فصل 39

Chapter 39: Breaking Back In

The doors to the assembly hall opened automatically at our approach and we walked into a room full of hundreds of guards. Most of the guards were gathered in small clusters. Then I saw him. Hatch was standing in a corner of the room. I froze.

“What is it?” Ian asked.

“Hatch,” I said.

He was surrounded by a group of guards dressed in black and red. Standing near them were three of the electric kids I had seen pictures of in my room at the academy: Quentin, Tara, and Bryan. There was also a kid I’d never seen before..

“Who’s the other kid?” I asked.

“His name is Torstyn,” Ian said. “You don’t want to meet him.” “He’s electric?”

“Yeah. He’s dangerous. Let’s get out of here.” I turned back. “Where’s Jack?”

“Oh no,” Ian said.

Jack was already twenty feet from us. He had his hand on his belt and was walking toward Hatch. I pushed through the guards, catching up to him halfway across the floor. “What are you doing?” His jaw was clenched. “He burned down my house.” “You won’t make it within twenty feet of him.” He kept walking. “I’ll take my chances.” “They’ll capture you.”

“Let them try.”

We were now only fifty feet away from Hatch.

“He’ll capture us.”

Only then did he stop.

“This isn’t the time,” I said. “We’ve got to get out of here.” Jack took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. “This isn’t over.” We turned and walked east through the assembly hall, then, meeting up with Ian and my mom, went out into the yard.

“Where are we going?” my mother asked.

“Back to the others,” I said. “They’re in the power plant.” “Others?”

“There are a bunch of us.”

We had to walk past the Re-Ed entrance again to get to the power plant, so we waited for a large group of guards to pass by and blended in with them. When we arrived at the plant, we found a guard standing in front of the main entrance. It had been so easy getting out that I hadn’t considered the difficulty of getting back in.

“Can we walk around to the ranchers’ entrance?” Jack asked.

Ian shook his head. “There’s a twelve-foot fence with razor wire.” “Whatever we’re doing, we better decide fast,” Jack said. “Cox is back and gathering a crowd.” Lieutenant Cox was talking to a dozen other guards, who were passing around an electronic tablet.

“Ian, what are they looking at?” I asked.

He turned to me with a grim expression. “Us.” “We need to create a distraction,” Jack said.

As I looked at the guarded door I had an idea. “Maybe the guard can be the distraction. Ian, can you see his ID?” “It’s lying on the platform,” Ian said. “Cal . . . Calvin Gunnel.” “Cal’s my new best friend,” I said. “Go along with me.” I turned to my mother. “You better keep a few yards back. I don’t think there are any female guards down here.” She looked nervous but nodded.

“Ready?” Ian said.

I took a deep breath to get my twitching under control. “Let’s do it.” We walked up to the guard, a broad-shouldered man with a scar on his cheek partially concealed by a sandy beard. He reminded me of a lumberjack.

“Cal?” I said.

He looked up at me.

“Cal Gunnel?” I walked closer to him, pointing to myself with both thumbs. “It’s me. Michael.” His brow furrowed. I could tell he was trying to place me.

“I’ve been looking for you for days. I owe you big-time, man. And don’t you think I’ve forgotten. I never forget a favor.” “Wait,” Ian said. “This is the Cal you were talking about?” “I told you it was him.” I turned back to the guard. “When’s your next leave?” The guard was glancing back and forth between us, looking more confused by the moment. “Tuesday. What—” I didn’t let him finish. “Okay. I’m going to have to trade some shifts, but you and I are going to Lima. I know this club, and let’s just say you’re going to be glad you did me a favor.” He stared at me for a moment, then said, “I have no idea who you are.” I faked a laugh. “Yeah, right.” Then I looked into his face. “You’re not kidding, are you?” I pointed to myself. “Cal, it’s me.” “You sure you got the right guy?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “How many Cal Gunnels are there in Puerto Maldonado?” He squinted. “Michael, right?”

“Michael. Who else? Whatever you told Anderson made the difference. I can’t thank you enough for helping me.” “Anderson,” he said, nodding. “It helped, huh?” “I’ll say. I don’t know what you have on him, but you, my friend, have clout.” I turned to Jack. “You don’t want to get on Cal’s bad side, you know what I mean? This guy is powerful.” I turned back. “Next Tuesday. You can leave your dinero at home, this party is on me. I guarantee you will never forget this trip.” I put out my hand. “See you then?” “All right,” he said. “Next Tuesday.” He took my hand.

I dropped him like a bad habit. As I had anticipated, at least a dozen guards saw him fall.

“Get everything you can from him,” I said to Jack. “But act like you’re helping him.” Jack knelt down next to him, ripping the magnetic key from around his neck, then going through his pockets.

“Medic!” I shouted. “Medic!”

Guards began to move in toward us.

When there was a circle around us I said, “I think it’s sunstroke.” “Clear out,” one of the guards in a purple uniform said. “Give me room.” We stepped away from the crowd and the guard knelt down next to Cal, putting his fingers on the man’s neck. “Heartbeat’s strong. Looks like sunstroke.” He stood, grabbing the phone from the podium. “We need a stretcher at Starxource west. Another sunstroke.” As the crowd milled around him, I caught my mother’s eye and gestured toward the door. With more than twenty guards standing around us, the four of us opened the locked door and walked into the plant unnoticed.

At least I thought we had.