Fair Trade (Sequel to "Read Between The Lines")

Chapter 2: Prison Break

Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, OR

Officer Kathy glanced at the two burly, silent gentlemen standing in the visitor's area. They were here to negotiate the release of Prisoner 188019, the blond. They were no relation, only friends. A small nagging voice at the back of her mind told her that she needn't fear or suspect these men, so long as she complied.
As per protocol, she ran checks on the men. All their paperwork seemed in perfect order and entirely above suspicion, right down to the fees involved.

Prisoner 188019 soon received her effects and turned in her jumpsuit. She smirked at her escorts.
"I trust you found the security checkpoints more than accomodating?"

"Don't flatter yourself," one of the Hundjaeger grunted. "We are not customarily refused by any government establishment."

"Yes," the woman had a strange glint in her large blue eyes, "but this is a prison, and I'm the golden harp you're stealing from Jack's giant; come, you must give me some credit!"

"Why should we?" the other one asked.
She tapped her chin and rolled her eyes mockingly. "Let me see, the Royal Family orchestrates my release; I seriously doubt it's because they have a soft spot for me. I should have been a nobody, here and gone like all the rest. Instead, they want me so badly that they send in a retrieval team to make sure nothing goes wrong—or," she suddenly sniffed at their necks. She smiled and smoothed one Hundjaeger's collar.
"Maybe it's to make sure everything goes right. You're Ivan," she said, "and you like to read science fiction. I'm getting a whiff of something Asimovian, Nemesis, perhaps? Or Nightfall?"

The big Wesen grunted uncomfortably. "Can't remember."

Her strangely-blue eyes danced as she stared at him. "Nightfall, I think; you positively reek of it; did you like my note between pages 45 and 46? And you," she turned to his companion and drew a breath through her nose. "Hhmm, I detect a vague sense of a Telltale Heart, a bit of The Purloined Letter—oh! You must have picked up my copy of Edgar Allen Poe! I hope my markings weren't too distracting; I did enjoy that book so much!" She smiled and clapped her hands.

The sound made both men wince, as the beginnings of a ferocious headache began.

She did not seem to notice. "Follow me gentlemen. I've had just about enough of this place." She strode toward the exit, out the visitor's lobby.

She stopped just behind the security booth, where the same officer who had checked the two men in prepared to check the trio out.

"Dear Kathy," she gushed. "I can never thank you enough for everything you've given me during my time here. Did you get my note?"

Kathy had never received such gratitude from an ex-con. She blushed and stammered an affirmative answer.
The former inmate clapped her hands. "Wonderful! I'm very sorry that I won't be seeing you again."

Kathy's head was swimming. She couldn't think; her brain stopped functioning, and her legs melted into jelly. The blond didn't seem fazed; she raised a finger in recollection.

"Oh, and by the way—" She stopped as Kathy's eyes glazed over and she collapsed. The blond counted to three, and the instant she finished, Kathy gave one more shudder and lay still.

The woman knelt next to her head and inspected her right ear closely. "I think you have something of mine." 

Carefully, she extended her pointer finger. It morphed, extending into a foot-long claw with a small barb at the end. This she inserted with surgical precision into the dead warden's ear canal. "Come on out, little one." 

When she withdrew the claw, it had a long, white worm wrapped around the end. She rested the tip of the claw against her own ear, and the worm slipped into the canal. She sighed as it disappeared. "Oh, that feels so much better."