Ch 09

Wufei woke abruptly, in the morning without moving quickly. His joints were stiff and half of his body was freezing and the other half was overly warm. Wake up call had yet to happen according to his internal clock, but it was close.

He lifted his head off...Trent's shoulder? Last night flicked through his head. All day he had been stressed at the decisions in court. Hell, the last three months he had been stressed. Nothing shut down functional systems like emotional stress. He would have liked to pretend that wasn't what caused his apparent narcolepsy to the point he was falling asleep on his cell-mates shoulder, but there had been no way around it. He had banking on yesterday being his last day in prison. He would have gotten out and the other Gundam pilots would have explained what had happened and how he needed to be in jail to protect his life and sorry for not visiting, but we were busy tracking down the insane criminal tracking you. Or something along those lines.

He still had hope yesterday. Despite all his changes and decisions to stay angry and give into instinct and defend himself and to shed all friendships. He still had hope. And it had been brutally crushed in the form of no set date for his future trial, meaning no foreseeable date to get out of this hell hole that was concrete and bars. He had no friends on the outside to get him out. He needed no friends on the inside.

Wufei edged slowly out of his cell mate's half cuddle. Trent had fallen asleep with his arm holding onto Wufei's shoulders. The fact that Wufei was able to fall asleep on someone, while being touched no less, was very strange, but also slightly expected. After his colony blew and he got a break at a safe house he had practically hibernated for a day.

Wufei went to the bars and looked around. The inmates across the platform walkways were still asleep and those he could see in the bottom tier were also following that pattern of sleeping for the approximately twenty minutes left before waking.

Wufei leaned against the bars and tested them flexing hard against the steel. It held in place. Not that he was expecting to be able to bend steel, but still it would be quite an asset for escape if he was able to.

He gave a quick jerk of the bars and there was a slight rattle of displacement, but nothing to really take advantage of. Considering that this was a relatively new prison, built in the last thirty years or so, the walls of the cells were solid concrete and very well made. No real change of tunneling out.

So obviously no escape through the cell. Probably not on his own either. Wufei sighed and moved back away from the edge of the cell as he saw some of the fluorescent lights begin to flicker on. Wakeup would be soon.

He tapped Trent with his foot to wake him and he jumped a little, but was alert very quickly. It spoke of military training or incidents in the past for sure. Which was strange considering that he had never given off the vibe before...

"Wake up." Wufei stated and moved to the back of the cell to use the toilet. Trent nodded sleepily and got up and stretched. Wufei turned around after washing his hands and noticed Trent rubbing his arms to get warm. He had goose bumps on them..."Thank you." He said without looking at Trent. "For... Thank you."

Trent smiled a goofy grinned smile and simply said, "No problem."

A week had passed and Wufei had settled down a little more into prison life. He stuck with his new motto, 'look out for me only' and started to train every day in the yard. He would go to the far corner like he had been and start running through the motions of his long-ingrained training.

The first day he drew a lot of attention. The prisoners across the yard watched him with open interest as he moved through the actions with his usual grace. Slowed down even he had to admit the pattern looked like a strange dance, but sped up that was a different story; one that could break a man's sternum and crush his ribs inward.

He started the forms two days ago and though there was less attention now it seemed as though the some inmates were still watching. Including Marcus Clealis.

Wufei had been keeping tabs on who were leaders of the jail blocks. Marcus he pegged as the eastern block. Wufei somehow became the undeclared leader of his own cell block, but he did not enforce any action onto the rest of the inmates.

There was an older man in one of the cell blocks that held himself well and the most likely candidate for the North cell block. Wufei did not know him and Wufei had picked Donovan Yakuri as the last leader for the other cell block. He had been involved in human trafficking as Wufei recalled from a brief Preventer's report that Heero had shown him once.

Every man in this retention place had done something to deserve to be in here, but Wufei was starting to see that he would need their assistance in order to get out.

The law wasn't going to help him and he had spent a long time in the past not following the rules of the government of the moment. So it looked as though his only chance was to ignore the law once again.

Wufei riffled through the pages of books he had already read during the duration of his stay here. He had no ideas as to how to escape yet, but a month in and he was already going crazy. Someone walked into the library, Wufei turned from the shelves he was organizing to see who.

Marcus.

He was tall with light brown hair that was starting to gray near his temples. He was about a foot taller than Wufei and he had a rugged look about him. There was a large scar down the side of his neck. "So we meet again, Mr. Chang."

Wufei nodded to him the hair on his neck was starting to stand. The situation screamed leave as quickly as possible. But he couldn't. There was a guard posted outside the library doors though, so perhaps it would be alright.

"Not a big talker I see." He chuckled and pulled a chair from one of the desks. He sat down and relaxed, Wufei tensed a little more. "You weren't a big talker when you arrested me either."

He had been an arms and munitions dealer when Wufei tracked him down a month after the Mariemeia incident, during the short three month stint at the Preventers. Before he had been chucked in here.

"You look so concerned. Please pilot zero-five, come sit down." He smirked and gestured to the seat across from him. Wufei frowned at his use of the pilot designation, but he stayed standing across the room from Marcus. He was letting him know that he recognized him as a Gundam pilot and a former Preventer. This was slightly disconcerting.

"Well, fine then. I suppose your wariness of situations is what kept you alive in the war, inside and outside of prison. I was quite surprised to see you in here when you showed up that first day. My former customer during the war and my arrester after the war."

Wufei spoke up, "The pilots appreciated you as one of our suppliers during the war, but I gave you fair warning after the war and to cease the gun trafficking as it was no longer needed and you failed to do so. It was my job to arrest you."

He nodded, "True. But I suppose you can't teach an old dog a new trick. And I just figured that it was still a lucrative trade considering the rebel factions that have been trying so hard after the war."

