Darren dug his fingers into the couch. “I will not apologize for something that I did to prote—”
“To protect what, exactly? A runaway prince? Or was it his dead sister’s AI with her big Valrais secret? Or maybe, just maybe, was it your own comfortable little life as a shipping mercenary?”
Aiden could bite, too. He wasn’t just a victim; he was a predator, here to rip Darren’s head off his shoulders, even if he was about to lose that chance very soon. His time for revenge had almost run out, and he had hours to kill Darren if he was willing to sacrifice whatever he had left worth sacrificing.
Darren opened his mouth to speak, but a knock at the door cut him off. Schooling his face with some effort, Aiden donned his warden’s façade and invited the visitor inside.
“Hi, boss,” said the tall man with the shaved head who Darren recognized as the Chief of Guards, Nigel. He threw a glance at Darren, but didn’t seem all that interested.
“What is it?” Aiden prompted, crossing his arms as he directed an expectant look Nigel’s way.
Nigel hesitated for a moment before squaring his shoulders. “The people from Central are here to perform the inspections. They’re waiting downstairs, in conference room four.”
Aiden’s brows shot up. “We are having an inspection? This was supposed to be at the end of next month. I wasn’t aware the date had been changed.” Darren didn’tknow about it either. And inspections were usually announced to the inmates, so they knew to be on their best behavior.
“Shit! Sorry, boss. They called while you were on leave with a last-minute change. It completely slipped my mind. But, uh”—he flashed Aiden an apologetic smile—“they said they were doing it in two stages. The inspectors today want to see just the new areas. They are auditing the expansion project. The regular inspection will happen as planned.”
This was the first time Darren was hearing of an inspection being conducted like this. It sounded very weird.
Aiden stood up. “Perhaps I should send you to give those gentlemen the tour then?” he said in a mocking tone that had Darren forcing down a smile.
Nigel raised his hands. “Nah. I think I’m good, boss. Thanks. I was just on my way down to see Dave in ISO before I have lunch.”
“What are you still doing here, then?” Aiden slipped on the warden uniform’s vest and held the tablet to his chest. “Mr. Howe, it seems I won’t need your assistance any further. You can go back.”
Darren didn’t like this. He and Aiden weren’t done talking. He still needed to say his piece, to convince Aiden to help him. But with this sudden inspection and Nigel here, he couldn’t exactly do anything other than nod his head and walk out of the warden’s office, or he risked exposing them both.
As Darren made his way to the fields where the rest of the inmates were already in the middle of a football game, he prayed to any made-up deity who would listen that Aiden agreed to talk to him one last time.
Because if he didn’t and instead decided to simply walk away from Darren’s world, neither of them was going to come out of whatever was about to hit them unscathed.
Chapter 32
Aiden sent Nigel offand locked his office, not bringing up his termination of employment. He hadn’t exactly processed it yet, nor had the time to analyze it, because the first thing he’d done had been to summon Darren to his office. It had been an impulsive decision, and he wasn’t sure where it had come from, but as much as he hated hearing Darren speak of Claudia, having him in the office had chased some of the anxiety away. Anger was easier to deal with, a beast Aiden knew how to tame for the most part.
After he swung by the staff room for a cup of coffee, he made his way to the level before the last level, where the new cell blocks were going to be. He greeted the two security guards at the checkpoint, then followed the main corridor that circled the entire trunk of the asteroid to zone D-3. There, he passed a set of access doors into one of thenarrower hallways that wove its way deeper into the rock’s body.
This part of the facility was not currently in use because of a faulty power line, and he wondered whether the inspectors were here to discuss finally getting it up and running if they were only interested in the new area of the prison. It comprised three new cell blocks, but the issue with the line had halted construction.
Conference room four was just off a viewing deck on the other end of zone D-3. Albeit functional, this part of Horizons wasn’t in use because of its inconvenient location and the fact that you had to pass through this level’s entire inner section. Which, now that he thought about it, made him question why the inspectors hadn’t waited for him at the checkpoint with the guards, but had chosen to come straight here.
Tablet in hand, Aiden knocked to announce himself and entered the office. As soon as he saw the two burly men standing by the projector board, something felt even more off. They had their backs to him, but spun around and faced him upon his entry, sunglasses obscuring their eyes. The long black coats they wore were also out of place since management types liked to flaunt their expensive suits wherever they went.
“Hello, inspectors,” Aiden greeted them in a professional tone.
The one wearing a fedora motioned for him to sit. He was about to do so when his senses flared and sent a barrage of warnings to his brain, making him stop dead in his tracks.Something wasn’t right.
Scrambling to grasp what was making him feel so uneasy, he subtly scoped the visitors and his surroundings. Other than their imposing size and strange choice ofclothes, there didn’t seem to be anything ‘wrong’ with the men, per se. The same was true for the room, at least until his gaze swept over the disconnected surveillance camera in the corner.
“Mr. Kesley, please take a seat,” Fedora Guy insisted in his deep baritone. “We’d like to ask you a few questions before we inspect the premises.”
“Of course.” Instead of taking a seat next to the now sitting inspector, Aiden chose a chair on the other end of the table. “How can I help?”
Upon a nod from Fedora Guy, who didn’t have a name tag as he should have, the second man circled the table and stood by the door. Aiden narrowed his eyes, demanding an explanation, but when one was not offered, he twisted his head and glared at the silent guy behind him. Now that he could study the man from up close, Aiden didn’t miss the outline of a concealed gun bulging from the side of his long coat or the hand hovering suspiciously close to it.
A lump lodged itself in Aiden’s throat. Firearms were confiscated upon entering a prison’s premises, replaced by taser bracelets, unless you were a guard at the gate. Plus, audit inspectors didn’t usuallycarry.
“Well, gentlemen.” He smiled his business smile, placing his tablet on the table and pocketing the pen. The bad feeling that had possessed his stomach spread all over him, intensifying with every tense second that passed, but he did his best to come across calm. “It’s quite obvious you are not here to marvel at our amazing facility. What is this about? Some new form of audit?”
