CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The tray whirred into Cox’s cell.
“All right, asshole,” Tyler said. “Get over here and eat.”
Cox pushed off of the wall. He lifted the paper but set it on the floor without checking it this time. He had more pressing business to take care of today.
He lifted the lid off the tray. Today’s meal was a Salisbury steak drenched in glue-like gravy the color of fresh feces. Mashed potatoes coated in the same. A green salad with a plastic packet of ranch dressing. The soft latex bottle of water.
He carefully tore open a corner of the dressing and dribbled it over his greens. Tyler sighed and offered a brief, “Come on,” before giving up.
Cox finished dressing his salad and lifted a forkful to his mouth. He chewed deliberately as always, staring straight ahead at the door. Tyler cursed under his breath and shifted his feet.
Cox took another bite. He would conduct his business, but the delay would push Tyler off balance. It was better always to leave the other party off balance in a negotiation. That ensured that one was always in control.
He took a third bite. Then a fourth. Then a fifth. The sixth finished his salad, and he took a drink of the water. The latex lent a musty smell to the liquid, like a freshly opened condom.
“No dessert today,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, my bad. I’ll have them bring you a banana fucking split next time.”
Cox took a bite of the mashed potatoes and chewed.
“Oh, for God’s sake. It’s mashed pota—”
“Do not take the Lord’s name in vain!” Cox thundered.
Tyler fell silent. A moment later, he remembered that Cox was in the cell and he on the outside. “Whatever, man.”
Cox took another bite of mashed potatoes, seething that he had been pushed to show his anger. He took a third bite of the side dish to calm himself further, then said, “Will you see your harlot today?”
Tyler didn’t reply for several seconds, long enough for Cox to chew and swallow another bite of mashed potatoes. When he spoke, the fear he’d hid before was returned and far stronger. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“The girl in the women’s ward with whom you fornicate during lunch.”
“Hey, shut the fuck up, man. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I need a cell phone,” Cox said.
His lip curled at the bluntness of that statement. He hated begging so openly for something, but with unintelligent people like Tyler, bluntness was necessary.
Tyler laughed. “Yeah, and I need a Bentley. Sounds like both of us are going to bed disappointed tonight.”
“You don’t have to be as disappointed if you get me a cell phone,” Cox said.
Silence again while Tyler worked out what Cox meant. When he did, he laughed again, but with a tense undercurrent of hope. How weak men were when under the spell of strange women. “Are you seriously gonna get me laid? That’s not exactly performing God’s will, is it?”
Cox took another sip of water. “I’ve learned recently that God can work through sin as well as through righteousness. In this case, your sin is venial. You are committing fornication with a harlot.”
“Hey, man, she’s not a harlot. Stop calling her that.”
Cox ignored the interruption. “However, you are unmarried. I trust the woman in question is also unmarried?”
A brief pause while Tyler worked this out in his head. “Yes.”
“Then you are not in violation of the seventh commandment. It is wrong, assuredly for me to assist you in your trysts, but by doing so, I will accomplish a more important task for God.”
A much longer pause. Cox kicked himself for saying that last part. He needed to remember that God’s will was meaningless to these people. He could be placing more obstacles in his path by even alluding to his plans.
But he needed that cell phone. He needed a way to contact her.
“Finish your food,” Tyler said coldly.
Cox did so. Slowly. Deliberately. Ensuring that Tyler had no time left to visit his whore.
Cox knew that after his hunger strike, the warden had ordered Tyler to watch Cox eat until his meal was completely consumed.
He had only this small window to find his harlot.
Cox could take that away from him. And so, Cox could control him.
“Fine,” Tyler snapped. “God damn it.”
Cox frowned and glared at the door where he knew Tyler’s eye level was. “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain!”
“Whatever,” Tyler fired back. But he sounded scared, and when her spoke again, he sounded defeated. “I’ll get you your cell phone.”
Cox smiled. “Thank you.”
He finished his meal quickly. He didn’t approve of Tyler’s behavior, and he wouldn’t enable it under other circumstances, but God would understand.
Cox needed the phone to accomplish his mission on Earth.
Tyler had made the choices that would damn him to Hell already.
Cox wasn’t condemning him. Only using his evil for good.
When he finished, Tyler retrieved the tray and hurried off to find his harlot. Cox chuckled and returned to his bed, resuming his cross-legged position on the cot.
Soon, he would have what he needed to escape. Once he called her, he would set in motion events that Kate couldn’t stop.
He would see her again. Soon.