Page 52 of Redstone
Waiting. Wondering. Tamara tried to contact Wyl via Morse code once but got no reply. She didn’t bother trying again. He’d get in touch with her when he was ready. Demarcos was safely out of the way for now although Tamara knew she owed him a major explanation. She’d already asked about giving him more to go on and had been given authorization. Now she just had tofind a time for them to be alone and out from under the probably hyper-watchful eye of Warden Harrison.
Then the announcement came over the prison comm system, and all of Tamara’s preconceptions went straight to hell.
“Attention all personnel: there has been a breach of security in Redstone Penitentiary. I repeat, there has been a prolonged breach of security in Redstone Penitentiary. A minimum of four suspected fugitives have been identified, in addition to two faculty members who may or may not have collaborated with them. You are confined to quarters for the immediate future as repairs are made and a door-to-door search is conducted. Any lack of cooperation may be met with lethal force.”
Oh, no. No, he hadn’t … he couldn’t. Could he? Wyl had been terribly distressed when ZeeBee had taken off, leaving the infirmary directly after. Had he done something? Had ZeeBee? What had happened to Robbie?
Tamara couldn’t risk reassembling her illicit communicator, not when someone might charge into her room at any point and start asking her questions. But shecouldfall back on her primary job, which she needed to do anyway. Mind made up, Tamara steeled herself, then called up President Alexander’s personal number.
She got his assistant’s voice but not his image. Well, it was better than being shunted to Alexander’s holobox. “Remian, put me through to the president.”
“He’s busy, and you’re off your schedule, Carson.” Remian’s voice was rather terse. “It can wait—”
“Itcan’twait!” Tamara insisted, pushing a little more anxiety into her voice. “There was a riot, and a prison break, and nobody is telling me anything, but I’m worried about what could have happened here.”
Remian abruptly appeared in the device. His imperturbably flat forehead was creased with an unfamiliar wrinkle. “A prison break? At Redstone?”
“That’s what they said over the comm system.”
“Not just a riot? Because riots are only to be expected in a cesspit like that place.”
Aaand thanks for leaving me here so long, assholes.“No, they distinctly said a prison break! We’re on mandatory lockdown, no one is allowed to leave their rooms! It’s been this way forhours!” Less than two but whatever; she was making a point.
Remian kept frowning. At this rate, he might actually sprout some genuine lines in a century or two. “Let me get back to you on this.” He ended the holocall, and Tamara sighed, but really, it was about what she’d expected.
What she hadn’t expected was the wait that happened next. For twenty hours, her calls, her comms, and her banging on the door all went unanswered. She couldn’t raise the president or his secretary, she couldn’t risk putting her secret comm together again, and as tempting as it was, she couldn’t break out the Morse to check on Demarcos either since he had no way of answering even if he heard. That left catching up on her sleep, cleaning up, and packing all her things as distractions, all of which she got done in half that amount of time. For the rest of it, she fretted until she couldn’t bear it anymore and then settled herself into a lotus and tried to meditate.
Meditation was something Sir had insisted that all the operatives who trained through the Academy spent some time studying. He said it was for its proven stress-relieving functions; Tamara thought it was because it gave Sir an excuse to get away from his day job for a while and spend some time meditating himself, as he liked to lead the sessions. It had been hard for Tamara, far harder than the engineering classes, but eventually, she’d learned enough to pass muster. It helped that he modifiedthings for her, teaching her a system that was less reliant on silence and letting her use a mantra instead.
Her mantra today? “Fucker.” It might not be the most calming word choice, but it satisfied on a visceral level.
Eventually, after even meditation lost its novelty value, a knock finally came on the door. Tamara leapt to her feet and opened it.
A man she’d never seen before stood in the hall, in a uniform similar to one of Redstone’s guards, only in blue and gray instead of black. “Miss Carson?”
“Yes?” she said cautiously.
“It’s time for your debriefing.”
“Finally,” she said with a sigh, the very picture of a put-upon bureaucrat who just wanted to get off this rock and get back to civilization. “Do I need to bring anything with me?”
“Just be sure you have a way to identify yourself.”
“I’m in the log,” Tamara confirmed as she started to shut her door.
“Um … that may not suffice.”
She frowned. “Why not?”
“Because the computer system running Redstone has been infected with a virus. So far, it’s only damaged the internal and external camera systems, but it has led to some confusion when it comes to reconciling people with profiles since the cameras can’t check for a match.”
“Ah.” Tamara nodded calmly, her mind racing at light speed. “I’ll just bring along my badge, then. And my personal ID.”
“Thank you.”
Wyl, what did you do?
That was far from the last confusing thing to happen to her that afternoon either. Instead of being taken to Warden Harrison’s domain, Tamara was led to the tiny prison port, where a makeshift office had been set up along one wall. Alongthe other wall sat a long row of Redstone employees, everyone from guards to medics to a few lone repairmen, all of them collared with isolation fields over their heads. Tamara glanced at them but didn’t let her gaze linger; it only took a moment to verify that Robbie and Wyl weren’t among them.
