by M. A. Owens
He nodded. “Good. See if you can get assigned to my cell too. It’ll be easier for me to monitor you if we keep getting lunch and maintenance together. We’ll figure out who’s behind the escape attempts and throw in with them.”
Under any other circumstances, I wouldn’t even consider such a request. Marty was not the most promising of partners, and I struggled to believe he genuinely wanted to help deal with Saint, much less that he was sorry for trying to kill me. Or scare me, if he was to be believed.
However, these weren’t normal circumstances. This was a suicide mission, and even long shots were going to be given a chance. Including really long shots, like this one. I’d just have to avoid turning my back to the dog when he had something sharp in his paw. Not that Marty was really a stab in the back kind of dog. Or a stabbing dog. Probably preferred his fists.
“Alright, I’ll have a guard take me to meet the floor supervisor after we finish lunch and see what I can do. That’s as good a plan as any.”
He tilted his head. “You seem to have an awful lot of free movement for a dog that just got transferred here today.”
“Part of the maintenance job, I guess. Not like I asked for it, but I’ll take it,” I said. Guess he trusted me about as much as I trusted him and was already having doubts. Maybe that’s why he wanted to keep me close. To keep me from ruining something he was already in on, but it was still better to go about things this way. Keep your friends close and enemies closer, they say. Not that I had any friends I could keep close now.
He took a bite of his lunch and nodded. And that was that. At least for now. I took advantage of the silence, finished my tray before depositing it in the dirty pile, and headed over to the guard by the door.
“Trigger. Need to see the floor supervisor for my cell assignment. Just transferred in,” I said, hoping this wouldn’t be a lot of trouble.
His expression gave nothing away. “Right, you need to report to the supervisor now. He’ll want to check in with how you’re adjusting to your new role here and assign you a cell. Follow me.”
I followed him back through the administrative section, and into Dan’s office again, where he seemed surprised to see me.
“Trigger? Didn’t we just talk about not coming here often unless it was extremely important?”
I raised my paws in the air, surrendering. “Easy, Dan. First, I need a cell assignment. We neglected to do that earlier. Secondly—”
“No, I didn’t forget,” he snapped. “I was going to check the openings and have a guard deliver your assigned cell to you later today. I can’t believe you came back here just for that.”
“Second,” I continued. “I just met with one of the prime suspects, and he made me an interesting offer. He wanted me to see if I could have him assigned to maintenance together and to his cell.”
Dan crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling. “That’s interesting… What do you think?”
I sat in the chair in front of his desk. “Which part? You mean, do I think he’s telling the truth? I don’t know. Probably not. Any of this could mean anything. Surprising. Interesting. Whatever you want to call it. It’s that, but not useful. It’s not evidence, but I think it’s a good idea for me to go along with it.”
“Even if it’s killing you in your sleep?” he asked, with apparently genuine concern.
I shrugged. “What difference does it make? If he wants to kill me, he can corner me anywhere just as easy. No, if he wants to play this game, and it’s a trick, it’s all the same to me. We can only benefit. It buys me time, and there’s the potential we could use it against him.”
I had to keep a steady stream of information fed to Dan, and for now I could be honest. I needed for him and the warden not to suspect me. As soon as they did, I’d get transferred to another floor, or back down to the bottom floor with no hope of ever getting out of here.
Just the thought made my chest feel tight. Lily was on her way to get me some tea, and I climbed out of the window. I wondered how she felt after reading my note. I told her not to worry about me, that I might go away for a while and she’d be reading about it in the paper, but I had a good reason for doing it. I really hoped that was the truth, that I had a good reason for doing it. A reason, sure, but whether it was a good one was yet to be determined. Then there was whatever Kerdy had injected me with. I had broken ribs, and my paw was in pretty terrible shape, but by the time I got here… like it never happened. I was grateful, but also a little uneasy. Given the technology they had outside the city, she could have injected me with all kinds of crazy stuff. Too bad it didn’t give me super strength. Suddenly, I remembered the scuffle with Mr. Scumbag, how his face had looked after I punched it, and how I hadn’t felt his punches the way I’d expected to. Not super strength, but… something?
