The Prisoner of Cell 25

by Richard Paul Evans

  The inmate immediately sprayed the Mace in the guard’s face. “Feels good, don’t it?”

  The guard gasped and sputtered. “Don’t kill me.”

  “Keep your mouth shut,” Jack said to the guard. “You call for help and it will be the last thing you do.”

  “Put a collar on him,” Ostin said into the microphone, “and we’ll reactivate it at full.”

  “Gladly,” Jack said. He fastened one of the collars around the guard’s neck.

  I slid the switch. “Reactivated,” I said.

  “Welcome to the other side,” Jack said. He turned to the other inmate and put out his hand. “What’s your name?”

  “Salvatore.”

  “You did well, Salvatore.”

  “Grazie.”

  Zeus said, “If you can manually control the elevators, I can take out the front guard, while Jack takes out the other guard. Then we can start bringing the prisoners up here, bypassing the guards on two.”

  “Brilliant. Except you better have Ian go with you, so you don’t walk into an ambush. Ostin, you’re in charge of the elevators. Abigail and McKenna, keep watch on the monitors.”

  “What about me?” Taylor asked.

  “Will you help me?”

  “Of course.”

  I got back on the speaker. “Jack, there are only eight guards left, Hatch and six electric children. We’re going to start transporting all the prisoners up to the fourth floor and arm them. We’ve got a whole weapons depot up here. What will happen if I unlock all the doors?”

  “They’re pretty keyed up,” he said. “Prison riot. Could turn ugly.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  “There’re a few guys who could really help us, though.”

  “How many?”

  “Half dozen.”

  “Okay, this is the plan. There are two guards still on your floor, one in each corridor. Ian and Zeus are going to come down the front elevator and take out the first guard. There’s a guard at the end of the corridor to your left. You’re going to have to keep him from helping out the other guard.”

  Jack took out his grenade. “No problem.”

  “When you’ve secured the floor, tell us where your friends are.

  Give the weapons you capture to the ones you trust and then start bringing them up here six at a time. I need you and Wade up here with us. Hatch may launch a counterattack up the stairwell.”

  “Got it.”

  Zeus and Ian walked over to the elevator. “We’re ready.”

  “On it,” Ostin said. He opened the elevator door. “Level GL. I’m going to cut the lights again. Ian, when you get there tell Zeus where to fire. And stay away from the elevator door; the guard is still armed; he may just fire at the sound of the doors opening.”

  “Got it.”

  They stepped into the elevator. Ostin shut the door and sent them down. Then he again cut the lights on that level. We could see the guards on our screens freeze in their positions.

  “Look!” Abigail said. “The stairwell door.”

  Fire and sparks began shooting through the stairwell door. “Someone’s cutting their way in here,” I said.

  “It must be Bryan,” McKenna said. “He can do that.”

  “Taylor!” I shouted, “See what you can do to stop him!”

  Taylor walked closer to the stairwell and focused her attention on the door. “Nothing’s happening.”

  Ostin was still staring at his monitor. “Zeus and Ian have reached ground level,” he said.

  There was a bright flash of lightning on the screen. “Seven guards,”

  Ostin shouted. “What’s Ian doing?”

  On the monitor, Ian looked frantic. He ran down the hall toward Cell 11.

  Already a full line had been cut through the door. “Michael!” Taylor shouted, “I can’t stop them!”

  “Ostin, who’s out there?”

  “I can’t tell. Zeus shot out the cameras.”

  I turned back to the console. “Ostin, lights up on GL.” I pushed the master VOX. “Jack, one of our guys, Ian, is about to come around the corner behind you. Don’t shoot him. Can you take the other guard out?”

  Jack raised a hand. “On it. Do it Wade.”

  Wade threw a smoke grenade down to the end of the hall. The guard vanished behind a cloud of smoke.

  “We’ve got you surrounded, man!” Jack shouted. “You’re the only one left. Surrender your weapon now or we start shooting.”

  The choking guard threw his gun out ahead of him. “Don’t shoot.

  I surrender.”

