Page 22 of Her Steadfast Hero

“This is David Sloane. I’ve been appointed by the lieutenant governor to take over the apprehension of the escaped prisoners. I’m here at the prison. Where are you?”

The line went dead.

“You’re here to help?” the man in the office asked.

“Yes.”

“I’m Joaquin Morales. It was my day off when the earthquake hit, but normally I worked on the cellblock where most of the men escaped. We have to find them,” he said urgently. “They can’t be left on the loose.” He slapped both of his hands on the desk and leaned forward. “The warden has been doing nothing to find them. Those men are evil. No woman is safe, and people are going to end up dead.”

“Are there are others like you who feel this way?”

“Yes,” he said excitedly. “And not just other guards here at the prison either. I’m leaving to lead a manhunt.”

“Joaquin, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I can arrange things like cell phones, additional vehicles, as well as some members of the police who can be trusted.”

“I have eight men.”

“Now that I know the warden, and many of his men aren’t going to be of any use let’s see who is. Gather your team, and bring them back here. I’ll call in the officers who will join the hunt. I also know someone else who can get us some volunteers.”

He punched in Carmen’s number.

* * *

Everybody in the prison yard was sweating, but Bernardo had to be the worst. Finding out your warden had left the country, probably with a bag of drug money, would do that to a lieutenant governor.

“Captain Sloane is in charge of the manhunt.” Bernardo grabbed his arm and held it above his head. “I have just promoted Luis Martinez to Warden. He is now in charge of the prison.” Bernardo used his other hand to grab Luis’ arm above his head. Standing between David and Luis, it was like he was a fight promotor who was declaring everyone a winner. The gathered men cheered.

David looked around, he had ten teams of four men. They would work in twelve-hour shifts, and each team would have a team that it would work interchangeably with. Joaquin would be in charge of one shift, and David the other.

In his gut, he believed many of the convicts were going to be trying to get to the docks, so he put one of the teams there. The rural area was huge, so he put two of the teams in charge of checking the countryside. One team patrolled San Marcos, and one team patrolled the small towns.

When Bernardo finally let go of him, he moved motioned for the team leaders to come forward.

“I want you to check in every hour. Our teams will be working in two twelve hours shifts. The first shift will work with me. The second shift will work with Joaquin. Remember they took weapons from the armory, so we need to consider all of these men armed and dangerous. Joaquin, you and your second shift leaders and men need to go and rest, you will take over in twelve hours.”

“I’m good to go now,” one man who was part of the second shift said.

“We are doing this by the rulebook,” Joaquin said swiftly. “Go home and rest. Your turn will come.”

Yep, he’d done the right thing putting Joaquin in charge. David turned to Luis. “Will you be ready when we bring in these assholes?”

Their eyes turned towards construction workers who were maneuvering a steel beam into place on part of the collapsed prison. Even now, a lot of the current prisoners were living four in a cell, instead of the normal two.

“I don’t care if I have to chain them to a stake in the prison yard, I’ll figure out a way to keep them in place when you bring them to me,” Luis growled.

David had read over the files of the escaped convicts, and the idea of Hector Salazar with a steel collar around his neck was very appealing. Luis must have read his mind.

“David, you know some of them have already hurt people.”

His teeth hurt as he ground them together. Deep in his gut, he knew that somewhere out there were one or more people in their clutches, and it killed him that they hadn’t been looking for these monsters yesterday.

“I know, Luis.”

Luis clapped his hand on David’s shoulder. “You’re going to get them. I trust you.”

“Damn right we will,” he said catching Joaquin’s gaze.

* * *