From The WICKED Start | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

22. Janson's office

Janson had left the building.
I nodded quickly and then turned to Thomas.
"You don't tell Teresa what you just heard and tell her you took me to my room, okay? I'll explain everything to you soon."
He looked at me with his mouth open, but nodded.
So I left him and literally ran towards the sports department, Rachel, still panting, behind me.
"Where did you get this condition? You only worked with children," she asked me, gasping for air as we stood in the lift.
I just shrugged my shoulders and ran on as soon as we reached the right level.
Finally I could see the sports and health department after we turned a corner and tried to walk through the door as slowly and calmly as possible.
Once inside, I looked around. I couldn't see Minho, but Ben was running on a treadmill and seemed quite motivated. I quickly crossed the room until I reached him.
"Ben..." I was a little out of breath, too.
"What are you doing here?" he asked as he looked at me first and then at the completely breathless Rachel, who had just sat down on the edge of another treadmill.
"I'm looking for Minho. Have you seen him?" I asked, as disinterested as I could.
Ben raised an eyebrow. "He's being examined. What do you want with him this time?"
"I'm looking for... Janson sent me to get him. Something about his results," I lied to his face, hoping he wouldn't notice.
"Okay, um... He should be done soon, Paige is just finishing up with him. What about his results?"
"Oh, I really have no idea, Ben. Janson just sent me to get him."
Please don't see through me. I don't want you to get involved.
But Ben nodded understandingly and then concentrated fully on his treadmill again.
I told Rachel to get up.
"Well, we'll just wait outside. See you, Ben." So we left the room.
I hope he really didn't notice anything. If I were him, I would have wondered what Rachel had to do with all this. But then we could still have said that she was  just off today, which wouldn't have been a lie.
So we waited outside the front door and sat with our backs against the wall. In the meantime, Rachel's breathing had also calmed down again and we kept silent for fear that someone might hear us.
After a few minutes, which seemed like hours, Minho came through the door and looked around searching. When he spotted us on the floor, he held out a hand to help me up.
"Ben says you should get me because Janson sent you, but I assume that Janson isn't in the building at all?"
I nodded.
"How long will he be gone?"
Questioningly, I looked at Rachel, who had also got up.
"Not long. Maybe by tonight. And he won't be gone for long either. Paige thinks she needs him here. I only noticed all this because I accompanied Aris to his new job and Janson told one of the employees."
I looked from her to Minho again.
"That sounds like little time. Can we do it, Anna?" Minho looked at me.
I nodded. "We have to." I thought for a moment and then I continued. "Okay. Rachel, I need you to find out what level Janson's office is on. Then get to my room as fast as you can. Minho, you come with me and we'll try to find the best way through the shafts. If Janson's office is not on our floor, we have to find a way from the ladder shaft to the offices.
So let's go, we really shouldn't waste time if Rachel is right and he wants to be back tonight."
The other two nodded and we split up. Minho and I ran to the bedrooms and Rachel went to look for a plan of the building.
As we ran next to each other, Minho looked at me from the side. "You're doing really well, you know that?"
I laughed. "Must be natural, huh?"
"How are you doing? Did you get a chance to say goodbye?"
Immediately my smile disappeared and I nodded. "Yes, I did."
We walked on in silence until we reached my room. I quickly opened it and Minho closed the door behind us.
Without a word I climbed onto my bed, opened the flap and took out the plan. I spread it out on the floor and we sat around like Newt and I did a few weeks ago. I had to swallow at the thought, but shook my head quickly. Now I had to concentrate up here.
We studied the plan and drew lines with our fingers until Minho had found a really good and short way, which we started to memorize.
At some point someone hammered on our door. When I opened, a gasping Rachel stood in front of me and leaned against the wall. I grabbed her by the arm, closed the door behind her and sat her on the free bed.
"Level 43. His office is on level 43. Did you find a way?"
Minho and I nodded eagerly.
"Well then, what are you waiting for? You don't have much time."
I looked at Minho and he nodded invitingly. "Then we'll get it over with."
He were right, we should really do it now.
Minho helped me into the shaft and then climbed in himself. As quietly as we could we crawled to the ladder shaft, which I found without any problems by now. Once there, we climbed up four floors and then out again.
Sometimes Minho had to help me at a turn-off, but all in all I found the way almost completely alone.
At some point I came to a grating where the shaft ended. I peered through and could make out a large office. It was definitely Janson's, no one else would have such a large office with so little furniture, I was sure.
I made sure that there was no one in the room and the door was closed, then I turned around and kicked with force against the flap. From here I had no other way to open it. With a loud clatter it swung open and I could hear the screws falling to the floor.
I quickly jumped out of the shaft and managed to land on both feet without making much noise. Minho did the same and we immediately looked around the room.
"Okay, I'll look in his desk, you look in the drawers there." I pointed to the other end of the room. There wasn't much more storage space here.
We looked for a while until he shouted "Bingo!" and waved a folder around. I literally jumped up to him and he put it on the dresser so we could have a look at it.
The title was dull 'The Right Arm' and the folder was quite thick.
"Okay, we're looking for ways to contact them. If we can do that, we can talk to them personally."
Minho nodded and began to leaf through the folder. Somewhere in the middle he paused.
"Hey, this could be something."
"'Chattering on the airwaves on channel 7, no way to track them down. Dead end," I read aloud.
"Channel 7 hasn't been used for ages. We shouldn't meet anyone else there, especially as Janson seems to think it's a dead end."
I raised an eyebrow and wondered how he knew that, but didn't ask. Everyone had their secrets here.
"Do you think that's enough to contact them?"
Minho nodded and flipped quickly to the end. "Nothing. We have to try this."
"Okay. Now let's get out of here. We need some tape or something to fix the flap. Put the folder back and then help me look."
I swept the screws with my foot under a radiator, hoping no one would find them before we went through with our plan.
In the desk I found some tape, tore off enough and put everything back where I got it.
Then I helped Minho up, who then pulled me up, too. I taped the flap as tight as I could and hoped again that nothing would stand out until we had got the kids to safety.
When we got back to my room, Rachel jumped up and looked at us expectantly.
"And?" she asked.
"We got what we wanted. Channel 7. We can reach them through that. Now we need Thomas."
"And you think he can do it? Chattering?" Rachel didn't look too convinced.
"If there's anyone we can trust, it's him." Minho also seemed to believe that Thomas was secretly on our side.
I nodded. "He'll work it out, I'm sure."
Minho left us and made his way to Ben's place to do some working of his own. "You might want to stop by. You're really fast," he remarked before closing the door behind him. I had to smile.
"Well, I'll be going back to work sometime, the children will certainly be happy to see me again today. Can I leave you alone?"
"Sure. I'll be fine."
But once Rachel left the room, I wasn't so sure about that. I sat down on my bed, looked over at the empty one, and felt tears shoot into my eyes again.
Now pull yourself together!
But it did not help. I sat there and cried. Now I had nothing more to worry about, until I talked to Thomas I couldn't do anything. So once again I lost myself in my grief and the thought of seeing Newt again didn't help either.
At that moment I simply doubted everything. And above all that I would be able to remember. I felt so weak and had the feeling that I would never be able to hold on to my memories.
What if I woke up in the maze and Gally was standing in front of me, knowing my name and expecting me to remember and I had no idea who he was, who I was and who Newt was?
What then?