  “Get on your knees and put your hands behind your back.” Jack turned back to Wade. “Get a collar.”

  “Six guards left!” Ostin shouted.

  Ian rounded the corner and pushed open the cell door. He was out of breath, “Michael, can you hear me?”

  “I’m here,” I said.

  He gasped out his warning. “It’s Bryan . . . he’s cutting through the . . . stairwell wall.”

  “We can see the sparks. Is he wearing a helmet?”

  “Yes.”

  I looked at Taylor. “Get away from there. You can’t help.”

  Just then Zeus walked into the cell behind Ian, carrying the guard’s weapons. “What’s going on?”

  “Michael,” Ian said. “Bryan’s with Hatch and three guards. And he has Nichelle with him. They’re coming for you.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Overload the Circuit

  Hearing that Nichelle was on the other side of the wall sent chills through me.

  “Michael, we’ve got to get out of here,” Taylor said.

  “I need to finish. Hatch could still kill all the prisoners. Abigail, McKenna, get out of here.”

  “We’re not leaving you,” they said.

  Sparks bounced off the floor as Bryan completed the second cut.

  “He’s halfway through,” Taylor said.

  “I’m not going out without a fight,” Ostin said. He ran from the console over to the flamethrower.

  “Ostin, I need you back here,” I said. “I need you to unlock all the prison doors and turn off all the collars.”

  He turned to me. “We’ve got to stop them.”

  Taylor went to the flamethrower. “You go, I’ll do it.” She crouched down next to the machine as Ostin ran back to the console and started hitting switches.

  I hit the central VOX button. “Attention prisoners. This is Michael Vey, we are freeing you. We’re unlocking all the doors. Your collars will soon be deactivated. As soon as the light goes off, take them off as quickly as you can. We’re under attack, so we don’t have much time. Ian, Jack, and Zeus will help get you out of the building.

  Do exactly as they say.”

  “How does this work?” Taylor said.

  “Just pull the top trigger,” Ostin said. “But not now. It will set the floor on fire.”

  “Michael!” Jack shouted over the intercom, “We’re coming up the stairwell to rescue you!”

  “Just be careful.”

  “Hey!” Ostin shouted. “Zeus is coming back up the elevator.”

  I looked over. “What? Tell him to turn back.”

  “I can’t. There’s no intercom in there.”

  The cutting had started again and Bryan completed another line in the wall.

  “He’s almost through!” Taylor yelled.

  “Ostin, are you done?”

  “Just about.”

  “Ian, all the collars are just about off. I don’t know how long we can hold the floor, so use the elevators with caution.”

  “Got it, Michael.”

  The front elevator door opened and Zeus walked out.

  “What are you doing here?” I shouted to him.

  “I need to face Hatch,” Zeus said.

  “Send him an email. Nichelle’s with him. Take the girls and get out of here.”

  “We’re not leaving,” McKenna said again.

  Taylor looked back at me an
d shook her head. “I’m not leaving you alone.”

  “McKenna, Taylor, these are Hatch’s personal guards. They’ll kill you. They’ll kill all of us. Just get out. Please.”

  Just then Bryan completed the last cut and the thick plated metal fell forward, crashing onto the floor. A concussion grenade flew through the hole at us, exploding in the middle of the room. Taylor screamed, falling to the floor behind the flamethrower.

  “Put down your weapons,” Hatch shouted, “or we’ll throw in real grenades!”

  “They have those?” Ostin asked.

  “I don’t want to find out,” I said. “Okay!” I yelled. “Taylor, back away from the flamethrower.”

  A moment later a guard stuck his head through the hole in the door. He looked around, then stepped inside. He was wearing a different uniform than I’d seen before—a bright green, rubberized suit with a helmet and bulletproof vest. He pointed his gun at us, as if daring one of us to engage him. Then Hatch, wearing the copper helmet, stepped through the hole behind him, closely followed by Nichelle and two other guards. Hatch looked around the room and said to me, “Quite a mess you made of things, Vey.”

  “I did my best,” I said.

