Chapter 25

This time, Aidan wasn't going to waste anytime getting the information she needed. Nadia had let her take over as soon as they reached the prison's parking lot and she was going to prove how useful she could be. The next time she wanted to stretch her figurative legs, Nadia wouldn't have any reason not to let her. The lot was filled with the cars of employees and visitors. The visitor's section was monitored by cameras, so Aidan pulled into the first spot she could find in the employees' designated area. The plan was simple: "talk" someone into letting her in, showing her around, answering a few basic questions about where the deathrow inmates were and how they were served, slip in alittle chopped up hemlock root into the first deathrow cooking pot she could find, and leave without a trace. Well, it seemed simple at least.

She shifted the car into park and turned off the ignition, "Okay, the moment of truth." She check her pocket for the triple-bagged bindle of chopped up root and glanced in the mirror to watch herself change appearance. She had been debating all day about wether it would be better to change into a man or an attractive young woman who worked for the health department. A man might make the other officers feel more at ease about the whole situation; but a woman could use all her charms to her advantage. Nadia brought up things like; her walk and mannerisms that would have to be carefully kept in check if she appeared as a man, so she settle on a leggy blonde in a boring, but flatering state uniform.

A deep breath later, she was walking upto the prison with a clip board in hand and a critical but nervous eye. Hopefully whoever she met would feel protective of her and would let their guard down easier. She had learned the people who are suspicious of you are much harder to control than those who aren't. Dr. Chance--even though Aidan acted like it--wasn't as much of a walk in the park as she'd let Nadia believe. That old gal was stubborn; okay so she wasn't that old, but still...

The man at the entrance wasn't very big and he definitely wasn't very cute; all the better. You see, guys who fall anywhere less than about a seven, maybe an eight; are pretty much putty in the hands of a girl who ranks a solid nine or ten. If she knows how to work them, that is. Luckily Aidan was a master manipulator. She might not even have to do much mind control for awhile. "Hi, I'm Grace Klien from the health department. I'm supposed to check the kithen standards today..." She held up Nadia's driver's license which, to him, looked like a very legit State Health Inspector id card and smiled brilliantly. She grinned a bit at her name choice, Grace. "Cute," Nadia said dryly. Aidan ignored her.

"Um..." he looked very nervous as he glanced over the papers that littered the desk in front of him. "I'm sorry, I don't remember being told you were coming," he nervously scratched the back of his head.

Aidan sighed dramatically, "Not again." She pretended to write something on her clipboard and mumbled to herself, just loud enough for him to hear, "This prison, I swear..."

He stood up from his stool suddenly, "No problem," he tried to smile reassuringly. "Let me just, uh, get someone to take over for alittle while..." he grabbed his radio and started talking urgently to someone on the other end. Aidan glanced around nonchalantly while she waited.

"Aren't you always the one pushing me to use my abilities to get things done faster and easier? So, what's taking so long? Just use your little brainless thingy and get to the kitchen," Nadia snapped.

Cool it, already. There are cameras on me here, so it would look better if he, Aidan glanced at the officer still on his radio, didn't look like a zombie for the cameras; don't you think?

"There are going to be cameras all over. He's going to look zombie-fied for one eventually."

Aidan grinned faintly so that she wouldn't look strange to the officer, then they'll just think that he's at a lose for words because of my feminine charms.

Nadia rolled her eyes, "I think you just want to see how well you can do Winchester style."

Please, she huffed, why would I try anything so rediculous?

"Because, you're impressed by how well they do without all the bonuses that we have. Admit it."

Please.

The officer put his radio down and Aidan turned to see how progress was coming. "It'll be just a moment," he glanced down at her chest but tried to make it look like he was meerly looking down at his paper and they just happend to be on the way. He licked his lips and fidgeted nervously with his hands before grabbing his keys and looking around to see if there was anything he'd forgotten. Once he seemed satisfied that he had everything, he opened the door and came to stand beside her. "So, health department huh?"

It was all Aidan could do, not to rolled her eyes. Brilliant, buddy. You have me all hot and bothered now for sure... "Yup."

"You're much younger and...then the other's. They're all middle-aged and always look so angry all the time," he smirked.

She laughed, "Well, um... Thank you," she smiled. "I'm actually in school for criminal justice, this is a part-time thing. No one really wanted this gig and I thought it would be a great opportuinty to see the inner workings of a prison, so..." she shrugged.

He looked impressed, "What are you looking to get into?"

The kitchen. "The psychological part of it," she smirked to herself.

"Well, there are a lot of people here who could use that. It's dangerous, though," he felt he needed to point out.

Aidan smiled, "Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself."

He watched her and something in his eyes suddenly changed and he looked away, "I'm sure you can," he said softly. The unease that had been disappearing, seemed to come back with a vengence. He glanced around like his relief couldn't get there fast enough. Aidan studied him in confusion and Nadia asked, "What the frick was that?"

I don't know...

Just then, another guard who looked annoyed and bored, came around the corner. When his eyes fell upon Aidan, or Grace, he suddenly grew more alert and quickened his pace. He smiled and nodded at the officer beside her, "John," and then stuck his hand out for Aidan to shake.

"Rich," the officer replied, slightly annoyed. "This is Grace Klien from the health department."

