Chapter 7

"Are you ever going to actually let me out to have some fun? If we don't get started soon, we'll run out of time and your precious Dean will die." Aidan was yet again pestering Nadia about how long she was going to wait until she started making good on her deal.

"I am one step ahead of you. I already have a plan; I found a place to start. How do you not know this already?" Nadia asked Aidan aloud.

"You think I just set up here all day long listening to everything you think?" Aidan mocked Nadia's voice, "'Do I look fat in these pants? I wonder who thought of calling a poster a poster? What ever made someone look at a potato and say 'I wonder what this tastes like.' How did they even find it to begin with? Was it an accident, did they just stumble across it?' Seriously! Like I want to listen to that all day long…"

Nadia couldn't help but listen and laugh, "Did I really think that?"

"Pathetically, on more than one occasion."

"Wow," she laughed at herself, "sorry."

"The point is I just block you out most of the time; so no, I didn't know you had anything fun planned."

"I don't know how fun it will be…"

"Your idea of fun and mine greatly differ."

"True."

"So what's the plan?" Aidan eagerly asked.

"Did you know that the only states without the death penalty are: Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin?"

"Who cares?"

Nadia huffed, "I do and so do you."

"And why is that?"

"Wow you really don't listen very often do you?"

"Haven't we already established the reasons why? Now, moving on…why do I care?"

"Because California does have the death penalty; so they have a death row. Which means that they have a cell block full of people (675 according to the website) that are already set to die. We…you, I mean, can go in there and subtract them from our agreed on 1,000 souls." She smiled smugly to herself.

Nadia could feel Aidan smirk, "A loop hole. Nice."

"Thank you," she bowed. "And, thinking like you, if we can take all of them out; that only leaves us 325…no, 323 (with the two men from the other night) souls left to gather. There was a reason I wanted to hit California up first. They have the highest number of inmates sitting on death row."

"I must admit, I am impressed; you are speaking of killing people so cavalierly. It seems you have finally come to accept your new role…"

"I don't feel any more indifferent about this killing thing than I ever did before. But I have to think like a business woman. I have a huge task to perform and the smarter I am about completing it; the sooner I can get it done and the sooner I can see Dean."

Aidan sighed, "You really don't want me to have any fun do you?"

Nadia laughed, "A thousand souls in a couple of months…I think you'll make quite an intimidating name for yourself."

She could feel Aidan thinking that idea over, "Alright so you have a point," she grudgingly admitted. "So, when do we get to go?" she was busting with excited anticipation.

Nadia rolled her eyes, "It's not a fieldtrip to the zoo, it's San Quentin for crying out loud."

"Actually it will be a lot like a trip to the zoo… Angry, horny men in cages…it will be just like a visit to the guerilla exhibit," they both laughed.

"There is still a lot of planning to do before we go anywhere." She felt Aidan groan, "You can tide yourself over with planning the whole thing."

"Okay, so we'll have to stake the place out so that we can see exactly where all the entrances and exits are. Where all the cameras are located and then we have to figure out how we're going to take them out and get over the fence…"

"Yeah…or we could just knock out a guard and take on his appearance and then just…walk through the front door. I know it's a little out there, but…" Nadia mocked.

"Ugh, you have no flare for the dramatic! Could you come up with a more boring plan?"

"I believe the word you are looking for is safer."

"Because safe is so much fun!"

"I am not doing this for fun."

Aidan rolled her figurative eyes, "I know. But we had an agreement; I get to take over the body when we get there. So you will have no say in what I do or do not do. Huh, do or do not do…"

"Sometimes it's like having a five year old in my brain. You are greatly mistaken if you think I will have no say in what you do. If you're going to go out all half-cocked; then you won't be going out at all," Nadia crossed her arms.

"Fine," Aidan huffed, "I will think about every move before I make it and be smart about it and logical and boring… And I swear to…I swear that I will not do anything that will get me into trouble with you or anyone else. God, it's like living in a covenant," Aidan complained.

Nadia couldn't help but smile at Aidan's rant, "Good. Because I will be listening to everything you think and if I don't like it…you are going back to the nuns."

"Funny."

Nadia had been scouring the internet for any map of San Quentin's layout for 2 hours; but was coming up with nothing.

"We're just gonna have to go there," Aidan said again.

"Fine, we'll go. But there is only so much that one can see from outside and we still don't even know where death row is. Got any bright ideas?"

"Well, remember your boring plan from before? We can do that now. I want them to see my face for the actual event; but just for recon, it'll do."

"You mean becoming one of the guards?"

"Do you not remember your own plans?"

"Do you have to be such a smart ass?"

"Demon."

"Human."

"Not completely."

"Ditto. Moving on," she sneered, "we should find someone who isn't on duty."

"Why? That's just more work when we could just come up behind some guy as he walks in and stuff him in his trunk."

"And then we have to worry about cameras, witnesses, and a guy who wakes up in his trunk and raises the alert at the prison."

Aidan sighed, "Such a stickler for details."

Nadia looked at the clock, "It's 4:30 now; if we leave soon we can get there by maybe 10:00 at night… I hate California traffic! And then we still have to find an off duty officer…" she turned back to the computer and began searching for any mentions of current employees.

"What about him?" Aidan asked.

"You mean the Warden?"

"Yeah. I bet he could get us into all sorts of places…"

"I am not going to attack the frick'in warden!"

"Well, why not?"

"Because…he's the frick'in warden!"

"I really don't see what the difference is between attacking him or a guard when we are just doing it so that we can ultimately get in there and kill 675 people. Does it really matter who other people see!?"

"The warden is high profile and he's probably there like, all the time. How are we gonna look like him and then walk into a prison that he is already inside of? I think someone will notice the sudden appearance of a second Robert K. Wong!"

"I'm not an idiot! We'll wait until he is leaving for the night and then you can do what you did to Dean and make him fall asleep. Then you can walk back in the place, pretend like you forgot something, and when it's all over and you have a prison map in hand, walk back out and let him wake up none the wiser. He'll drive home thinking that he was just really tired and fell asleep in his car."

Nadia tried desperately to find some blatant reason this idea wouldn't work; but was coming up blank. With each passing second, Aidan listened to her thoughts and grew more and more smug. "Fine. We should still go up there tonight and try to learn as much of his routine as we can before we attempt this."

"Very Girl Scout of you."

"Be prepared."