Dangerous Territory

Fourteen

Mala wouldn't be surprised if the only places in the prison that weren't under surveillance were the inside of the toilets and the camera security room.

Of course, the camera room had its own form of surveillance in the form of Jon and Mattheus but for some bizarre reason, unbeknownst to her, they weren't in the room when she got in for the day.

Never mind the fact that it was horribly dangerous for the cameras to be unsupervised, it was also wonderfully convenient because Mala was itching to do some more research on the layout of the penitentiary.

Tanya had said something about being back in an hour or two, so she had some time to relax without feeling the pressure of having to keep up her front. It was hard work pretending to act composed when she knew her mate was so close, trapped behind metal bars. It didn't matter where she was, there was an inward compass in her that always pointed in his direction.

Since she knew that she would be alone for an indefinite amount of time, not even able to hear the sound of another soul breathing in the immediate area, she allowed herself to lean back and enjoy the stress free environment.

As much as she could at least.

Just to be on the safe side, she was sat behind the wall of archived tapes, hidden from view, and using her own laptop instead of the work computer, because she wasn't an idiot.

According to the world wide web, she was right in thinking that no one had ever escaped from Irongate. There had been so few prisoners over the years, that she doubted anyone had even gotten the chance to think about escaping let alone act on it.

Judging from the fact that the prisoners were given some form of shifter suppressants, they were likely too weak to conduct a break out if they ever wanted to. However as far as she knew, they were only given suppressants when they were being escorted to certain parts of the penitentiary, such as Zoe's office.

That could make all the difference, or it could make none. That was still to be decided.

Opening up a word document, she started typing out a list of questions that she needed answers to.

What kind of drugs are they being given? Was one of them.

Weak spots in the layout? Was another.

Crazily enough, three pages deep on an obscure search engine was a leaked plan of the prison blueprints. It was dated back two years before Irongate opened, and at a closer look, it seemed to be the initial, rough blueprint, a first draft almost, but it was something. Plus, from the parts that she could decipher, the places she had visited in the penitentiary were in the right places. She would have to search around and see if the rest matched up.

She couldn't help but smile. It had been a week since she had moved up to Tanya's house, two weeks since she had first met Auden, and she finally felt like she was about to make some progress.

Two weeks.

Two whole weeks and it had been a rollercoaster of a time already.

She was about to open her mouth and make a comment to herself about Auden owing her when the door swung open and the two men walked back in, speaking in hushed voices too quiet for a human to pick up.

When the door shut behind them, Mala recognised that they were hushed, angry voices.

"-sick of seeing Blake in that cell."

That was Jon. He sounded absolutely livid.

"We'll figure something out."

"Damn it. We better figure it out soon or I'm going to do something really stupid."