Chapter 3 - THE PRISON LOCKDOWNWithin ten minutes, the entire facility was placed on full blackout. The primary power was cut, plunging the cell blocks and corridors into flickering emergency red light. Warden Vance had isolated the main block, cutting off outside phone lines under the guise of a "security breach."
They dragged me into an interrogation cell in the basement of the administrative wing—far away from the general population. I was handcuffed to a heavy steel table bolted to the floor.
The door creaked open, and Warden Vance walked in, accompanied by Captain Ryker. Vance was a tall, silver-haired man with pristine uniforms and a cold, sociopathic calm that had terrified inmates for a generation.
He sat down across from me, placing a silenced pistol onto the metallic surface of the table.
"Eight years, Ethan," Vance said softly, leaning forward. "Eight years you sat in my facility, eating my food, breathing my air, and you had the key to my downfall sewn into your undershirt the entire time."
"I didn't even know it was there," I said through cracked lips, staring him down. "If I knew, I wouldn't have waited eight years to destroy you."
Vance chuckled, a dark, hollow sound. "That’s the irony of it, isn't it? The auditor I killed was going to blow the whistle on my offshore slush funds. My clean-up crew panicked when that little brat, Noah, stumbled onto the scene. They dropped the flash drive during the scuffle, shoved it into your pocket thinking you were an accomplice, and then fled when police sirens approached. When you were caught at the scene, I made sure the investigation was rushed. I sentenced you myself."
"And now?" I asked, straining against the steel cuffs. "You think you can just kill me and Miller and pretend this never happened?"
"Miller is currently being detained in the armory for insubordination," Vance smirked. "The drive he took from you? My men have already recovered it. And as for you... an inmate trying to initiate an armed riot during a clemency visit? Tragic. Shot while attempting to escape."
May you like
He reached for the pistol.
Suddenly, the steel door behind Vance detonated inward with a deafening blast.