"You weren't supposed to assist them in a time of peace." Wufei growled.

"And you sir, are a hypocrite." He laughed at Wufei's bewildered face, "I was your supplier when you and the other Gundam pilots needed weapons. When you were rebels! It was an oppressive peace at times between the month long changes in regimes, but it was peace. And yet you were a key player in the disturbance of that peace. You did not try to arrest me then."

"That wasn't a peace people could live in" Wufei challenged.

"No Chang. That was a peace you could not live in." Marcus stated. "I live where there is discontent. I do not stir up the discontent I simply supply the means for revolution. For the disturbance of a peace where someone cannot live. The most recent one lets the majority live, but those that were discontent needed me to attain their own peace."

Wufei frowned. His logic was excellent. Wufei had been a rebel when he did not agree with the government, but an enforcer when he did.

Marcus shrugged, "Well my old customer that is not what I am here for right now. I've been watching you this last month out of the four you've been here."

"You've been watching me from the beginning, I've noticed." Wufei countered.

Marcus nodded and chuckled, "Yes, you Gundam pilots were always so observant. But I've only been interested in you for the last month. The first three months you had been too hopeful that your government would let you out. Now this last month you've been desperate, watching everything. You are trying to find a way out." There was a gleam in the man's eye. Wufei could not deny the fact that he had been looking for any openings to get out of the facility.

A month of the monotonous in and out, lights on and lights out, food three times a day. It was driving him insane and his skin was crawling with every passing day. His martial arts routine was fine as it reminded him of his past life, but to have inmates watch him was unnerving.

Trent was another annoyance. He was hell bent on being Wufei's friend for reasons unknown. It was irritating, since he had set himself on being friendless for the remainder of all eternity.

Marcus, watched Wufei's face, but Wufei was skilled at not giving anything away. So far the man had failed to provoke much reaction over his most recent revelations.

"Well fine then Chang. You were always the hardest one to read out of the five of you. Let's just say this." He locked eyes with Wufei losing all attempts at relaxed and easy going. This was the war time smuggler. Hard and with motives. "It would be an excellent thing for you to start incorporating my group in the facilitating this escape. I can and I will make life difficult for you in here. Very soon."

Wufei held eye contact determined not to look away. He set his jaw as Marcus got up and approached, "Do we understand each other?"

"I understand what you are saying." Wufei replied calm and collected. It promised nothing.

"Then let me help you out? Yes? Let me have your arm." Wufei hesitated, and then raised his arm. Marcus smirked and grabbed his wrist holding him still and pulled a small plastic shank. It looked like it had been made from a tooth brush. "You have not been to the infirmary yet have you?"

He dragged the hand crafted plastic blade down Wufei's forearm pressing hard. It began bleeding almost immediately. A six inch long gash formed blood seeping out and beginning to drip. "This will assist you in getting there. Perhaps give you more ideas. I will be sending someone in after you soon. Leave in two minutes."

And Marcus turned and left the library, shank once again hidden out of sight. Wufei hadn't even realized he was carrying a weapon initially. It was handy.

Wufei started putting pressure on the cut with his other hand with a cleaning rag meant for the library's use. He waited the allotted two minutes and walked out informing the guard posted that he needed to go to the infirmary.

The guard looked alarmed at the bloody rag, but it was not bleeding that badly. He had flipped the rag over before he walked out to make it look worse than it was. The guard radioed that he was transporting a patient so the library would be closed.

Wufei was quickly escorted to the infirmary. He looked at everything. The large window looked out at the yard, but they had large encased mesh over them. Most of the drugs appeared to be locked away. There should have been scalpels somewhere for potential weapons, but he didn't know where. The doctor took one look at his arm and said a brief "Stitches" then walked away. One of the nurses came over with a kit she pulled from behind a locked cabinet,

"Do I need to handcuff you to do this?" She asked.

Wufei frowned at the question and said "No."

She smiled, "Good. I heard about you. You're the nice one." Wufei raised an eyebrow at her. She blushed a little. "Sorry, we talk about the prisoners. It's just that, you've been here for four months and you haven't had to visit us yet. And the only person you hurt was T and he kind of deserved it...so..."

She looked down and continued working quietly. Wufei thought for a moment. Marcus said he might find an advantage in here. Perhaps..."Well thank you. I don't quite know what I did to belong in here."

"I know!" She exclaimed quietly, "You were a hero. You helped end the war!" She blushed again and fell silent.

Ah. So she knew he was a Gundam pilot and she had a case of hero-worship. But the doctor didn't seem as amused. So perhaps this wouldn't help at all. Maybe Marcus really was an idiot. He looked at the cameras in the room. They were focused on him as he was the only patient there. Two cameras pointing his way.

There was screaming echoing down the hall. Violent yelling really. The nurse looked alarm as she held the suture in her clamp. Wufei looked up. The double doors burst open and two guards were wrestling with a large ripped man who was yelling incoherently.

"LSD overdose we think!" One of the guards shouted out as he caught another elbow to the chest. A superman drug.

The inmate threw the guard off on the right side and reached over to the one on the left.

Wufei watched as the doctor flew to a drawer, withdrew a needle and shot it into the man's leg as soon as the woman had gotten a chance. Brave woman.

The inmate dropped to the floor within seconds. Both of the security cameras were focused on him. One slowly moved back to Wufei now that the action was over. The other remained on the other patient who was being lifted off the floor and handcuffed to the bed to sleep off the drugs.

Wufei marveled as the nurse continued to pull the needle in and out of his skin. An unsecured drawer full of tranquilizers. That was an advantage if he'd ever seen one.

Marcus wasn't an idiot. He just hadn't cracked the puzzle that was this jail.

TBC