Ch. 19

(formatting issues, feel free to read in drive) Ch.19 Domer shook his head. ‘I didn’t check. Nobody asked me to.’ Dunn nodded and stared down at the knife. ‘You didn’t think he might smuggle tools out of here?’ ‘Nobody charged me with security, Frank. That was clear from the start. Suega’s guy was in charge of that, then you switched him with Bal. But Bal’s a heating tech. He kept an eye on him, but he didn’t think to pat him down at the end of the day, didn’t check through his belt. Who thinks to file down a cooling rod and make it into a knife? How do you prepare for that?’ Dunn raised his eyebrows and pushed out his lips. Then slowly nodded. ‘You don’t think Bal should be punished?’ ‘No, I don’t. He’s a good tech, and he works hard. That’s not the job he signed up for. Not by a long shot.’ ‘He got four people killed.’ ‘I don’t think so. He’s part of it, Frank, but it’s not all on him. Not by a long shot. Suega’s men could’ve patted him down when they took him to the stables. These trips back and forth, they’re just not something we’ve done before. Not part of the procedure. That’s the problem.’ ‘I gotta go back pedal with Suega’s boys, because you told me there was nothing missing from the belt, and nothing missing from the engine room. Both not true.’ ‘Okay. Does that make me responsible?’ Dunn shook his head. ‘I’m just saying maybe you could’ve double checked when I asked you a clear and simple question. That’s all.’ ‘I’m sorry, Frank. It was a roll of tape and we don’t keep inventory on discarded rods. I don’t know what else to say. Keep in mind we got good value out of him. He did solid work. And he still could.’ Dunn chuckled. ‘That’s not where he’s headed. I don’t care what kind of work he did.’ Domer cast his eyes down at the desk. ‘Fair enough.’ Dunn looked around idly at the office. Domer waited patiently, hands folded together in silence. Eventually Dunn looked up at the ceiling, eyebrows raised, then sighed. ‘Alright. Thanks.’ Then he turned and walked casually out of the office. …. There were murmurs and whispers of astonishment from the cells, but Dunn looked Byron up and down, unimpressed. Then he turned to the other stalls and raised his voice. ‘Now. I want to be clear. When you all came aboard this ship—’ ‘I am!’ Byron shouted, and his voice sounded hoarse and garbled, barely understandable. But the words he screamed had been said so often that everyone in the stables understood them. ‘Ready! AND WILLING!’ He took a long breath and his voice cracked and went high pitched on the last words. ‘To … NEGOTIATE!’ Dunn closed his eyes and smiled for a moment, and shrugged. Then Dex’s voice blared out from cell fourteen. He sang at the top of his lungs. ‘TAKE MY HEART AND WREST IT OPEN!’ By the end of the first line, everyone in cell fourteen was shouting with him. Byron lifted an arm and tried to join in but his strength gave out and he fell to the ground. By the third line, every prisoner in the stables was shouting as loud as he could. ‘DON’T YOU LEAVE A WORD UNSPOKEN! YOU CAN’T BREAK A MAN THAT’S BROKEN!’ Dunn stood still, then motioned to Suega and tried to give an order, but it was drowned out. When they finished the three lines of the chorus, Dex went straight back to the beginning without missing a beat, and everyone kept up. They beat the walls and the bars with their fists and stomped the rhythm into the floor. One of the guards held up his rifle in front of Dunn, asking if he should open fire. Dunn raised his hand and shook his head. Then stepped to Suega and shouted into his ear. Suega then relayed the message to his men. They started with Byron. They pulled him up onto his feet, held him against the wall, and put one arm above his head. Then Suega held a metal band over Byron’s wrist and shackled his hand to the wall. As he worked, Dex slowly changed the song into a one word, two syllable chant. ‘EARTH-YUN! EARTH-YUN! EARTH-YUN! And the stable walls shook from the thumping of fists. They pinned up Don after Byron. Then began to torture him with an electric prod on his feet. Don’s howls of pain were completely drowned out by the chanting. Suega leaned over to Phipps and shouted in his ear. Then Phipps walked down the aisle, rifle in hand, to cell fourteen and squared off with Dex, smiling at him from the other side of the bars. He started counting down from three on his fingers, but Dex just looked wild and hungry, still chanting at the top of his lungs. Then Phipps raised the rifle and Dex ducked quickly behind the solid bottom half of the door, still chanting. Phipps stepped forward toward the bars, trying to get an angle on Dex without opening the door. Suega ran down the hall at him, bellowing as loud as he could, completely drowned out and ignored as Dex’s hand flew up between the bars, grabbed the barrel of the rifle, and jerked it into the cell. Phipps struggled to keep a grip on it and fired the rifle at the ceiling as Calvin and Beesting both jumped to Dex’s side, reached through the bars and grabbed Phipps by the forearms. Dex twisted the rifle up and out of his hands and immediately started winding the safety dials. Phipps shouted as he tried to pull his arms out, his chest pinned to the door. He struggled to get his arms free and Suega grabbed him by the shoulders and tugged at him with a foot against the door. Then Suega looked in at Dex and jumped away. He started running back down the hall as a charge shot erupted from cell fourteen and half of Phipps’ head exploded into the other wall, his body still pinned against the door. Then as his arms slid out and his body crumpled to the floor, the prison chant lost all rhythm and broke into wild screams. Dunn and the other guards raced away down the hall as the rifle, still in Dex’s hands, slid out between the bars and aimed towards them. Suega yanked the cell ten door open as he passed, and rapid-fire shots lit up the stables and sparked off the open door. It rolled back on its hinges, and the shots followed Suega down the hall, blasting between Byron and Don, off the ceiling and the floor and the far wall. A second guard went down as Dunn flung open the end door and ran through. Suega crouched down in the midst of gunfire, grabbed the wounded guard by the arm and dragged him through into the outer hall. A moment later, the lights shut off in the stables. The charge shots flashed and sparked down the hall, lighting up wild, shouting faces behind the bars of every stall door, until Dex finally took his finger off the trigger and pulled the rifle inside. The shouting and the thumping went on and on as Dex turned, put his arm around Calvin and they both let out a blood-curdling scream at the others. Max and Beesting, even Russ, joined in. Then they all stood against the door and led the random screaming and shouting back into an endless repeat of Holden Rike’s chorus.