Chapter Twenty-Four #4
Jack shook his head and decided this fight wasn’t worth the time and effort it would take. The juice really wasn’t worth the squeeze.
“Where is everyone?” Madelaine asked.
“Hopefully, doing what they’ve been trained to do. I’ll find out soon.” Draven stood perfectly still, hands clasped behind his back, as unmoved as if a klaxon wasn’t doing its best to deafen them.
The alarm didn’t seem to bother the warden. Neither did the flashing lights. Or what had to be the chaos within the walls of this prison. He looked like a man waiting for a train.
The warden’s eyes moved to the cardboard box. “You retrieved your package?”
“Yes.” Madelaine didn’t say anything else.
Jack knew they didn’t have everything they needed. They’d hoped to find out where they were supposed to go next. Winslow hadn’t known or the wily old man wasn’t able to tell them. Maybe the Red Harp Nebula would tell them, whoever or whatever that turned out to be.
Draven seemed to relax a small fraction. “So, you have what you came for.”
“Not exactly,” Madelaine admitted. “But I believe Winslow gave us everything he had.”
Draven’s eyes narrowed and he nodded. He looked over his shoulder at the corridor. The one Jack wished they were already moving through to the doors outside, so they could get to their ship as quickly as possible and leave.
“What’s wrong?” Jack asked. “The truth.”
Draven nodded. “Unfortunately, your ship is no longer accessible. Outside, every route leading toward Landing Pad Twelve has been sealed.”
Now Jack really wanted to punch him.
Draven’s radio buzzed and he pushed a button on his collar. “Go for Draven. Are we set?”
There was a tinny buzzy response that Jack couldn’t understand, but Draven looked animated. “Good. Clear the area. We’re on the way.” He did an about-face, waved for them to follow and started down the corridor at a fast clip.
Several guards hurried past at a run. Others moved toward security stations. Everyone seemed to know exactly where they were supposed to be.
Everyone except Jack. If they couldn’t get to their ship, why were they out here?
“What happened?” Madelaine asked. “What’s going on?”
Draven’s expression remained calm. “Technically, an inmate escaped.”
Jack blinked. “Escaped? Technically? What does that even mean?”
“It means he’s escaped only temporarily, which is standard operating procedure.”
“Temporarily escaped? And that’s your standard operating procedure? What are you talking about?”
Draven didn’t seem bothered by any of the chaos. “On this planet, every escape is temporary.”
The warden continued in the direction of their ship. They followed. Jack adjusted his grip on the cardboard box.
“Shouldn’t everyone be panicking or, you know, anyone?” Madelaine asked.
“No. This is all under control.” Draven kept moving.
“It doesn’t sound under control and, honestly, you don’t seem especially concerned about this issue.”
Draven glanced over one shoulder. “It’s simple here. If the escaped prisoner runs toward the sun side, he’ll cook in mere minutes.”
They passed another group of security men running in the opposite direction.
“And if the escapee runs toward the frozen side, he’ll freeze, also in a matter of minutes.”
“Well, that’s heartening. But it doesn’t answer my question about why you aren’t concerned.”
The warden shrugged. “The geography of this planet serves a useful purpose and I’m not concerned because I know who escaped and why he did it.”
Jack exchanged a glance with Madelaine. The man’s definition of useful was clearly different from normal people’s interpretation. Plus, he was obviously harboring information that he wasn’t sharing and that was annoying.
What did he know that they didn’t?
The Observer was stymied, stuck hidden in orbit because the surface of Galactic Gulag XkR-9 didn’t offer anywhere to land safely and remain unmonitored.
Every inch of the barely livable space on this terrible planet was either sustained, locked down, fully monitored or all of the above by the United Galactic Gulag Authority. The Observer could not be seen here.
Hopefully, Madelaine and Jack were able to get the package from Winslow. All of the pieces of the device were important, but the housing, uniquely carved and specially crafted for the Solution, truly brought together the whole errand Madelaine and Jack were on.
The Observer had tapped into the gulag’s voluminous security monitors to track their progress through the prison and record most of the events. Irritatingly, there was no video in Winslow’s tower prison cell.
This stop was particularly precarious because Winslow was no longer able to give them everything they needed. The Observer had to improvise a strategy months ago to ensure this stop was successful.
The intervention—not sanctioned by the Paladin Cabal—that the Observer had enacted would, with luck, ensure Madelaine and Jack had what they needed when they departed the prison planet.
Only time would tell. And even if the difficult task on the prison planet was resolved, their next stop would be the most challenging of all.
And, unfortunately, the most dangerous.