by Turner, Ivan
Now that greedy grin returned to Igor’s face. “You want Carlos’ plan?”
I shook my head. “I want Carlos and his plan.”
“Well then,” Igor said, standing once again. “I guess I’ll just go over and talk to him.”
And that’s just what he did. He went over and sat down at Carlos Castillo’s table without being invited and took full advantage of Carlos’ curiosity. Things must have gone well because he didn’t return to our table for the rest of the evening.
Between midnight and 12:01 am, I felt myself being shaken out of my sleep. Groggy, I rolled over and looked up at Igor’s ugly face. “Shift change. Let’s go.”
Apparently, at midnight there was a changing of the guard. The guards didn’t much care if the prisoners went from room to room because no one ever caused any trouble. If they saw it, however, they would have to do something about it. So it was common knowledge (common to everyone but me) that you could move around for about five minutes during the shift change. There were cameras in the halls, but apparently they were unmonitored during shift changes as well. It was as if we were being given leave to sneak around. Even though I thought it strange at the time, I didn’t give it much thought. I had never spent any time in captivity and the relative comfort and safety of our surroundings lent to a distorted image of what a cage was supposed to be like.
Igor gave me all of fifteen seconds to dress. I had to go to the bathroom, but he said I could do that when we got to Carlos’ room. The shift changes were short so we had to move quickly. He didn’t even bother to check the halls and steered clear of the elevator. We went quickly to the stairs and climbed two floors to Carlos’ room. When we entered, without knocking, Igor closed the door softly behind us. Doreen and Jesse were both there but Lydia was absent. As if reading my mind, Carlos gave me a sour look.
“We didn’t have time to get both of you. Next time, maybe you can come on your own.”
“Why now?” I asked.
“It’s not important,” he said. “And keep your voice down.”
“It’s important to me. If I’m going to trust you…”
“Trust me?” he said. “Without me, you don’t go anywhere.”
Igor looked away sheepishly.
“That’s not the point.”
“Igor says you’re serious. And I know he’s serious. The rest of these people are serious up until they have to get their hands dirty. They like it here. It’s easy work and no responsibility.”
I tried to gauge the accuracy of what he was saying. There were too many people involved for his beliefs to be true across the spectrum. But he believed it. That was clear at least. I also guessed that he’d chosen me because of Igor. If anyone was serious about getting out, it would be Igor. His reputation was shot. He was universally despised. Someone had tried to kill him.
For the next four hours, leading up to the last shift change for the night, we discussed the escape plan. You would think that such a thing would have had to be wildly complicated. You would think that every person involved would have a vital part of the plan. But it wasn’t the case. All a really good escape plan needed was information and a route. At least, that’s all this one needed. Carlos had not spent years working out the details. Despite the constant murmurs of the development of the plan and their huddled meetings during the socialization periods, the plan had been developed in its entirety early on.
In sealing off the city, the United Arab Nation had done a poor job of it. While the bridges were guarded, the tunnels were sealed off. Here, Doreen was the key. During the early days of the reconstruction, she had been assigned to fortify the barriers on the tunnels. Since these operations had been performed mostly by American citizens, each of the barriers had been sabotaged. Though she had not been as skilled as some of the others, the sabotage had been explained to her and she was fairly certain that she could find the weak spots that would collapse the whole thing. I wasn’t very comfortable with the phrase fairly certain, but I kept my mouth shut.
The trick to the whole thing was stealing a car. Actually, we really needed a bus because there were seven of us including Lydia and Jonah Jones. Jonah Jones made it onto the roster because of Jesse. There must have been an earlier argument about it because it seemed to be a sore point with Carlos. Jesse was the one pushing to have Jonah included, which was ironic because she was often mean to him. So we needed a bus. While there was a bus that took us to and from the work site, that bus was only available at those times. Carlos explained that they had considered trying to steal the bus just before the work day, but then it would be a high speed chase to the tunnel and we would likely be caught while taking down the barrier. The operation required stealth, which meant getting out during the night and finding a bus.
The buses were kept in depots and the depots were nowhere near our apartment complex. We could have conceivably walked to a depot but it would have taken valuable time. There were also police vans. Sometimes, American prisoners did not cooperate and needed to be formally jailed. There were police vans at the jails. Carlos suggested that one or two of us get ourselves jailed and then steal a police van. I remarked that that was hardly inconspicuous and he gave me a sour look. Carlos was not a man given to subtlety. But subtlety was required here.
“What about an ambulance?” Jesse suggested as the hour and the arguments dragged on close to three o’clock. “Getting out of a hospital has to be a lot easier than getting out of jail.” She pointed at me. “Just break his stupid nose and they’ll put him right in.”
I took two steps back in spite of myself. While the hospital plan had merit, or was at least worth looking into, I wasn’t exactly delighted with the part of the plan where my nose was broken.
Igor came to my rescue. “It’s not as easy as all that. I’ve been to the hospital. The security there is tighter than the jail because they’ve got stuff to protect. You can’t just wander the halls and you definitely aren’t getting out of there without someone noticing you.”
