A Decision []
231.03.18 | 12:39 p.m.
“So, this being… sorted out, we need to focus on the solution to this problem. Look at the recordings!”
A dozen doctors and psychs watched the screen with shocked interest. A small red-haired girl wandered around the Glade alongside a tall blond boy. Bruises covered her arms, face and neck, every bit of visible skin. Subject B 48 obviously had been beaten up.
First whispers broke the shocked silence, grew more animated and louder by the minute, until Chancellor Anderson had to shout them back to order.
“This is a catastrophe!”, one man barked. “She's a disruption in our carefully put Variables!”
An elderly woman said: “She should not be there. We have chosen her for a not unimportant role in Maze B. It is vital that she will be on the spot when she is needed.”
Another one of the psychs, an astonishingly young man, replied: “But Hazel, that is more than half a year ahead. We pick her out of Maze A, and when her time comes, she'll be inserted in B. I really don't see the problem.”
“The problem, young man, is that we cannot just like that pick her out of A”, Hazel Manning retorted. “Are you planning to invade the Maze, say, in the Box, just grab the girl and get back via Box again? That would virtually destroy all our endeavours we have invested in this project. The other subjects would be completely off their rail.”
“But we don't have to go in there ourselves. Why don't we lure her away and into the Maze. We could send a Griever to take her back.”
“That will take too much time!”, Dr. Leavitt barged in. “Look at her – she will bond with the boys, at least with a few of them. Just think of the damage she could do to their Killzone patterns!”
“We don't have so many options. What else can we do?”
Katie McVoy volunteered: “Why don't we influence one of the boys to kill her?”
But Hazel Manning protested. “We need her in Maze B! That's the point of this discussion! This is not about killing as many kids as you can! This is a scientific project.”
“Group A has come up with strict rules in their Maze, especially concerning leaving the Glade. It might be hard to get her into the Maze alone.”
“But you have heard what Sutherland and Rutter have stated. She seems to be rebellious enough to try it on her own, much sooner when we can influence her.”
Dr. Ava Paige had been whispering with Chancellor Anderson, and now he knocked on the table to end the discussion.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as Dr. Manning has made clear we need to get Subject B 48 out of Maze A without disturbing neither the Killzone patterns of the Subjects in Maze A nor the Variables. She will be taken out of Maze A as soon as she enters the actual Maze – preferably alone, to prevent disturbances among the other subjects.”