“Alright, I suppose you’re right,” Dan said, interrupting my sudden barrage of thoughts. “I’ll assign you to be his cell buddy and move him to maintenance duty with you. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Dan, I’m not sure you’ve caught on yet, but I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.”
He rubbed his forehead with his paw, slowly exhaling as he did. “That makes two of us, Trigger, but at least there’ll be someone to share the blame with if we get more escape attempts.”
I grinned. “Don’t get your hopes up. You’re still going to get all the blame if I mess this up. I’ll be too dead to share any of it. Probably shouldn’t forget that. You and I have a lot of shared interests right now.”
Dan straightened a stack of papers against his desk, stapling them, and putting them in his desk drawer. “Yes, that’s a fair point. It’s done. I’ll have the guard outside escort you to your new arrangements and deliver another maintenance uniform. As for the tools, it should be obvious why you can’t keep those with you in the cell. You’ll have to report to the guard’s desk once the cell doors are unlocked in the morning.”
“One key unlocks every cell door in the prison?” I asked, hoping I sounded innocent in asking.
“Per floor, yes. Every floor has a unique key for the cells.”
“Ah, I guess that makes sense. That’s why the warden has a reasonably small set of keys. One per floor, the elevator, and probably a couple of other things.”
Dan slowly nodded and seemed to realize he’d said too much. “That’s right, but I’m not at liberty to go into detail about the other keys. That would be something to ask the warden, and I doubt he’d be happy to answer the question.”
I smiled, shaking my head. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. He told me all about how the elevators work, about the one floor mechanism for floor supervisor keys, and how the warden can go up all floors freely. I don’t think he cares what I know or don’t know. He’s not worried about what I’ll do with the information, probably because he knows there’s nothing I can do with it.”
Dan’s eyes widened a bit. “He told you about the elevator? Well, sure, someone would have to be insane to steal the warden’s key, but I’m still surprised he told you like that.”
I waved my paw. “Let’s try not to read too much into it. I’m sure it was some kind of mind game and I really couldn’t care less about his keys. I’ve got a job to do, and more than enough on my plate already to have time to worry about whatever game he’s playing.”
“Too true. Speaking of which, you’d best get going. It won’t look good if you’re in here for too long.”
“Thanks. I’ll be in touch,” I said.
“I have instructed my guards to play along with any request you make to see me, so for the sake of not looking suspicious, please make them either private or convincing to the audience.”
“I think I’ll manage.”
Dan pressed the same button on his box as before. “Please escort Eight Eight Nine to his new cell arrangements and bring an extra set of overalls for his cellmate. They’ll be running maintenance together as of tomorrow. Make it clear there better be t
wice as much work for twice the workers.”
“Yes, sir,” his voice said, and a moment later the same guard appeared from before.
“This way, Eight Eight Nine.”
I hated being called Eight Eight Nine. I think I liked it better when Kerdy called me a little dog, or an idiot, even.
I didn’t answer, just followed along until we made it to the cell block, then to my new cell. I could see that Marty had been sleeping on the bottom bed, so I figured I’d be sleeping on the top. The guard threw my things down in the corner, along with the extra pair of overalls.
My first thought was that I was going to regret this, but it was just another drop in the river of things I was probably going to regret. Time to stop worrying about it, and focus on staying alive, one day, one step at a time.
9
The more I worked with Marty, the more genuine he seemed to be, and the more confused I became. He was helping, that much was for sure, but was it me, or himself? Getting him in on the escape wasn’t part of the plan. At least not my plan. Not sure if it was part of Mr. B’s plan, since I messed up that part. I’d already gotten past what I knew for a fact I was supposed to do, and now we were well into playing it by ear territory.
“Give me the wrench, would you? This one’s loose,” Marty said, standing on a small stool and looking at the top rail of one of the cell doors, extending his paw down to me.