“Which brings us right back to square one,” Carlos said through gritted teeth. “There’s no way to get a bus.”
Doreen made a huffy noise.
“I don’t want to hear it, Doreen,” Carlos shot at her.
“Hear what?” Igor asked.
“Forget it,” Carlos ordered definitively. “It’s a dumb idea.”
I looked at their faces. Clearly this was something that had come up between them before Igor and I had been invited in. Doreen seemed to be trying to garner support for a plan that had long since been discarded by the others. This political ploy had not escaped Carlos’ notice and he certainly did not appreciate the subterfuge. Jesse, on the other hand, just looked put out, as if she were just angry about having to rehash this same subject yet again.
I felt spiteful. “I’d like to hear it.”
I had expected a reaction from Carlos, but his reaction was so angry that it still took me by surprise. Instead of wheeling on me, he pounced on Igor, balling his hands into fists and getting right into his face. Another thing that surprised me was that, though there was tremendous emotion in his voice, he did not raise it above a whisper. Apparently, even when Carlos lost his head, he did not lose his head.
“You take responsibility for this son of a bitch. You’re here because you can get information we can’t and he’s here because you want him here so shut him the hell up.”
Igor looked positively terrified and I can’t say I blame him. But my read on Carlos was that he wouldn’t do anything dangerous or violent in that small room for fear of alerting the guards. When four o’clock came we would all have to get back to our rooms in a hurry anyway.
“I’d still like to hear it,” I said.
“I think we should just walk,” said Doreen before Carlos could interrupt again.
I thought about it a moment. Escape on foot rather than by bus. Admittedly, it didn’t seem practical. We had dismissed walking to a depot because of the time issue. There was also the problem of
seven people walking down the street in the middle of the night. Not very subtle.
“See?” said Carlos. “Stupid.”
She stared daggers at him. “I’m not finished.”
“You’re finished,” he said.
Have you ever been in a situation where you become an unexpected witness to an event that is going to have great impact on the lives people who are not you. It’s almost like being a part of the show and a spectator at the same time. It is an awkward and uncomfortable feeling. That was how I felt just then. With the notion of escape becoming a reality in the eyes of Carlos and Doreen, she was suddenly asserting herself in a way that I presumed she had never done before. The outcome of the argument would change their dynamic. To make matters worse, I had precipitated the argument by expressing my interest in Doreen’s idea, a sincere interest to be sure. Carlos glared at me before sitting himself on the bed in sullen silence.
Doreen turned back to Igor and me. “We could use the subway tunnels,” she said.
“You can’t go down there,” Carlos told her. “You don’t know what it’s like down there.”
And that’s where I saw it. There was a quaver to his voice and a widening of his pupils. Carlos was, for the first time, showing fear.
“They’ve cleaned out the subway tunnels,” Igor said.
“They did not,” Carlos shot back. “They blocked ‘em all off and left the people down there to die.”
But Igor shook his head. “I spent enough time in Samud’s office to get a look at the entire reconstruction plan. You don’t just fill in an entire subway system. Especially not one as complex and useful as New York’s.”
“They didn’t do any work down there,” Carlos maintained. “There aren’t any work crews that go into the subways.”
“Not any American work crews. It’s too hard to keep track of people down there so they only send Arabs.”
Jesse made the noise again. “Then we can’t go down there anyway.”
“We can if we have a map with all of the work areas marked up. If we need to, we can hide out down there for a few days until they stop looking for us.”
“And how are we going to get a map?” Carlos asked.
Igor looked at me.
“What am I supposed to do?”
Igor said, “Samud keeps that map in the file cabinet in his office. Go and see him.”
“I don’t see Samud anymore,” I said shortly. “And even if I did, I doubt he’d just give me a map of the subway.”
That miserly smile returned to Igor’s face and I was sickened. I knew then that he, of course, had information that I did not. Whatever it was, though, I knew it would feel like slime on my hands when I heard it.
“He will see you. And he will give you the map.”
“Quit being an asshole and tell him what he needs to do,” Jesse complained.
He looked at her sourly, unhappy that she had wrecked his moment. But time was running out and he did as he was told. “Samud will give you the map because you are going to blackmail him. You are going to threaten to expose him as a homosexual if he doesn’t.”
“What?!” This came from all four of us.
Igor giggled. “Did you think he invited you back to his country just so he would have someone to play chess with?” He looked around the room, pleased by the stunned silence. I doubted the others even had any inkling that I had been offered UAN citizenship and I was once again impressed with Igor’s ability to gain information even in his state of disgrace.
“He’s in love with you,” he continued. “And even if he isn’t, if you make allegations of a homosexual relationship between the two of you, he will be ruined.”
“There is no such relationship between us,” I replied through gritted teeth.
“Of course not,” Igor said as much to mollify me as anything else. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be pining away for the girl in the picture day after day. But if you say there is one, then everyone will believe you. He took you out of here enough nights to do God knows what.”
“You mean you don’t know why?”
“No,” he admitted. “I could never find out.”
