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A.R.Yngve
PARRY'S PROTOCOL
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Chapter 6
After roughly ten minutes in the visiting room, Abram announced into the microphone that he was finished. The door opened from the outside; he stepped out into the corridor, where Simon and Joyce stood waiting. They looked at his crumpled tweed suit; Simon gave Joyce a knowing glance in Abram's direction, then he locked the padded steel door.
"How did it go," Joyce asked with no audible enthusiasm.
Abram brushed off his creased clothes and straightened his bow tie; he gave her a confident smile.
"The first contact went better than I had hoped. I expect to have gained his confidence within a month."
"Abram," she said, "have you thought about the risks of playing along with the imagination of a paranoiac like this? Acting as if you were a secret agent, making insinuations about secrets, shutting off the surveillance, all that. And I'm worried for his sake, mind you."
She added: "And the arranging of a special room for your conversations -- you still want that?"
"He asked for it, just like he's done to other therapists."
"It's nearly finished by now -- that's actually near the limits of our budget. After all, this is a private institution."
Abram made a deprecating gesture.
"Trust me, Joyce: no one is going to get harmed. Even if I won't succeed in shaking up his paranoia, this will help us learn much more of how his kind thinks." He added hastily: "Thereby not saying, that I wish to belittle my colleagues' work on his case."
Joyce raised a sarcastic eyebrow, spun around, and walked away with her hands in her coat pockets.
"Join me to the staff dining room," she said without looking back. Abram and the warden went with her.