“Right,” I said, reaching into the toolbox and pulling out a wrench, handing it up to him.
“Thanks.” He tightened for a moment, then handed the wrench back down.
Give me a break. This had to be the most boring work I’d ever done, and I was doing it alongside Marty of all dogs. It was tough to look out for clues when you were having a hard time staying awake.
“Any luck on your end? I haven’t found a doggone thing on mine. Everyone I ask, no matter how subtle, shuts up tight. I’m thinking anyone who isn’t in on it wants to be.”
“Oh, well, who’s the detective now? I’ve got us a lead. They want us to come by their cell in a few hours and talk.”
“Yeah, I bet they do,” I said. “You and I both know the cell area is empty. Everyone’s somewhere else. Lunch. The workroom. Somewhere.”
He chuckled. “Yeah? And that’s their problem. Nothing odd about us being here, you know.”
“Not worried about it being odd, Marty. Worried about it being a trap.”
Marty narrowed his eyes at me, still standing on the stool, holding out his paw.
“Oil, please. Anyway, you’re about as paranoid as a dog can get. Even if no one’s here, who’s going to mess with us? Surely they realize we can help. Who wants to stay in here, anyway? We’re all on the same side. They’re just careful is all.”
Yeah, I sure hoped so. My gut was telling me this was going to go bad, but my brain said it was our only lead, and the brain wins this one.
We continued working for a couple of more hours, had lunch, and then headed back to the cell block. Marty guided us to the contact he’d made, and I wasn’t at all surprised.
“Hans, good to see you. Let me guess. You want to apologize,” I said, looking over my shoulder and in every direction. Was he really alone?
“Yes, yes, Trigger, and no. I do not want to apologize, except for my failure to dispose of you when I had the opportunity, but I assume that was not the apology you were referring to. No, I wish only to make a deal. Come. Sit. I have tea.”
Marty stepped forward, but I put my arm in front of him. “No, Hans, we’re not drinking your tea. Let’s just say your tea-making reputation precedes you.”
He laughed, slapping the arm of his chair, pulled out from the tiny desk that sat in the back corner of his cell, and moved to the back center of the room. He still thought highly of himself, I guess, but it was odd. Without his strange clothes and sunglasses, he looked like any other cat. So generic I couldn’t have been sure who he was until he opened his mouth. He still had that signature dialect that I couldn’t quite place. Had to be his invention. The dogs and cats of the different districts all speak a little differently, and if you pay attention, you can make an educated guess, but that wasn’t Hans. Hans was a fictional story that he made up in his own head, that he forgot he was in a long time ago. The story was that he refused to work for Mr. B, but now that I had a better read of the situation, I’ll bet it was the other way around.
“I’m wounded, detective. Truly, wounded. Once again, you snub my hospitality. Such a small amount of tea was I able to secure, and yet you push me away. That is not the way I was hoping to start out this business relationship.”
“Let’s talk business, then we’ll talk tea. How about that? Need to make sure I’m more valuable to you alive than dead before I’m going to be less worried about the dead part,” I said.
Marty nodded in agreement.
“I’m the one responsible for the most recent escape attempt. The one with the explosive that closed off the ventilation shaft.”
Marty and I exchanged glances, both hopeful this was the truth, but neither of us bought it.
“Right,” Marty said, laughing. “And I’m your mother.”
“That’s rude of you to say to the cat who will be the one to get us out of this place. Now, please, tea.”
I shook my head. “We’re not drinking your doggone tea, Hans. How about this? You tell us how you made the bomb. I’m really curious. What were the ingredients? How did you get them? Who was working with you?”
“Oh ho ho,” he said, reaching over and slapping the desk to his left. “If you keep asking questions like that, I’ll need to consult my lawyer. It sounds to me like you’re an informant.”
