Catch 22

"Toil without song is like a weary journey without an end."

As the large black gates of the asylum swung closed behind him, Eric Gast was thankful for the forethought he had to install an electrical opening device and a button. He glanced through the windscreen at the dark clouds above him and the rain that the poor wipers tried in vain to keep off of the glass. He did not relish the thought of wrestling with a lot of heavy iron fencing in this weather.

He pulled the ambulance into its normal parking spot and pulled the handbrake into place then killed the engine.

Tiredly he leaned his head back into the rest and closed his eyes. He really could use a nap. Drew had been kind enough to provide him with a good strong coffee but he knew that a nice sleep was what he really needed. He glanced over at the covered metallic arm in the front passenger seat. It seems like an eternity ago that he and Morrow had finished what he had thought was the job for the night and then heard the reports on the police radio scanner and gone to find the worker at the hospital for information. Somehow the whole thing had gone badly askew right from the beginning and though he now had more experience in dealing with the mad ad hoc nature of life with Morrow something about this whole thing just …didn't sit right with him.

Drew had been delighted to find the thing Eric had brought him and spent at least the first hour trying to find out where he had managed to find it. All Eric could give him was that it had been found with a patient who had been admitted to his new employers 'private clinic' and that in order to properly treat the patient the Doctor needed to know what it was and where it came from.

"You gotta be getting bored treating the rich and wealthy" Drew had said at some point interrupting Eric's attempts to sleep with his eyes open.

"Uhh sorry what?" He had asked.

Laughing, the professor had reiterated "All those private patients. Getting themselves into trouble and then seeking medical attention but not wanting to tell you what they were paying to get up to or what sorts of weird fetishes they have that got them into the mess to begin with."

"Uhh yeah, Right. You think this has something to do with the rich people of Arkham?"

"You kidding? This is some major tech, the metal alone is worth a few thou Eric, I can only imagine you've got some random with a robotics kink...he tried to cut it loose, I bet it gave him a good electric shock am I right?"

"Something like that." Eric said, picturing the scythe cutting through the creature and Morrow landing with a thump. Drew was chuckling good naturedly and he found himself envious of the ignorance the man enjoyed.

Now back at the asylum Eric knew he could delay the inevitable no longer, Morrow was probably pacing the halls waiting for him to return with his answers. He picked up the tendril and got slowly out of the car, enjoying the clean fresh scent of the rain.

Back inside he was surprised that he didn't come colliding with the Doctor immediately. He checked the office first, it was empty. Raising both eyebrows he then walked to the procedure room he had left the girl and Morrow in. Sure enough the Doctor was sitting at the bedside, fingers interlocked and under his chin as he stared at the girl asleep in front of him. That was interesting in itself but...he was inside the circle.

"You're inside the protection circle." He whispered, easing the door closed quietly behind him.

Morrow looked around at the sound then back to the girl as she groaned and tried to turn in her sleep but was prevented from doing so by the restraints.

"Good you're back. I need you to help me move her to the scanner. I want to run some tests." Morrow said, sounding distracted as if he was lost in thought. "I wanted a full blood work up but had to wait for the transfusion to finish to draw more blood… managed to get an ECG and an EEG..."

Eric looked at the rolls of paper sitting on the countertop nearest him. "So I see…" he picked up one and began to read it, "Don't the crystals need half an hour to warm up?"

"Yes, I already turned them on…"

"How is she?"

"Feverish, and delirious but the fevers are close to breaking…I gave her something for it."

"Delirious?" Eric asked

"Muttering in her sleep, moaning. Nothing to be concerned over. I could give her a mild antipsychotic but I don't think it's warranted." Morrow mused quietly giving the distinct impression the girl had maybe said more than he was willing to repeat in her fevered state "I'm probably going to need to wait till she's fully conscious again before i finish a proper physical exam..." he trailed off

"Again? She was conscious before?"

"Yes and she's a typical mouthy pain in the ass teenager with no regard for her own state of health or those who tried to preserve it." Morrow growled.

Unsure how to respond to this, Eric went with "Oh."

"I gave her morphine"

"Right"

"And a very low dose of Ketamine." the Doctor added. Looking sheepish.

"Ahh." Eric said And then attempted to change the subject "...well I'd have assumed you'd want to know what Drew said?"

"What?" Morrow asked, looking distracted again.

"The thing." Eric said a little testily and held up the tendril.

"Oh." Morrow said then his face brightened "Oh!" He immediately lowered his voice, casting a glance back at the girl. "Shhh" he said warningly to the paramedic then approached pulling him out into the hall in front of the procedure room. "She's asleep." He said by way of explanation as if Eric had missed this fact.

"I can see that." The paramedic said patiently.

"Well, I'd like her to stay that way until I've run some scans. So what did your buddy have to say?" Morrow prompted rolling his hand in the air in a go on sort of gesture.

"Drew acted like I'd brought him Christmas itself. He says it's definitely man made, very sophisticated. It's constructed of a rare alloy,something he hasn't encountered before but guesses that it's going to be expensive to make."

Eric crossed his arms and leaned tiredly on the wall.

"He reckons it shouldn't be hard to track down around Arkham, assuming it comes from here to begin with, there's only a handful of places in the area capable of creating it, he's given me three places to start enquiries but each one is a massive company with uniformed guards on the door and it's unlikely they will be willing to entertain you or me asking questions about Demon squids they may or may not be building and sending out into the wild."

The doctor was quite a while after Eric was done explaining. This wasn't unusual for him and the paramedic merely waited for the usual snap out of it and bark orders reaction. When it looked like none were forthcoming he instead uncrossed his arms.

"So how do you suggest we proceed?"

Morrow gave a pained look over his shoulder at the sleeping girl. It seemed like the doctor was in a catch 22 position.

"We don't have enough intell at this point. We need to check out each company, get more information to work with and see if your buddy is right. I don't like the idea someone somewhere is building these things!"

Eric nodded, his stomach twisting slightly, he had been having a similar thought. "Now?" Eric asked.

Morrow turned the tendril over in his hands "No…" he said slowly, reluctantly. He watched the girl through the door window again. "As much as I hate to admit it, Patient takes precedence for now. I have tests I want to do. But… after you help me move her into the scanner, you can call each company and see if they do tours or meetings… pretend to be an interested investor or something, get us a way in, we can build a plan from that."