Page 62 of One Step Sideways

I listed the items I knew of. “It’s ridiculous that I can see through concrete and a fucking pencil, but not a cheap plastic spoon.”

“Actually, it isn’t,” Danny said. “Concrete,pencils—believe it or not—all contain metal. I imagine the cell walls have aluminum in them similar to one-way glass. I think that’s the common denominator.”

“But how do pencils contain metal? I don’t mean the band around the rubber tip,” I added, which I knew was a ridiculous thing to get hung up on and we didn’t have time to talk about something so idiotic.

“I would guess it’s the properties in graphite,” Danny mused. “It’s also the only non-metallic substance known that conducts electricity.”

“So, what’s next,” Ringo interrupted, probably questioning my sanity, and I didn’t blame him.

“I think you should be pulled,” Danny said. “This O’Connell and Saunders connection is too dangerous.”

“No,” I said, protesting immediately. “Cherry’s in forshoplifting. I can’t just go and…” But what could I do? Helplessness burned in my gut as I recalled the image of the unconscious man strapped down, and where was Shae?

“Where’s Shae?” I asked. “He hasn’t been in his cell since this morning.”

“We can try and find out,” Ringo said, but then a movement caught my eye and I saw Mark jerk and jump up, running to his door, but there was no one there. What had he heard?

“Something’s wrong,” I said, scanning the area at the same time that Ringo’s radio lit up, blaring out an immediate lock-down procedure.

And I looked over at the control room as warning buzzers sounded. At the end of a long corridor through a door, then another, I could see shadows moving. “Wait,” I said, holding up a hand and concentrating on an area I hadn’t even noticed before. Then my gut clenched as things became clearer. I knew instantly this was the connecting corridor to the other side. To the high security side for regular prisoners.

I saw the guys running with hand-made weapons and the guards that were overpowered by sheer numbers alone, and I saw Saunders front and center and swore. “It’s the other side,” I snapped out. “They’re loose. Riot, definitely, and heading this way.”

Ringo stiffened and I barked at him. “We need to get everyone to the area I saw past the gym. Hide. They’re killing C.O.s.”

He nodded and jumped to it. As soon as he opened the cell door we could hear gunfire so somehow weapons had been smuggled in. I glanced to my right, I saw O’Connell running toward us. “Lockdown,” he barked out. “Now. Seventy-three get back inside.”

“There’s a riot,” Ringo snarled.

“Seventy-three,” O’Connell ignored Ringo and snarled.“Get inside.”

But there was no way he was separating me from Danny, and I lifted my hands snapping the ties as if they were a twig. O’Connell blanched as if he realized all the times I could have done this before. “We need to get out—” I started beforeeverything went to shit, because O’Connell didn’t hesitate to grab his regulation pepper spray and hit me in both eyes.

Pain sliced through me like I hadn’t felt since I was a kid subjected to my father’s fists. In fact, this was worse. It felt like my eyeballs were on fire and I stumbled, hearing a grunt and imagining Ringo had just disarmed O’Connell, but I couldn’t see shit. “I can’t see,” I yelled over the increasing noise from panicked inmates.

“Danny, grab him,” I heard Ringo order and felt Danny take my hand. “Change of plan,” he yelled. “I don’t know where the fuck the rest of the C.O.s are but you need to hide while you can’t see. I’ll get the others out.”

Danny dragged me along as we moved, and I was doing my best to see, but the pain in my eyes barely lessened.

“Okay, straight through this door.” Ringo stopped and swiped his card. “This leads to the control room, lockers, and outside.” I tried to force my eyes open and gritted my teeth. I saw a blurry vision of an empty corridor. Ringo’s card didn’t work. He swore and tried again. We both heard a click. “Go,” he yelled his finger on the keypad.

Danny pushed open the door and ran through, pulling me along. I kept blinking and the pain was finally lessening as we ran into a room.

“Where the fuck are we?” I could barely make out a wall of monitors that I was sure should be on, and realized where we were just as Danny confirmed it.

“The main control room,” Danny said. “How is this just open? It makes no sense. They’ve got secure systems that should be—”

“I know.” I had my own suspicions about why the space was empty and it wasn’t good.

“Wait,” Danny said and pressed a plastic bottle into my hands. “Rinse your eyes. We need them working,” he added grimly, then huffed. “It was on the desk. Just pray O’Connell’s lips haven’t touched it.”

I didn’t hesitate and practically drowned my eyes in water, feeling instant relief. I shook my head to clear the water and blinked. They were sore but I could see. I blinked again. “I can only see this room.” My heart threatened to explode. “It’s not working.” And the bottle was empty. Maybe more water.

“Give them a few minutes,” Danny urged me, but I needed to see. We didn’t have time. Still hearing the shouting I crossed the floor and yanked open a door, hoping for more water, but jumped back when a body tumbled out.

Connaught.

His throat gaped almost as if he were smiling, and I absolutely knew at that point that we were fucked. This was a bigger scheme and Connaught was only a patsy. They were so willing to kill him, they’d used his patriotism and his son’s death and set him up to be the fall guy. I doubted if whatever this plan was would have happened so quickly if it hadn’t been for Saunders, O’Connell, whoever, initiating a riot. Whoever was behind this had been forced to bring forward their plans to protect the unit, and that included taking the enhanced they thought were vital. This place wasn’t here to detain enhanced indefinitely; it was to filter them. Test them. See if they were useful.

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