I gritted my teeth. Of course, that’s what it looked like to everyone. Why else would a dog who just showed up be asking all these questions and working a gravy assignment like maintenance? It couldn’t be more obvious if I’d worn a name tag that outright said I was an ACPD informant. Big bold letters. Gold, maybe something to make it sparkle in the right lighting. What a joke. Fat chance the double agent argument would work, even if that was the truth. Denial was the only choice, or maybe redirecting the suspicion back to him.
If that was even necessary. I glanced over to Marty. He didn’t seem phased. I knew he had to be suspicious, or worse, but he sure wasn’t showing it right now.
“Cut the nonsense, Hans. I’ll tell you why you don’t know what was in the bomb. It’s because you didn’t make it. You had nothing to do with any of it. You just wanted to lure us here because you’ve been dreaming of the chance to put me in the dirt since the Grand Gobbler business. Hey, while we’re on that topic, why don’t you explain a few things to me about that.”
He smiled. “Alright. You win. I hired multiple parties to increase my odds of success, then when more than one appeared to be on the path of success, I cut out the most problematic parties.”
“Did you hire Lady to kill Kerdy?” I asked. Truth be told, I was confused about this part the most, given their history.
He burst into laughter. “Oh goodness me, no. I told Lady where she was, and she insisted on visiting her for reasons she wouldn’t reveal. I sent one of my students, you remember the ones, to first set a trap and then to finish her off while she was wounded. Didn’t you notice the wounds when you came to my temple?”
“Yeah, I noticed, but I failed to put it together properly,” I admitted.
“Well, aren’t you becoming humble? Then you’ve realized that it didn’t go as planned. Lady survived, wounded my student, then escaped. Foolishly, she came back to my temple for revenge. You were there, you saw this occur.”
“I’d argue the fool was you for underestimating her, but go on,” Marty said. Wonderful work, Marty. Keep antagonizing his ego. It’s his weak spot.
He clenched his teeth, noticeably irritated. “Fine. Yes. Foolish on my part. For underestimating Lady, and for underestimating you.”
“One more question, Hans. This one is killing me,” I said.
&nb
sp; “If only that were true, Trigger. Let’s hear it.”
“Why hasn’t Lady come after you down here yet? I’ve heard she’s on this floor.”
“Curious, isn’t it?” He smiled, tapping his paw against his chin. “When she first arrived, I hid in my cell. I was certain she’d walk straight here and snap my neck. The warden seemed certain of it too. He even gave her a cell on the same row as mine. It would have been so easy, but she…” He paused.
“Ignored you like you didn’t exist, right?” I asked, trying to contain my smile.
“Yes! She ignored me, like I didn’t exist. After a while, it got to be too much, and I even shouted to her, but she continued to pretend she couldn’t hear.”
“The ultimate punishment for a self-important cat like you,” Marty said, digging deep on those insults. He was following my lead flawlessly. Maybe I’d underestimated him too. Either way, he seemed to be a pretty darn good sidekick.
“Yes, right. Glad to see you’re enjoying yourselves. Lately, however, I haven’t seen her around here at all. It also seems odd to me she’s one of only two female prisoners on this floor. The female prisoners have their own floor further up, so why is she here? The other female prisoner on this floor, I do not know about. She’s kept in her own little area. I’ve heard she’s ancient.”
Wasn’t really interested in the other female prisoner, but that was a good question. The warden must have thought she’d be too much of a danger to the other female prisoners. Or, more likely, he just really wanted to give her the opportunity to kick Hans around a bit. On the female floor she’d be less hindered because she didn’t know anyone, and no one knew her. Here, she at least had Hans and his bodyguards to worry about. Those bodyguards… I still felt uneasy. Why weren’t they here? Where were they? Maybe Lady could handle them, but Marty and I would have trouble, especially if Hans got off his rear end and helped.
“Guessing it was to keep you both occupied,” I said, honestly.
“Oh, nothing ever happens by accident, detective. Nothing at all. No accidents. Never. It must be my devotion to the spirit of fortune that I was gifted with this strange gift. I didn’t know what this gift was, not until today, but now I see that fortune has smiled on me yet again. Why else would Lady choose not to attack me?”
