deal with.

"Oh well, boys will be boys." My handler chuckled as she took my jacket, and put it up on one of the waiting hangers. Once my shoes were off, she took them and put them into a nearby shoe rack, before turning back to me. "So, what do you want to do now?"

"I think…" I trailed off, acting as if I was deep in thought, even though I'd already made up my mind. I carefully looked across the room, before settling my gaze on a small podium, where a couple of the children were attempting to sing. I looked at the display for a few seconds, as if I was conflicted on if I wanted to

"Do you want to try singing, Tanya?" Ludmila asked after she followed my gaze to the singing area. She'd fallen for the first bit, so now I just needed to sell the act.

"I don't know. I don't think I'd be good at it." I continued the conflicted act. Of course, I knew damn well that I'd be good at it. This body was essentially the same as the one from my last life, just without as severe malnutrition. But I needed to act as if I was convinced to sing, rather than just deciding to do it. If I just jumped right into singing, and then Anders was caught trying to steal something, then it would be easy to infer that I'd tried to cover for him by getting everyone's attention by singing. And if that worst-case scenario came to pass, then I wanted to have as many degrees of separation as possible.

"I think you'd do a lot better than them, if that's what you're worried about." Ludmila lent in and whispered to me, keeping her voice low so that nobody heard her criticizing the other children in order to make me feel better. She let the words hang for a second, before returning to her normal posture, and speaking normally. "You've very good at singing when you sing from your heart. Just sing that song that I taught you, and I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Are you sure? We don't sing it in English, and I'm not sure how well it will sound when I translate it for everyone." I replied with genuine hesitance. Ludmila taught me the Russian version of a Polish folk song over the past year or so, and while I was confident enough in my understanding of both Russian and English to translate it, I wasn't sure about how well it would sound.

But even if I wasn't confident in my abilities, Ludmila certainly was. And that was something she showed with a reassuring pat on the shoulder and some encouraging words. "Then give it your best shot. It might not be perfect, but I know that you can do it."

"Ok… if you think I can do it, then I'll try it." I reluctantly did as Ludmila asked. Or rather, I acted as if I was unwilling to do it after waiting for a few seconds to sell the act.

Ludmila led me over to the little stage, and we waited for a minute or so while the boy on the stage finished his butchered rendition of some western pop song. While I should have been using the time to go over the lyrics to the folk song in my head and rehearsing it in my mind, I instead ran off the internal clock in my head. By now, Anders should have made it up to his room and changed. So he'd only have a few minutes to search the Head Handler's room, locate whatever information she had on the Doctor, and get out.

As soon as the other boy was done, I walked up onto the stage. I exhaled and let the tension drain away. It was all up to me now.

God, I'd feel more comfortable in someone's gunsights right now, rather than doing this sappy shit.

I waited until Ludmila gave me a reassuring nod, before starting to sing. The song, Hej Sokoly, -or 'Hey Falcons' in English- was a song about a Ukrainian cossack who went off to war and died in the fighting. Leaving behind not only his 'girl,' but also his homeland. It was a bit of a weird topic for a Polish folk song, but the fact that there was also a Russian translation probably meant that it was fairly popular across that stretch of Eastern Europe. It wasn't a perfect performance. There were a few times when I used the wrong words, or points in the song that didn't come across well when directly translated into English. But the soft and emotional melody carried fairly well across the room, captivating the audience to the point that nobody other than me noticed when Anders slipped back into the room, carrying a book of some kind. I had to assume that he'd found what he was looking for, but I'd have to check once I was done.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long to finish the song. I did a little curtsey at the end, as a few of the people in the room applauded my performance. But my real attention was on Anders, as he slipped outside again, probably in search of a more private place to inspect his prize. I would have joined him immediately, if it wasn't for the fact that I was intercepted almost the moment I stepped off the little stage.

"That was beautiful, Tanya. You really do have a gift for singing." Ludmila congratulated me as she enfolded me in a warm hug. An initial reward for my efforts, before offering another. "I think you've earned a reward for doing that, no? I think there are some sweet things in the pantry that nobody would notice going missing."

"That sounds good…" I nodded, before swooning a little bit as I returned the hug, a little bit of a performance to sell my excuse for going back outside. "But can I go outside first? I feel a bit lightheaded, some fresh air could be nice."