"Oh, well nice to meet you," Rich smiled. "Where do we need to go to first?" his brows rose expectantly.

Aidan would have been game to trade John, for Rich; but that change in his demeanor made her uneasy. "Actually, I'd prefer to stick with, John." That way, she could keep an eye on him so he didn't go calling in his suspicions, if that was what had happened.

Rich's smile slowly melted off his face and he blinked as if he couldn't comprehend what he'd just heard. "Well, I can take care of you in anyway you might need." The double meaning of his words was obvious and Aidan fought not to gag. She really didn't like this guy. "John here," he placed a condecending hand on John's shoulder, "pretty much stays here all the time. He doesn't have as much experience as I do," he grinned.

John was staring at the ground and Aidan could tell that he was yelling all the things he would love to tell Rich, in his head. Aidan felt alittle sorry for him; but mostly she just wanted to knock Rich down a few hundred pegs, "Thanks anyway," she smiled and turned to John. "Ready?"

John glanced from her to Rich and back as if to make sure that he'd heard right. Whatever unease he'd felt a minute ago, was replaced by the high that came wtih having been chosen by a beautiful woman, over his arrogant and condecending--and better looking--coworker. "Of course," he swept his arm out and let her set off ahead of him. She smiled and started off in the way he'd indicated and he glanced at Rich with you-better-believe-it-smirk.

After a few minutes of walking, Aidan broke the silence, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" he asked in confusion and a bit of panic.

"I'm sorry that you have to work with him. He's disgusting," she sneered.

He laughed with relief. He'd been afraid she was going to say something about having made the wrong choice. "Thanks."

She shrugged and glanced down at her clipboard, "I just need to see the kitchen this time." She was about to offer a lie about why; but then she remembered that one of the keys to lying was to never offer up too much information up front.

"Don't you guys usually spend like hours here checking every nook and cranny?" he watched her as he walked.

She looked over at him, "Yeah," she looked annoyed with the system in general, "but I guess there is some can goods that have been found at some of the other prisons and they may have been contaminated, so..." she shrugged. Lying tip number two; have details ready but not too many or your lie will sound rehearsed.

"Oh," he believed her. "Prisoners getting sick, no big lose if you ask me."

Aidan laughed, "You obviously haven't dealt with too many sick men... They're babies, trust me. Offense intended," she smirked.

He laughed but nodded, "And we'd have to be their mothers... You know what? On second thought, let's get those cans out of there."

She laughed, "I figured you'd say that."

The kitchen was huge. There was metal everywhere; shelves, pots and pans, stoves, and giant kettles. Aidan glanced around and found a few prisoners chopping and doing other prep work before lunch time started. John led her to the pantry where all the canned goods were and she pretended to seriously search for the contaminated goods on her list. Meanwhile, she made small talk, "So, how many prisoners do you guys have here?" she glanced at him with a look of innocent curiosity, just in time to catch him staring at her butt. She pretended she didn't notice and he pretend he hadn't done it.

"Uh..." he cleared his throat, "I'm not sure exactly. A lot."

She chuckled. She picked up a can of peas and studied it, "I'm in a Psychology of Death class right now and, with the criminal justice classes, I always try to find some over lap when I write my papers," she glanced up at him and put the can back on the shelf. "I did this one about deathrow inmates and the psychological aspects of having the...opportunity--for lack of a better word--of knowing how and when they're gonna die... It's pretty fasinating." She was perfectly acting as though she was just meerly making conversation instead of conducting an interrogation.

"What is taking so long? Use your hypnosis thingy and get out of there!" Nadia came forward and snapped. She's been sitting back in the corner of their mind, just observing, but the whole thing was taking too long.

Cram it! You hardly ever let me see the light of day, so back off! I'm trying to leave this place with only the regular old Florida police investigating instead of Molder and Scully, alright? I'm leaving as many gigantic questions as we did the last time, Aidan replied. Nadia huffed and fumed as she backed back into her corner with her arms crossed. Besides, there are more and more prisoners coming in here, they'd notice something was up with him.

"I'm sure. It's not how people think, you know? The whole "last meal" thing. They don't get to pick anything they want to; there's a budget and most of the time a radius."

Aidan couldn't help but grin. She'd been delicately steering him toward talking about food. Implanting little bits of information into his head; and it was working. "Really? Huh. What about how the movies show deathrow inmates being fed in their cells? You know, their plates being brought to them on carts and dramtically slid into their cells through that little slot? Is that true?" She was kneeling down and looking up at him with innocent cuiosity again.

He was leaning in the door frame, keeping one eye on her and another on the prisoners. He smirked, "Yeah, that's true."

"Really? Huh," she smiled. "Do they like, get different food too? Like, 'you guys are the worst so you get the blandest food?'"

He laughed, "Maybe we should; but no, they get the same stuff as everyone else."

"Huh," she nodded and looked back at the cans in front of her. Shit.

"Crap," she and Nadia thought simultaneously.

The plan just got a lot more complicated. Of course, Adain would be happy just to drop the roots into one of the massive pots that would serve all of the prisoners; but she knew Nadia would never allow that. Now she was going to have to find some way of getting a few pieces of the root into each of the trays of food specifically going to those on deathrow. Crap.