The Sandman

155

Anders is thinking that My looked slightly bemused when he told her she could get some sleep in the rest-room again.

‘I just can’t see any reason for us both to be awake,’ he said in a measured voice. ‘I don’t have any choice, I’ve got to do a couple more hours’ work to get finished. After that you and Leif can divide things up however you like.’

Now he’s alone. He walks down the corridor, stops outside the door to the rest-room and listens.

Silence.

He carries on to the security control room and sits down in the operator’s seat. At last it’s time to turn the lights out. The large screen is showing nine different scenes. Jurek went to bed early. Anders can see his thin frame outlined beneath the covers. Jurek Walter is lying unnervingly still. It’s almost as if he isn’t breathing. Saga is sitting with her feet on the ground. Her chair is on its side on the floor.

He leans closer to the screen and looks at her. His eyes follow the outline of her shaved head, her slender neck and shoulders, the muscles in her thin arms.

There’s nothing to stop him.

He can’t understand why he got so scared last night when he was in her room. There was no one at the monitors, and even if there had been, the room was so dark that they wouldn’t have seen anything.

He could have slept with her ten times, he could have done whatever he wanted.

Anders takes a deep breath, inserts his ID card into the computer, types the code and logs in. He opens the unit’s administrative programme, highlights the patients’ zone and clicks on nocturnal lighting.

All three patients’ rooms go black.

Seconds later Saga turns on her bedside lamp and lifts her face up towards the camera.

It’s as if she’s looking at him because she knows he’s looking at her.

Anders checks on the two guards; they’re standing talking to each other by the entrance. The male one is saying something that makes the tall female guard laugh – he’s smiling as he mimes playing a violin.

Anders stands up and looks at Saga again.

He gets a pill from the medicine store and puts it in a plastic cup, goes over to the security door and runs his card through the reader.

As he approaches her door his heart starts thumping hard. Through the thick glass he can see her sitting on her bed with her eyes fixed on the camera, as if she were a little mermaid.

Anders opens the hatch and sees her turn her head in his direction. She gets to her feet and walks slowly towards him.

‘Did you sleep well last night?’ he asks in a friendly voice.

When she reaches her hand through the hatch he holds her fingers for a few moments before giving her the plastic cup.

He closes the hatch and sees her walk back into the room. She puts the pill in her mouth, fills the cup with water and swallows it, then turns out the lamp by the bed and lies down.

Anders goes and gets the straps that fit the bed, removes the plastic covering and then stands outside the steel door watching her through the reinforced glass.