Thankfully, Ludmila fell for the act, and gave me a reassuring pat on the head as she allowed me to leave. "Allright. But I don't think I'll be able to sneak you in if you stay out there for too long, ok?"

"Ok, I won't forget!" I smiled up at my handler as she let me go, before moving past her and making my way to the door, and heading outside to find my partner in crime.

It didn't take long to find Anders, he'd made his way over to the small seating area in the middle of the garden, and was sitting there with a book in his lap. From a distance, it looked like some dry book on chemistry. But that was simply the cover he'd stolen to cover the diary he'd pilfered from the head handler's room. Of course, once you got close enough it became obvious. Afterall, who prints a book in clean cursive handwriting rather than block text?

"What did you find?" I asked as I sat down next to my friendly thief. Anders jumped a bit at my unexpected arrival, but he smiled when he recognised me, and gestured down to the book in his hands.

"I found this. Have a look at this one." Anders said in a boastful tone as he practically dropped the diary into my lap. He'd opened the book to its last entry, which wasn't a good place to start, but as I read through the entry, I started to get a good idea about why he'd chosen to start from the end.

29th of July, 1978

We just received word from the head office. They've finally got off their asses, and they're going to shut down this nightmare. I thank God that they've finally decided to do something, for I wonder about what might have happened to me and the others if Doctor Marcus had shifted his attention to us, rather than inflicting his twisted games on the people here. We did what we could for as many of the children as possible. But a few are missing, and we can't find them. I don't know what happened to Dennis, Sammy Clarke, or that Keith boy. I pray that they're safe, even if…

The page was spotted for a few lines, causing the ink to run and the words to mix together so badly that I couldn't make anything out. I ignored that section, and continued from the next words that were legible.

…that God will understand what happened. I pray that the families will forgive us. And I pray that Doctor Marcus burns for what he did. I don't know what it was, but the noises from the basement will haunt me for the rest of my life. Is this what father heard in Dachau? When he arrived there with the medical teams? If he were alive, he'd curse me for my inaction, but what could I have done?

What could I have done?

I peeled the preceding page back, hoping to find out what had happened earlier, only to find that almost all of the pages before it had been torn out. The only entry I could find after the mass of missing pages was nearly a year earlier, apparently on the eve of Ms. Anderson's assignment to the Executive Training School. I could pull some valuable details from the entries, like how the incident had happened at an 'Executive Training School' located in somewhere called 'Arklay County.' But the most striking thing that jumped out at me was the almost night-and-day difference between the two entries. In that first entry, she'd expressed admiration for the Doctor and the prestige of teaching the next generation. In the last one, she compared what he did to one of the Reich's worst murder camps, and wanted nothing more than to see him burn for it.

Well, it certainly made me happy that Lord Henry hadn't sent me off with the Doctor, but how the hell had he missed this? Surely something like this should have led to a major criminal case? At the very least there would have been an investigation if it was even half as bad as Ms. Anderson was implying. How the hell could the Lord have missed this?

Or, what if he had known? What if he-

"And have a look at this!" Anders said as he shoved a sheet of paper in front of my face, rudely interrupting my train of thought. It was a list of locations, items, and random notes for each entry. It was both simple in its layout, and utterly incomprehensible from the lack of information. It was as if the writer had created each entry purely as a reminder for people who already knew what was being referred to, rather than for people who were new to the document, like us.

1F West Corridor. Armor Signet. Activate in order of age.

1F Staff Bar. Range Backdoor. Play sheet 3F.

2F Mezenne. External Entrance Cover. Activate both switches simultaneously.

East Wing Study Room 3. Double Key #1. Match to indentations.

Garden. Sundial. Double Key #2. Follow the guide.

2F Library. Spare Insignia. Eagle and Wolf.

"Wait."

East Wing Study Room 3. Double Key #1. Match to indentations.

"I recognise this one." I said as pointed to the offending entry, a horrible feeling settling into my gut as I recalled that day. "I found this one on the night Jonah ran away. It's a rock puzzle in one of the study rooms. I have the key up in my room."

"Really? That's great! We've got a head start." Anders gave me a reassuring thump on the back, though I didn't share his enthusiasm. While he probably saw a fun treasure hunt, I just saw another layer of pointless mystery and intrigue.

