Rocko reclined across the couch, legs kicked up over the arm, head resting on Brick's thigh. He sucked the end of a pen and squinted at the folded book in his hand.
Tina sat cross legged on the floor with a sprawl of parts around her- plastic bottles and scraps of foil, the stuff for works bombs. When Brick had asked her about it, she explained that she'd snuck in volatile component that could make those babies really sing. How'd you sneak it in? He'd asked, naively. She'd laughed at his discomfort when she confessed; The guards wouldn't cavity search a ten year old girl.
"Here's one for you, Teeny," Rocko said. "Eight-letter word for posterior. Starts with b."
"Wassat? Posterior?" Tina asked.
"The back of something. Like a butt," Rocko said.
"Is it butt?"
"Nope, that's four letters. Needs to be eight."
"Booty? No, wait...is it badonk? I bet it's badonk."
"Still too short."
"Badonkadonk!"
"Dumper," Brick grunted.
"That...that's not even...no."
"Backside," Kindle said. She was laid out on an upper bunk in the cell, arms crossed behind her head. Brick had thought she was sleeping.
Rocko scribbled 'backside' into the squares. It fit, and the 'e' lined up with an already filled column. "Yep. Nice."
He filled out the next box without asking for help. Brick found that the neatly spaced boxes around the letters made them easier to read, a little less slippery. Rocko had printed 'Sabre'.
"Buddy of mine had a sabre turret," Brick said. "Got it in the Lance.
Rocko looked up at him. "Dahl made them first, you know. Atlas stole the technology."
"Cool. How'd you know that?"
Rocko looked back at the book. "Mm. Used to work for Dahl. I'm an engineer."
Brick's mouth dropped open. "I known you for two months, and you just now tell me you're an engineer?"
"Well, not a good one. I cheated my way through school, and I was pretty much the worst engineer in the company. Then I met Stone. Actually, he raided the Dahl base and stole everything that wasn't nailed down. Carried me out over his shoulder," he said, smiling at the memory. He paused, and when he spoke again, it was to croon robustly; "Everybody has to pay, when love finally has her say."
"Oh God, he's singing," Kindle groaned. She sat up, her hair mussed and stuck up from her pillow, and she slouched forward to wrap her arms around her knees.
"You love it. You just like to complain," Rocko said.
"I do not!"
"You kinda do, Spits," Tina said. "Remember when Queen taught us to swing-dance, and everyone was doin it, and even the guards and shizz, but you were like..." Tina stopped and continued in a faux posh accent. "Oh, I am far too proper to engage in such commoner festivies! I might chip a royal nail!"
"I didn't say that!"
"I paraphrased, but that's basically what you said. And when you finally danced, you were better'n all of us, even Queen."
"You were," Rocko agreed.
Pride straightened Kindle's spine. She sat up a little straighter, a smile threatening to break across her face. "I did. I was awesome. But, it was still kind of stupid."
"So's your face, but we put up with it," Brick said.
Kindle glared daggers into him. "So have you asked the guards about getting more time at mess?" she asked.
Brick was glad to have the right answer. "Yep. I was gonna wait til Cash gets here, make it a surprise, but since you asked. The guys came for poker last night, an', long story short, we're gonna have full run of mess. Since it's right off our block, they're gonna leave that side unlocked-"
"You're shittin me!" Tina cried, leaping up off the floor.
"Nope. God's honest."
Kindle didn't react the way Brick expected. She stared out into the hall, her gaze unfocused. "What'd you have to do for it?" she asked.
"Nothin," Brick said, earning a grateful glance from Rocko. It was a lie, but the truth was nothing the girls needed to hear.
Kindle looked back at them. Her eyes had turned into ashy, smoking coals, burning holes into Brick. "Really? 'cos I doubt that. Nothing's ever for nothing."
Rocko peered over the top of his crossword. "I thought you'd be happy, Spits. You're the one who's so eager to get out. Now you'll have time to round up supplies."
"I don't need your kind of help."
"Dang, gurl, chill your glutes. What're you getting all bent up about?" Tina asked.
"I'm tired of this! I'm tired of everybody playing nice with the guards. You guys think you're in control, but it's only cos they let you think that. They're tricking you, and you're dumb enough to fall for it."
"We ain't dumb, kid. We're still trying to get out. It's just taking awhile. So why donchu calm down and-"
"No!" Kindle yelled, and jumped down off the bed. "Don't tell me to calm down. I'm sick of playing house. I'm not your kid, and we're not a family!"
Tina shrunk back against the wall, but Kindle went on. "Families don't live in prison! A dad wouldn't have to blow a Goddamned guard, just to...to get..." She looked away, unable to meet Rocko's alarmed gaze.
Suddenly, Brick understood. Kindle must have gotten up after lights out, wandered the hall, and been drawn by the flicker of flames from the cell where the adults played cards. If she'd looked in, how much had she seen?
Maybe she'd only heard Cash's awful, drunken proposition, "I'll do you one better. I'll just leave that door unlocked. We done it for people before, guys we could trust. Can I trust you, Rocky? Why don't you prove it? Suck me off. No, do it here, in front of your dog. I want him to know who you belong to."
Maybe Kindle had seen how Rocko tried to look at Brick, to look a question at him, but Cash had gripped his jaw savagely. "Don't fucking ask him. You're mine, okay? Show me you're loyal, and I'll unlock the door tomorrow." And he'd dragged Rocko in to kiss him on the mouth, which was somehow worse than all of it, even worse than what came next.