This small victory brought me a bit of satisfaction. But it wasn’t enough. “I won’t do it.”
“You’ll do it,” said Carlos, who had been listening with rapt attention.
“It’s disgusting,” I said, looking directly at him. I turned back to Igor. “Think of something else.”
Igor thought a moment. “If you can get him to leave the room, you can steal it. I doubt it would go noticed right away.”
“No,” Jesse said. “Blackmail him. Turn him as white as the towel he wears on his head.”
“Samud doesn’t wear a turban,” I said.
“Shut up!”
“She’s right,” Carlos said. “If we can buy Samud, that’ll give us a huge advantage. Maybe he can even get us out of New York without having to escape.”
Igor shrugged. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“It’s settled then,” said Carlos, looking at the clock on his table.
“It’s not settled,” I cried and I knew that my voice had risen too high. We sat for a moment in silence, waiting for a guard to knock on the door.
We were lucky.
“Even if it’s all true, I won’t do it. It’s a horrible thing to do to someone.”
Igor laughed. “He’s your friend, is he?” I hadn’t said it, but I suppose it had been plain on my face. I had considered Samud a friend. I had always looked forward to meeting with him. I never suspected him of feeling anything more and I wasn’t sure I believed it now. But Igor was determined. “Look where you live and what you do? At the end of the day, you’re a prisoner the same as all of us. Don’t let your loyalties get all screwed up because of a few nice games of chess.”
I looked at each of them. Aside from Doreen, they all made me sick. Personally I would choose Samud over any one of them.
“I won’t do it,” I said, and then we were out of time.
I had hoped that Lydia would back me up, but she took their side. In fact, she had a better idea than actually going into the Lincoln Tunnel. When she had been running refugees out of the city with Warren Li, they had used an access corridor that was attached to the Lincoln Tunnel. Since Warren had been killed in Manhattan during a rescue, she was sure that the corridor had never been discovered. It would be much safer and much less conspicuous than using the actual tunnel. Once on the Jersey side, we would be able to easily blend into the scenery while we made the long journey to Pennsylvania.
“Listen to me,” she said over dinner and she took one of my hands into both of hers. “I know that this violates everything that you think is decent, but there isn’t any other way. We have to get out. You need to get to your family as much as I need to get to Daniel.”
I took my hand away from hers and continued to eat. I felt very much alone and began to wonder if it was still possible to just have Carlos break my nose.
As the days continued to pass, I stayed away from my group of co-conspirators. I was told to meet in Carlos’ room at midnight and refused to show. Igor came to collect me once but I sent him away. They sent Lydia the next night and Carlos the night after that. Carlos threatened to drag me by force, but it was a bluff. We would have both been caught.
On the evening of the sixteenth of December, during the socialization period, Jonah Jones came and sat across from me. I was just looking at the picture of Jennie and thinking how much I just wanted to see her. Jonah, quite out of character, waited for me to acknowledge him before speaking.
“Mathew,” he said to me. “We’ve been collecting supplies for two weeks. We’ve got enough food and water and lights for all of us and we’re ready to go. We even pulled enough for you. Please help us to get home.”
He didn’t wait for a reply. He just got up and walked away. I sat there, looking at the picture of Jennie, thinking only of Jennie. What they were asking me to do made me feel vile. But I look
ed at the face of Jennie and then I looked up at the six of them, all sitting together. They turned away quickly, even Jesse, who normally wouldn’t. Of all of them, it was Jonah Jones who was the person I thought most deserved to get out. Jonah Jones, who had entered my life as a gibbering pest, was the one of them whose heart was golden. I wondered if they had even told him what it was they expected me to do.
Gathering my courage, I approached one of the guards, one of those who had delivered messages to Samud in the past, and asked him to tell my friend that I would like to see him.
They didn’t dare talk to me, the others. They could sense my mood and my irritation and so left me alone the next night at dinner and during socialization. Of course, they knew that I had acquiesced. All they could do now was wait.
For my part, I did not expect Samud to honor my request, nor to respond very quickly. So it was much to my surprise that I found him waiting for me in my room when I returned there after the socialization period. Upon seeing him, I froze, standing on the threshold of my open door, my escort standing behind me, waiting for me to close the door. He still had several others to return to their rooms.
“Please come in,” Samud said. “You’re holding up the others.”
Regaining some semblance of composure, I did as I was asked and closed the door behind me. Footsteps retreated down the hall behind the closed door. Before saying anything, I studied my visitor. He seemed a little more uncertain than the man I had come to know. He blinked a lot. We stood facing each other for a while. We were what we were. Two friends who needed to mend fences before continuing on.
“I’m not sorry,” I said.
He nodded. “I didn’t expect that you would be. I expected you wanted to see me about your escape plan.”
He was trying to surprise me, catch me off guard. Though I hadn’t expected him to know about it, I found that I wasn’t surprised that he did. After all, I had been seen speaking with Carlos and it was probably no secret that I had visited him once during the night and Lydia, who had become a regular acquaintance of mine, had probably been to his room many times. No, there were no surprises there.