“We were trying to get to gen-pop to wrangle them and we got ambushed.”
My jaw is aching. “How many?”
“Four. Diaz, Lopez, Jales and Tex. They took shelter in the control room.”
My face snaps. “The workers are still in there?”
“Yea.”
A slow smirk tugs at my mouth. “I’ll see you in a minute.” Then I switch to another one of our hidden channels. “Carlito?”
“Jefe,” Carlos sighs. “Aqui.”
“You did good, soldado,” I praise.
Our youngest, the kid is only nineteen, but he’s good. Cunning, and he’s not afraid of shit. Exactly what I need right now.
“You understand you’re in it for the long haul, si?”
He breathes audibly then grunts, “Si. What do you need me to do?”
My grin widens. “Barricade the door. No one gets in or out of that room, entiendes?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m almost there. I’ll touch base after I’m done.”
“Bueno… Hey, Jefe?” He sort of stammers, and I’m quiet. “What… happened? To the prison?”
My face tilts to Equino, who shakes his head.They don’t know?
No, I suppose they wouldn’t if they’ve been stuck in the control room.
And with that knowledge, an opportunity for a morale boost presents itself.
“They did this,” I grunt. Equino’s eyes widen, and I wink. “Velle and his men. They’d been weakening the structure of the guard tower so that it would fall on the prison.”
“Que??Putos locos…”
“I know, right?” I hum, dampening my amusement and forcing a scowl for show. “On top of that, Ithoughtthey were following my orders to oversee upkeep and maintenance inside the prison, but it turns out they weren’t having it done at all. For years.”
“Wow,” Carlos sighs.
“They wanted this to happen. They’ve been praying for Alabaster Pen to fall so they could take over… But we’re not gonna let that happen, are we, soldado?”
“Hell no,” he barks, and I beam. “But I mean… How are we going to stop them? We’re trapped in a room, and they have the armory.”
“You let me worry about that, darling. You just hold it down in there… Because you’re holding the key. The servers are not completely down, so it’s muy importante that you keep them all away fromeverything, si? Don’t let any of them near those servers, no matter what.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good boy.” We come up to the font entrance of the prison, and I see Pedroia looking frazzled. “Speak soon.”
“Gracia, Jefe.”
I toss the walkie at Equino, who’s just shuffling silently beside me. When I peek his way, I find him gawking at me in shock, and some mild horror.
“What?” I grunt, pulling the pistol from within my belt. “Jesus, you act like you’ve never seen someone lie as easy as breathing before.”