  Zeus was standing in the middle of the hall, halfway between Hatch at the stairwell and me at the console. Hatch looked at Zeus and his face twisted in a scowl. “Well, Frank, you turned out to be quite a disappointment.”

  “My name’s not Frank,” Zeus said.

  “You’re right. It’s Leonard. Leonard Frank Smith. That’s all you are now. What a pity. I made you into a god and you chose to be Frank. I’d laugh if it wasn’t so pathetic.”

  “You gave me a title so you could make me your slave. You lied to me. You lied to all of us.”

  “Who told you that, Frank, the liar Vey?” He looked at me, then back to Zeus. “It’s not too late for you, Frank. Take out Taylor, Abigail, and McKenna right now and I’ll let you back into the family.”

  The girls looked at him anxiously.

  “Really?” Zeus said. “You’ll let me be your minion again? What a deal.”

  “Nichelle,” Hatch said.

  Suddenly the worst pain I’d felt yet pierced my skull. Nichelle had always claimed that Hatch made her hold back but now, for the first time, I believed her. Taylor, McKenna, Abigail, Zeus, and I all screamed out.

  At the same time the pop and spray of gunfire echoed in the stairwell and a concussion grenade exploded behind Hatch and the guards. One of the guards from the stairwell stumbled backward into our room. “Dr. Hatch, the GPs are attacking from below. We can’t hold them long. There’s at least two dozen of them.”

  “You two help him,” Hatch said, and two of his three guards climbed back through the hole into the stairwell. Hatch turned back to us. “Poor, misguided Zeus. You picked the wrong curtain. I gave you power and privilege. I gave you identity. Michael Vey gave you this . . .”

  “Michael gave me freedom. You’ve done nothing for me that wasn’t in your best interest. That’s all this is about—absolute obedi-ence to you. That’s what you want from the whole world. But you’re nothing, Hatch.”

  Hatch’s expression turned fierce. “Nichelle, show Frank what nothing truly is. Show no mercy.”

  She smiled, then looked at Zeus, who immediately fell to his knees, grabbing his temples and screaming.

  Then she turned it on all of us. “You insignificant little cretins,”

  Nichelle said. “I told you that I could squash you all like mosquitoes.”

  Taylor, McKenna, Abigail, and Taylor simultaneously crouched over in pain. My knees buckled and I fell to the ground behind the console. As I writhed in agony, Ostin looked at me helplessly, then crawled past me under one of the consoles and pulled the cord out of the wall. He took the knife from his utility belt and cut the end of the cord and handed me the frayed end.

  “Put this in your mouth,” Ostin whispered.

  I looked at him but did nothing. I was in too much pain to speak and everything seemed to be spinning around me. I was on the verge of passing out. Ostin put the cord in my hand.

  “Just do it!” he said.

  I lifted the end of the cord to my mouth as he plugged it back into the wall. Electricity sparked in my mouth and a surge of power hit my body. Immediately, the dizziness left me and I felt normal again. Actually, I felt better than normal. I felt stronger.

  Ostin crawled closer to me and whispered. “Michael, listen to me.

  I think I know how to stop Nichelle. Overload the circuit.”

  I pulled the cord from my mouth; the power was still flowing into my hand. “What?”

  “Don’t hold back, give her everything at once. Like blowing a breaker at home.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Trust me.”

  I looked at him for a moment, then I heard Taylor scream out in pain. “Stop, please, stop! Michael!”

  “Get behind me, Ostin.” I forced myself to one knee, then to my feet.

  Nichelle was now focusing her attention on Taylor, who was screaming in agony.

  “Hey, Nichelle!” I shouted.

  She turned and looked at me.

  “You want my electricity? Take it!” I spread out my arms and surged with everything.

  Nichelle suddenly started shaking and her expression changed from cruelty to fear. “What are you doing?”

  “Keep it up!” Ostin shouted.

  Hatch looked at me, then back at Nichelle. “Nichelle, stop him!

  That’s an order!”

  I continued to surge.

  “What are you doing?” Nichelle repeated, her voice now trembling. “Stop it! That hurts! Stop!”

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  Taylor, Zeus, and the girls all stopped shaking. Nichelle had released them.

