Outlaws (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 2)

Chapter 17

As Nolun joined the line of prisoners shuffling back to their cells, his mind was racing with panic and planning. How could he have been so stupid? He should have been more careful in hiding the supplies last night. If they found them, it would all be over. They would be transferred to permanent solitary, with no chance of escape. He looked back slightly at the line and saw Andress a few men behind him, with Trace farther away. As he was about to look away, he noticed that Andress was doing something strange. He looked and saw that she was clenching and unclenching her real hand into a fist. At first he thought that she was just as upset as he was, then he looked closer and saw that there was a pattern. Andress would clench it a certain number of times, and then unclench it a certain number. She continued to do this, alternating until Nolun figured it out. It was an ancient mode of communication known as Morse Code. It relied on making a pattern of long and short tones to correspond to letters of the alphabet in order to form messages. Nolun was an expert on the subject, and realized that Andress probably was too. He began to decode the message, then his eyes widened. It was crazy, practically almost guaranteed to land them in solitary, but if Andress was thinking what he was thinking, then it just might work. As they approached his cell, he saw Andress walk past him, and she raised her eyebrows at him questioningly. He nodded slightly, to confirm to her that he got the message. As he sat on the edge of his bed, he knew that even without the clamps, he wouldn't be able to get the materials into the pipe in time, or without anyone noticing. This was the only way. He just hoped it would work.

After a few minutes, an inspector with a clipboard and pen and two guards with stun batons came into Nolun's cell. The inspector had grey hair and wireframe glasses, and was looking down his nose at Nolun with disdain, as if he hated being here as much as Nolun did. He looked around at the toilet and determined the plumbing there was intact and nothing was hidden. He used a scanner to detect electronic devices, but found none. Next he moved to the camera, and inspected the panel around it to see if it had been tampered with, and then scanned it to see if anything was hidden and if it was in working order. Finally he moved to the bed that Nolun was sitting on. He looked down at Nolun. "Stand up, please." Nolun looked back up at him and seemed perfectly calm. "My feet hurt." He kept sitting on the bed, and one of the guards stepped forwards, brandishing his baton. "Stand up, prisoner! Now!" Nolun looked over at the guard, and then smirked. "Make me." The guard looked at him with a sneer on his face and activated his baton, and jabbed it at Nolun. But, before it could make contact, Nolun trapped it between his hands and trapped the guard in an armlock. So the guard would stop moving, Nolun headbutted him, making his head snap back and his forehead bleed. He cried out, and the other guard stepped forwards to take out Nolun. However, this had been Nolun and Andress's plan. The baton was caught between the two clamps, and had managed to short out the magnetic seal, allowing Nolun to free his hands. He grabbed the baton with his free hand before the guard could hit him with it, and pushed the guard he had headbutted into him. Both of them staggered back, and Nolun grabbed the baton and stunned one of them in the chest. He could hear the inspector calling for backup, but it didn't matter. He kept fighting, occasionally getting hit himself, but he always retaliated. Then, after a few minutes, many different guards rushed in, and made Nolun fall to his knees with a barrage of stuns. They carried him out, then threw him into a solitary chamber.

The intense heat made Nolun draw back into the farthest corner he could find. It was an oven in here, and he was being cooked alive. But, it had all been part of the plan, and he had gotten what he needed. He rummaged around in his jumpsuit, looking for the small hole, and pulled out the camera. His original plan had been to hide it in the pipe before the guards showed up, but Andress gave him a different idea. He had managed to decode her repeating message as: BEAT GUARDS, TAKE CAMERA. The brawl with the guards only looked like an escape attempt, but it was really meant to throw Nolun into solitary. When he had been attacked by the additional guards, he had managed to grab the camera from underneath the bed and hide it in a small hole in his suit just before they had carried him off. Now, they could search his cell all they wanted and they wouldn't find a thing. He just had to hold off in here for a while with the camera tucked safely inside his suit, and he would be golden. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly going to be easy. He had no idea of how long he spent in there, as the only thing he could really focus on was the heat and the light. It must have been long enough, as he felt someone shut off the lights, and grabbed him, tossing him back into his cell. As he felt the cool floor, he looked around, regaining his senses. Everything in the cell looked intact, so they at least hadn't done a strip search. He looked under the sink to see the rusty pipe was still there. He breathed a silent sigh of relief, and pulled himself up onto the bed, his entire body drenched in sweat. Tonight, he would put the camera back in the pipe, and make sure it was really hidden this time. Tomorrow, they would only have two days left until Gottlieb arrived. So the riot would have to happen sometime during those next few days. As Nolun stared up at the ceiling of the cell, panting heavily, he began to think about the Renegade, and everyone that was on it. The Pieces, the treasure, none of that mattered anymore. He just needed to get out of here. He thought about Andress, and how he had dragged her into this. As Nolun began to drift off, he realized that he wasn't doing it for him anymore...he was doing it for her.