***
A week later Jill and Python found out, by the simple expedient of following one of them. He skulked into a nondescript barracks building no different from any other, except for two things. It was one of the closest to the edge of the camp, less than fifty yards from the fence. It was also controlled by men and women with a certain look about them.
A military look. Jill could spot them a mile away, and they had it.
“I think we just found our escape committee,” she said, nudging her sidekick as they watched from well back.
“How can you tell?” Python seemed to be genuinely curious.
“How can you spot a con?”
He shrugged. “Just a look they got.”
“Right. I can spot military. It’s also close to the wire. And you see that guy carrying in a board? I bet we see another couple of boards, or maybe metal from bunks, brought inside in the next few minutes.”
They watched, and it was just as Jill had said. “I think they got a tunnel in there.”
Python snorted. “What do they need a tunnel for? There’s only two hundred guards on site at any one time, and ten thousand people. We could just grab pipes and beat down the wire if we could get people organized.”
“These people aren’t cons. Only one in fifty, one in a hundred is going to stick his neck out. A tunnel is low risk, high payoff.”
“So why the skinnies?”
Jill replied, “They’re giving up some of their food for the workers. Hard work means extra calories. Doubly so for those with the Plague.”
“They could have enough if they got more people to contribute.”
“But then more people would know about it. There have to be informers among us, probably some of the hard cases, paid off in cigarettes, extra food, scrip. Maybe drugs.”
“Yeah,” Python mused. “I’ve seen some meth around. Also a few phones.”
“Those won’t do us any good. Besides, they’ll all be bugged. It’s easy when there’s only one tower in line of sight.” Jill pointed off in the distance at a tall structure, perhaps five miles away, on a low hill. “So forget about that. We just need to get out.”
“So…we join this escape committee?”
Jill motioned Python back, and started walking around, not wanting anyone to notice their scrutiny. “What do you think we should do?”
His forehead wrinkled in thought. “If we muscle in, we’ll have to do something. Dig, or give up food, or something. Also, if they get caught, we do too. Some of the troublemakers already been put in solitary.” The confinement blockhouse stood outside the wire, an ugly windowless rectangle with steel doors. Those who spent time there came back cowed and starved.
“Yeah. I don’t think they’re following the Geneva Conventions inside there, either. So, I’m with you. Let’s not get caught. But we can still help.”
“How?” They turned a corner and walked over to the inside track along the wire, where many of the detainees strolled. It was the closest they could get to feeling unconfined.
Jill replied, “We can gather food, and supply it to them. We just have to figure out a simple way to keep our distance. And I have another idea, but it’s going to be a lot trickier. I’ll tell you about it later, when I’ve thought about it some more.”
“Well I got an idea about the food. We can charge for security.”
Jill glanced crossways at Python. “What?”
He shrugged. “We’re already running the muscle for our barracks building. Might as well charge the straights something for it.”
“Python, I need you to think like a cop on this one, not a con. Be a sheepdog, not a wolf.”
He laughed. “Me? A cop? You’re kidding.”
Jill stopped and faced the thin man, now a lot less grizzled and scarred. “I got news for you, Keith. Yeah, I know that’s your name. Don’t ask me how. You’re a different person already. You’re still a hard case, but I bet the thought of murdering someone in cold blood twists your guts up.”
He looked uncomfortable, shrugged. “Yeah, so?”
“Look,” she said, putting a hand on his arm, the first time she’d touched him with anything like affection since she’d passed him the Plague. “Violence has its place in the world. I know, because I spent my youth in a street gang and then I joined the Marine Corps. I’m not asking you to be weak. I’m telling you that you can be strong and good at the same time.”
Then she kissed him, for real. “Let’s go back to the barracks.”
He swallowed. “What about getting pregnant?”
And that proves you’ve changed, Keith my Python. The old you wouldn’t have even cared.
“I think we can have some fun even without that risk.”
Reaper's Run - Plague Wars Series Book 1 Page 20