  “Stop it!” Nichelle screamed again, then she began convulsing as if she were having a seizure.

  “What’s going on?!” Hatch shouted. “Answer me!”

  Nichelle fell to her knees, doubling over in agony. “Stop! Please, stop!”

  Hatch turned to me, his jaw clenched, his face red with anger.

  Sweat beaded on his forehead. For a second we just stared at each other.

  Then a guard shouted to Hatch from the stairwell. “Sir, they’re on us! You’ve got to get out now!”

  Hatch pulled a revolver from beneath his jacket and pointed it at me. “You did this, Vey. Now pay.” He pulled the trigger.

  As the gun erupted, lightning flashed across the room and hit the bullet just inches in front of me, blowing it into nothing. Then Zeus turned and hit the gun itself. Hatch screamed out in pain, throwing his gun in the air.

  “My name is Zeus!”

  There was another explosion in the stairwell. “Sir, we’ve got to go now!” the guard shouted, grabbing Hatch’s shoulder.

  “Help me!” Nichelle cried.

  Hatch was holding his arm and glanced down at her. “You’re no use to me anymore.”

  “But I’m your friend.”

  “You betrayed your own kind, Nichelle. No one likes a traitor.

  Even those they serve.”

  Hatch looked at me once more, his face twisted in hatred, then he ducked back out into the stairwell and climbed up to the roof.

  “Zero guards,” Ostin shouted as he stood up from behind the console.

  Nichelle was on her knees, looking at me fearfully. I surged once more. She let out a yelp, then collapsed to the ground in an unconscious heap. A faint wisp of smoke rose from her body.

  I let go of the electric cord and fell to one knee, exhausted.

  The battle continued to rage in the stairwell as Jack and the prisoners pushed past our floor to the roof.

  Ostin looked at me, then Zeus, then back at me. “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “A bullet travels at a mile a second, lightning travels at a hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second. That rocked.”

  Ostin looked around. Smoke was still
wafting through the room and we all seemed frozen in place, like survivors of a natural disaster.

  He walked over to Nichelle and pushed her with his foot.

  “Is she dead?” Taylor asked.

  Ostin knelt down and put his hand on her neck. “No.”

  Just then, Ian climbed through the stairwell into the room. “Michael, Hatch is gone. He escaped in the helicopter.”

  “With all the kids?”

  “That I could see.”

  I sat down on the floor and raked my hand back through my hair.

  Then I looked over at Ostin. I’m sure it was the release of tension, but I suddenly started to laugh.

  Taylor looked at me like I’d gone crazy. “What’s so funny?”

  “Ostin,” I said, slowly shaking my head. “Ostin is. ‘Overload the circuit.’ Where in the world did you get that idea?”

  Ostin said defensively, “Nichelle gave it to me. When she called you all mosquitoes.”

  “What?” Taylor said.

  “Have you ever had a mosquito on your arm, but rather than swat it, just squeezed the skin around where it’s sucking?”

  “You had a strange, sick childhood,” Taylor said.

  “No, really, it’s cool. The mosquito can’t disengage, so it just fills up with blood until it explodes. I figured that since your natural reaction to Nichelle was always to resist, that she had probably just been dragging your powers out of you a little at a time, like sucking out of a straw. I figured if you just gave it to her all at once, she wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

  “Brilliant,” I said. “Brilliant.” I looked over at Zeus. He was standing quietly, leaning against the wall, his head bowed. “Hey, Zeus,” I said.

  He slowly turned around. “Frank,” he said. “I’m just Frank.”

  I shook my head. “No, dude, you’re definitely Zeus.”

  He smiled.

  “He’s right,” Taylor said. “You’re Zeus.” She walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek. “You were awesome. You were more than awesome—you were a hero.”

  “Thanks.” He touched his cheek. “You’re the first girl who’s ever kissed me.”

  Taylor smiled. “You deserved it.”

  Just then, Jack and Wade came in through the hole. Jack opened his arms to me. “Michael, my man,” he said, walking up to me. “Stand up, Vey, I’m going in for the bromance.”