An armored van carries several prisoners down the highway. Lucas sits in the back, staring out the window silently. The van pulls off to an exit and then into a gated area. Seagate Prison looms ahead. It is a small facility with concrete walls lined with barbed wire and armed guards stationed in towers above them. Lucas looks out the window, noticing the sign SEAGATE PRISON and sees that underneath is a corporate logo: Syndyne LTD.
"Hey, this isn't the state pen," one of the prisoners says as he also notices, "What the hell is Syndyne?"
"A business. I heard Seagate's a privately owned prison," another man sneers, "Looks like Uncle Sam doesn't wanna pay our rent anymore."
Lucas places his clothes in a box and hands it over to a seated guard. Next, he showers alongside other new prisoners. He comes out in a prison uniform along with the other inmates and stands in line in front of a row of cells. Two men stand behind him. One is thin with short blonde hair and the other is more muscular and has reddish hair.
"You're Carl Lucas, ain't ya," the blonde one asks.
"Who's asking?," Lucas responds dryly.
"I'm Tom Stuart and this is my brother, Tim," he motions to the muscular man behind him, "We're friends of Willis Stryker."
Lucas looks down and notices both men have identical dagger tattoos on their right hands, just like Stryker and other members of their gang.
"That's right," Tim shows off his tattoo, "Rivals."
"Too bad Stryker didn't get sent to Seagate. You could've had a reunion," Lucas turns back around.
"Y'know, on the outside, they called me 'Stiletto'," Tom tells him him, "Know why?"
"You liked to wear women's shoes?"
"I was the best there was with a knife," he whispers into his ear, "Better watch your ass, Lucas."
A portly guard storms down the hall with two more guards following him. He wears a nametag that says Rackham. A on his lapel. He stands in front of the new inmates, staring them down before he begins, "Listen up, I am Albert Rackham and I am the head guard at Seagate Prison. Pay attention to everything that I tell you and it will make my job easier. If my job is easy, I will at least treat you like human beings. I will call your name and you will come forward to receive your cell number." He looks at his clipboard, "Bendis, Brian!" A prisoner steps up and a guard motions him toward his ceel. "Goodwin, Archie!," another prisoner steps forward and he's sent to his cell. "Lucas, Carl!," Lucas steps forward. Rackham takes a look at his clipboard and back at Lucas, "Wait, is your first name Lucas or Carl?".
"I can see how that might confuse you," Lucas says with a wry smile, "My first name can be a last name and my last name can be a first -"
He's interrupted by a punch to the stomach. Lucas falls to his knees and doubles over in pain. The Stuart brothers both chuckle to themselves as he tries to breathe. Rackham stands over him, "Your are whatever I wanna call you, son! Get this through your head! This ain't some pansy federal prison! It's been bought and owned so we can play by our own rules! You're in my 'hood' now! Your ass belongs to me for however long they wanna see you rot! You better not even take a dump without my say-so, you got me?"
"Yeah," Lucas croaks, "So who do I talk to when I need to wipe?"
The other prisoners laugh. Rackham motions to one of the guards who drags Lucas away to his cell. As he's carried off, Rackham turns to the other inmates, "Laugh it up, idiots! That's as entertaining as it gets around here!"
Lucas is thrown into his cell and the door is slammed shut. In the distance, he can still hear Rackham shouting the name of the next inmate, "Romita, John". Lucas rubs his stomach in pain and lays down on his cot. "Gonna be a long seven years," he says to himself.