Must Love Hyenas

08: Plans and Schemes

Harleen sat in her office, plotting her next move while idly tapping a pen against the top of her desk. Her search of the library hadn't been as productive as she'd wished. The information she'd managed to collect only led her to believe more scientific knowledge and skills were required for her ultimate goal, but with a deadline creeping up on her, she didn't have time to go back to school.

Putting aside her more long term plans for the time being, Harleen concentrated on her present objective. Because of Cook's disapproval of her recent incident with John, it was likely he'd disapprove of what she was planning next, so she knew she'd have to keep things secret if she wanted to hang on to her job until the end.

Harleen started spending every moment of free time, when she wasn't with John, studying the layout of Arkham Asylum and the position and type of security cameras and locking mechanisms. She watched the patrol routes of the guards and memorized their patterns, how long it took them to walk from one location to another, the times of their shift changes, what people worked which hours. She got into their personnel files and examined their psychiatric records to see which ones were the most stable and which were under observation by the administration for possible weaknesses.

After a week of planning, Harleen was ready to take action. Checking her watch as she leaned against the wall of the administration building, she waited for the camera nearby to turn away from her. The moment the view of the camera passed her, Harleen started moving. Although her pace was swift, it was measured because she knew it would be five seconds before the first camera turned back and saw her, but she wouldn't be clear to round the corner until the camera on that side of the building swiveled away in the next three seconds.

She accelerated and slowed her pace accordingly as she walked through the blind spots caused by the rotating security cameras. She was able to reach a small maintenance shed. The front door was locked by keycard access, but the rear door only had a padlock. She didn't know how to pick a lock, but the latch holding the lock to the door was affixed with a set of screws. Ignoring the lock entirely, she used a screwdriver to remove the entire latch and enter the building unseen and undetected.

The small building was filled to capacity with a little of everything. Garden tools hung from hooks on the walls and fertilizer was stacked by the bag on the floor in the corner. Pipes, valves, and plumbing equipment covered another wall in specially designed slots. Cabinets full of wires, circuits, and fuses lined up in the center of the room to create a small island of technology in the middle of the building.

Harleen wasn't interested in the materials and equipment as much as she was the papers on the desk in the only uncluttered portion of the shed. In order to keep up with the maintenance of the island facility, the workers had to keep records of every wire, pipe, and circuit in the Asylum. Taking out the schematics, Harleen snapped pictures of all of them with her phone before putting them back where she'd found them. She also took a picture of the work schedule for standard upkeep procedures and when they were supposed to be done.

With everything she needed, Harleen left the shed and replaced the latch she'd removed. Using the same blind spots as before, she returned to the administration building with the first part of her plan complete.

It took another week to arrange for a malfunction of the asylum's security locks, letting out the more crazed patients. While everyone was completely focused on returning the patients to their cells, Harleen put on a maintenance jumpsuit and black wig. Using a ladder, she pretended to be checking the sprinkler system in the cafeteria, hallways, and a number of offices. In actuality, she was prepping the pipes for her own use.

The blind spots in the camera network hadn't been enough to allow her to do everything, so she hoped the distraction provided by the escaped inmates would be enough to help her remain unnoticed while she worked.

Once she was finished, Harleen went to the basement under the primary care facility and added a special ingredient to the barrels of water that would be used to refill the pipes when the sprinkler lines were flushed next week.

Harleen could barely keep from giggling as she returned to her office. Everything was in place, and she only hoped John appreciated her efforts. She knew Cook would be furious, but that was half the fun.

Her time in the asylum was rapidly drawing to a close, so she had to finish some of her more elaborate plans before then. One of which required the assistance of an old acquaintance, Doctor Johnathan Crane.

***

"Come in," Crane said happily when he saw Harleen standing in the doorway of his cramped office.

"I was needing your assistance in regard to a patient of mine who suffers from nightmares," Harleen began.

"Nightmares?" Crane said with an almost gleeful delight. "What kind of nightmares?"

"I don't really know," Harleen admitted. "They bother him enough he doesn't want to talk about them."

"Not sure what help I can be with the unknown," Crane dismissed.

"I had an idea," Harleen explained. "Since fear is caused by the release of various chemicals in the brain, would it be possible to block them?"

"Why should I want to block fear?" Crane questioned. "I study it, and you can't study what isn't there."

"If you help me create a neutralizing formula," Harleen offered, "you could simply reverse the process and create the fear artificially in order to study it."

"Interesting. Alright, I'll help you," Crane agreed with a cold smile and a fanatical gleam in his eyes.