"Not really. We don't have the other part, and we don't know where the key goes." I replied with a barely suppressed groan. Finding the other part of the key wouldn't be too hard, thanks to the handy list. But it certainly would be difficult to find where the hell they went. Not to mention that we'd have to find it, sneak in, and search the location all without anyone noticing that we'd disappeared.

But while I despaired at how difficult any future progress would be, Anders was fully treating it like a game, and was completely focused on solving whatever puzzle was next. "Well let's solve that one right now. Where's the other part?"

"According to this, it should be right over there." I said, nodding towards the sundial in the middle of the garden. Almost instantly, Anders jumped up, and made his way over to the sundial. I quickly shoved the sheet of paper between the pages of the diary, before following behind him.

The sundial, a large thing of stone and wrought iron, certainly looked old. The stonework was chipped and mossy in a few areas, and the iron was weathered and slightly rusted. Which meant that it was either a genuinely ancient relic, or it was a well crafted ruse. The trio of bullet holes in one side of the item certainly indicated the former, though I couldn't discount the latter. Either way, it certainly looked convincing. If it wasn't for the heads up, then I probably would have ignored it entirely.

"Have a look at this." Anders called my attention to the other side of the sundial, where a small brass plate had been embedded in the side of the sundial. The plate was even more worn than the rest of the sundial, but after wiping off some of the grime I was able to make out the words.

When night yields to the morning's grace,

And again when the stars embrace.

With each new dawn our fate renewes,

But midday holds the key to choose.

We close our eyes when the light departs,

And awake when the day again restarts.

"You know, I think we probably would have picked up on this if the rest of the mansion also wasn't so weird." I idly commented as I finished reading the inscription on the plaque. Unfortunately, the whole damn mansion was so weird that hints like this could hide in plain sight. That, or the other kids had missed it entirely. I kinda hoped for the former, if only to make myself feel better.

"The middle bit is pretty loose. Do you think it has something to do with the puzzle?" Anders asked, gesturing to the dull metal blade in the middle of the sundial. The part of the dial which cast the shadow that was used for telling the time.

"It looks like it's only connected at the corner, so maybe you can turn it?" I suggested, and Anders lent over almost instantly and twisted the hunk of metal. And sure enough, the central spike turned a few degrees and held in place, before slowly returning to its original orientation.

"So that's one part. So now we just need to figure out what the code is. And it's probably something to do with these weird lines. The third line already mentions midday, so that's gonna be the middle line, right?"

"Right, and the first, third, and last lines could refer to the start of the day. So that would be the far-left line. That just leaves the second and fifth lines. Wanna bet that they're referring to the end of the day?"" I replied, filling out the rest of the information with some basic reasoning. Like the puzzle in the study room, it wasn't too hard to figure out. If anything, the bulk of the challenge lay in realizing that the puzzle was there in the first place.

"Dad said not to bet on obvious things like that." Anders smiled, before cocking his head back towards the spike. "Want me to give it a shot?"

"Go ahead. The sequence should be dawn, dusk, dawn, midday, dusk, and dawn." I said, reading out the sequence as Anders turned the angled hunk of metal. As soon as he turned it all the way to the left, there was a light click as some internal mechanism was tripped. The Scandinavian boy paused for a second, before continuing to manipulate the L-shaped piece of metal like the dial on a safe. As soon as Anders entered the final part of the combination, there was the sound of something heavy being disengaged, and the brass plaque swung away from the body of the sundial, revealing another hidden compartment.

A compartment which was empty aside from a small scrap of paper. I frowned as I pulled the paper out, and read the two lines on the paper.

I.O.U

-Christine

"Hey! Did you find it?" Anders asked as he rushed over, letting the central piece of the sundial twist back into its original position.

"No, but Christine did." I grumbled as I handed the IOU over to my accomplice. I wasn't happy for a number of reasons, from how I'd encountered another secret at this mansion, to how my little singing act had ultimately been for nothing. But the thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was the fact that it had been Christine who'd found the other half of my hey. Which in turn raised a whole host of other questions that I didn't like any of the answers to.

"Huh, I wonder why she didn't tell us about it." Anders asked as he handed the IOU note back to me. I could have said something, but I felt that both of us had already come to the same conclusion.

Around here, sometimes keeping a secret was the best way to stay safe.