The Prisoner - Carlos J. Cortes [135]
Odelle blinked once. Bravo!
Nikola continued. “To pretend that, out of hundreds of men and women with knowledge of the shenanigans going on at the stations, no one would ever blab to his or her drinking buddy is unreasonable. It had to happen, and now it has.”
“Let’s pull the plug.”
Odelle turned, livid, toward Vinson, aghast at his slip. Nikola knew nothing about any plug. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Nikola’s expression didn’t waver.
“Pull the plug?” Nikola asked.
“A figure of speech. I meant getting rid of anyone who’s not supposed to be there.” Vinson reached to adjust his cuff, his eyes alive.
“That would take time, weeks perhaps, and the involvement of more people,” Nikola said, and Odelle breathed a sigh of relief. “I don’t think that’s an option.”
She waited. Nikola was an introverted intellectual, a social maladroit, and detached from the outside world. But she didn’t underestimate him. Nikola had a plan; he must have had one when he suggested a meeting.
“Lukas Hurley, the station’s controller, is alive. At least, he was with them after they left the sewers. I have reason to believe he will get in touch soon.”
“How do you know this?” Vinson said.
Silence.
Odelle checked Nikola’s lips. “Don’t waste your time. He won’t reveal his sources or methods.”
“I hear Congress has rushed an ad hoc committee to look into the station’s security and, in particular, the series of events resulting in the escape of three prisoners,” Nikola said.
Vinson frowned. “Three? They don’t know about Russo?” His voice wavered. “You mean the woman, Russo, and the other lawyer? The black man didn’t escape.”
“Congress doesn’t know about Russo,” Nikola pointed out. “What they know is the stations are not as secure as promised, and they will want answers.”
“What kind of answers?”
“I should have said reassurances. An undertaking to prevent breakouts from ever happening again.”
“But you said total security was a myth.”
“That’s correct, but some of your facilities are more secure than others—in particular the few you have in remote places. Deserts and the like.”
Vinson frowned, as if he didn’t like Nikola’s voice. “Are you suggesting …?”
“I am. Inmates come in two categories: common criminals, and those with the clout or the association with institutions capable of breaking them out. Those are your security risks; the others are just meat. And of course there are the illegals—in my opinion, the most dangerous of the lot.”
“But shifting people around would cost millions!”
“So? A radical change in the way people are held will please Congress. Let’s face it, in the old system, high-security prisons served exactly that role: pens as impregnable as possible to hold the inmates most likely to attempt escape.”
“The breakout from Washington was made possible by a faulty design of the sewer system,” Vinson said.
“I don’t agree.”
“You don’t?”
“No. The Washington breakout was the result of someone wanting to have an illegal prisoner close by.”
Odelle felt the blood rush to her face. “How dare you?” She moved to stand, but Nikola continued in the same sedate tone.
“Had this inmate been elsewhere—in the Nevada facility, for example—the escape attempt would have failed. Russo was in Washington so you could look him up from time to time. I checked the log. Sloppy.”
“What about Hurley?” Vinson asked.
Odelle breathed deeply and slid back on her seat, inwardly cursing her outburst and thankful for Vinson’s attempt to defuse the situation.
“I expect contact within the next twenty-four hours.”
“And then?” Odelle asked.
Nikola shrugged. “Then you can offer Congress your plan to beef up security by sorting prisoners into categories and presenting them with the runaways safely back in custody.”
“What about Hurley and the doctor? What do you suggest we do with them?”
Nikola arched the fingers of one hand and inspected his fingernails before turning toward Vinson.
“You really want to know?”
chapter 46
18:04
“My name is Lukas Hurley …”
Enrique Castillo