The Operative woke up on a cot in a small cell. There were no windows on the wall, only a small window on the door for the guards to look in every once in a while. He quietly searched his surroundings, analyzing every last detail. It was a bare concrete room with metal ceiling. From the ceiling, there was a florescent light and a small security camera to keep an eye on him. There seemed to be no key points he could break out at. The floor was concrete, so he couldn't dig. The walls were brick, but there was nothing for him to use to break through the brick with. So his only hope of escape would be through the door.

He next decided to check the camera. It was a simple one, but it was able to turn and move to follow his movements, so disappearing from view and escaping through the door as they came to check on him was impossible. The metal was made of steel, so he could not break through it or bend it open if he took the camera out. He then checked the light. The metal case was welded to the ceiling, so there was no way of pulling the light out and climbing through the hole. Of course not, the Alliance isn't just going to let prisoners set to be executed escape. He checked under the bed and did a second sweep of the room before he sat on his cot to formulate a plan. His first idea he discarded due to the amount of security in the compound. The second plan he threw away due to lack of supplies. And the third plan would get him out of the room, but not out of the facility. He needed to get the guards in here, turn the camera off, change into the guard's uniform, and exit through the door to the hanger. He could only think of one plan that could possibly work. His brain went through the scenarios to figure out what to do if Plan A doesn't work. Finally, he was satisfied with his plan and began to put it in motion.

Close to one in the morning, the Operative pulled the camera off the ceiling. This went unnoticed for almost half an hour before one of the guards noticed the screen was just white noise. The guards went down to the cell and armed themselves. They tried to turn on the light, but the light would not come on. Their training told them that the prisoner had possibly escaped and that they must go in and make sure he was gone, but another part of their training told them that this was something that a prisoner would plan to get a hostage. They peeped into the room and could not see anything. One of the guards shone a flashlight through the window, trying to find a sign of the Operative. But they could see nothing.

They carefully opened the door and one by one, crept in. They looked up at the area that the light should have been and realized there looked to be a hole in the ceiling. It looked like a tight fit, but it seemed possible for a person to squeeze into it. The chief guard turned to order the guard outside to ring the alarm, but before he could speak, he froze in horror. The Operative was behind the other guard! Before the head guard could say anything, the Operative grabbed the guard outside and closed the door, locking the guards in. They could hear the grunts and screams of their companion outside, and the crunching of bones before the man's ceased to make a sound.

The Operative smiled to himself as he put the dead guards' uniform on. The plan had worked perfectly. He knew he couldn't take the light off, but he could break through it and squeeze through the opening. It took him a total of 15 minutes to break through and squeeze his way into the duct. It took him another five minutes to crawl to the duct directly above the outside of his cell. He just had to wait for the guards to go in and he could make his escape. After the guards entered, he dropped down silently behind the last guard and quickly pulled him to the floor before closing the prison door. After he incapacitated the guard, he was ready to move out.

He had been in the building before; through his years of working for the Alliance, he had several interrogations in this very building. He knew the floor plans and he knew where there was a ship. He calmly walked through the halls to the hanger of the prison. He was only stopped once, but a quick chop to the throat silenced him. He used the prisoner's ID to get through security to the hanger and got in the plane. The first sign the prison got that something was wrong was an unsanctioned ship leaving the prison, and by then, it was too late. The Operative was already out of the atmosphere and on his way to the outer planets.