CHAPTER 6 — "The Warden Wasn't the Enemy… The Real Mastermind Wore a Guard's Uniform"
Emergency generators flickered on.
Red lights bathed the prison in an eerie glow.
Smoke drifted through the corridors.
Confusion spread everywhere.
Correctional officers shouted conflicting orders.
Some ran toward the gunfire.
Others abandoned their posts completely.
Emily immediately realized something terrifying.
This wasn't chaos.
It was choreography.
Someone had planned every second.
She grabbed Brenda's arm.
"How many emergency exits lead to the control room?"
Brenda frowned.
"Three."
Emily shook her head.
"No."
"There are four."
Brenda stared at her.
"How do you know that?"
Emily didn't answer.
Instead, she sprinted toward an old maintenance corridor hidden behind the laundry wing.
Brenda followed.
"So you've been here before?"
Emily finally spoke.
"No."
"I studied the blueprints for six months."
At the end of the corridor…
They found two correctional officers lying unconscious.
Neither had been killed.
Only sedated.
Emily knelt beside one of them.
A tiny puncture mark on the officer's neck.
Not a bullet.
A tranquilizer dart.
Professional.
Military grade.
Emily's heartbeat quickened.
"The Queen has outside support."
Suddenly—
A voice echoed through the prison loudspeakers.
Calm.
Elegant.
Female.
"Good evening, Captain Carter."
Every inmate froze.
Every guard looked toward the ceiling.
"I must admit…"
"You've survived much longer than the others."
Emily remained silent.
The voice continued.
"You've been searching for me since the day your husband died."
Brenda looked at Emily in shock.
"Husband?"
Emily's face lost all color.
Very few people knew about him.
Fewer still knew how he had died.
The voice laughed softly.
"Did you really believe his death was an accident?"
Emily's hands slowly curled into fists.
Five years earlier…
Her husband, investigative journalist Daniel Carter, had died in a mysterious warehouse explosion while investigating corruption inside the prison system.
The case had been closed within forty-eight hours.
No suspects.
No evidence.
Now…
Someone inside Blackstone had just admitted they knew the truth.
"I watched him beg for your name," the voice whispered.
Emily's breathing stopped.
Brenda grabbed her shoulder.
"Don't listen."
But it was too late.
The Queen had found the one wound Emily had never healed.
Then the loudspeaker clicked off.
Only static remained.
Moments later, every security monitor inside the prison switched to the same image.
A woman wearing a correctional officer's uniform.
Her face hidden beneath a cap.
On her left hand…
A diamond serpent ring.
Emily recognized it instantly.
Not from the prison.
From an old intelligence file connected to a criminal organization believed to have infiltrated law enforcement years ago.
The Queen had never been an inmate.
She had been walking through the prison every single day…
Dressed as one of its own guards.
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And if Emily's instincts were right—
She was already preparing to disappear before sunrise.
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