Had Kindle left after that? Or had she seen the rest, the way Brick had?
"Sometimes, adults have to do things," Rocko tried.
Kindle still wouldn't look at him. She glared at ground and shook her head. "You didn't-"
She was interrupted by the squalling door at the end of the block. Tina and Kindle scrambled to kick the bottle bomb parts underneath the bunk. They'd finished hiding the evidence and and stood up straight by the time Cash appeared in the cell doorway. The lights from the hall made him look like a man made out of shadows, and when he grinned, his teeth seemed too bright. Briggs followed close behind him.
"Hey, Gorgeous," Rocko said, swinging his legs down off the couch to sit up.
"Mornin, Rocky. You got pretty trashed last night, so I thought I'd see how you were doing. Take you to shower, if you want," Cash said.
Brick watched the expression on Rocko's face become closed, the way it did every time Cash called him Rocky. The guard knew he hated it. "I'm fine. Guess you won't be escorting us to mess today."
Cash's grin grew wider. "Oh? Why not?"
"Because..." Rocko hesitated, gauging the guard who loomed in their doorway. There was no confusion on Cash's face- only a sly glitter in his slitted eyes. "Because you're unlocking the door. That's why you're here," Rocko said.
"What? You thought I was serious about that? I was joking, obviously!"
Rocko and Brick leaped up off the couch in an instant, and Cash, despite the tazer on one hip and the gun on the other, stepped backwards into the hall, the smug grin slipping from his face.
"Obviously you can't just wander around the prison. You're a brute! I mean, look at you. You're threatening me now!" he said, as Brick walked him back and back.
"This ain't threatenin," Brick growled. "I'll show you threatenin."
Cash's hand drifted over the shock baton at his hip. Rocko shouldered his way between Brick and Cash, arms outstretched. "Come on, you two, don't do this."
"Shut up, Rocko. Stop protectin' everybody and act like a human being for once," Brick snapped, his fury a writhing beast which couldn't be directed or controlled. "Briggs, you were there. You saw. He wasn't kiddin, was he?"
Briggs shrank toward the door. "I...I don't...I have to go."
"Yellow-bellied bastard." Brick spat, turning his attention back to Cash. He heard Briggs escape out the door with a heavy clank-thunk.
"We were drunk. I can't believe you really thought-"
Brick threw a hard punch into Cash's nose, hard enough knock him back against the cell opposite. His head smacked the bars with a satisfying thunk. Brick had just enough time to smirk before Cash drew the shock baton from his belt and drove it into his belly.
Brick screamed as pain like a tangle of biting snakes filled his gut, cramped his back, shot through his veins as fast as bullets. He ground his teeth and pushed back the curtains of darkness threatening to close around him. His animal swept up, anxious to relieve him, but he fought it off as well.
"Cash, what the fuck?" Rocko cried, holding Brick's arm to steady him.
"He hit me, babe! What was I supposed to do? Anyway, at least he didn't...oh, there he goes," Cash said, and laughed as Brick bent double to throw up a thin gruel onto the concrete floor.
"Fuck you," Rocko snapped. "Fuck you, you piece of shit. I can't believe I sucked-"
He stopped and cast a glance back at the girls. Only one girl stood there, now. Kindle had slunk off, leaving Tina in the cell doorway, watching the fight with wide, dark ringed eyes.
"You sucked my dick," Cash finished for him. His eyes were wide, too, but full of deranged joy. He grinned despite the mess Brick had made of his face, despite the question mark of blood curving from his left nostril to his lip. "And you liked it. Bet it gave you a dripping hard cock. Did your dog take care of that, after I left?"
Brick dove for him again, but Cash had the shock baton ready this time. He caught Brick in the side with it. A fresh wave of agony ripped through him, sending him stumbling helplessly to his knees, and he vomited again. Through swooping vision, he saw the bile splash Cash's shiny black shoes. He nursed a small satisfaction over it, but it was too little to hold onto. He felt himself slipping out on the tide of pain.
He was tired. He thought it might not be so bad to let the animal out. Let it walk.
Someone grabbed his hand. The pressure of fingers around his steadied him, dragged him back. It was Tina. She'd come to his side and was trying to help him to his feet, but he waved her off. "'m... I'm up..." he said, his lips flabby and uncooperative around the words.
She helped him to his feet anyway, her on one side, Rocko on the other. Cash backed away, even though Brick could barely stand.
"Coward," Brick growled.
Cash's radio crackled to life on his belt, and he held up a finger- wait a sec. That insolent finger was almost enough to break the chains on Brick's animal after all, in spite of the calming hands on his arms, but then a voice hissed through the radio's static; "Code four in the mess hall, repeat, code four in the mess. Medical personnel report to the mess hall."
Brick didn't know what that meant, but Cash shot a worried look at the door Briggs had left through. Tina tugged on Brick's shirt.
"What?" he asked.
She cupped her hand around her mouth, and Brick bent close so that she should speak into his ear. "Kindle snuck out with him," she whispered. "She's gonna steal..."
But Brick had already stood back up, jerking toward the door so fast that the darkness threatened to pull him under again. He was overcome by an inexplicable, unshakable surety that the code four, whatever that meant, was about Kindle.
Cash was half out the door already, wedging through with a careful sidestep, and Brick grabbed him and tossed him back like a toy. He shouldering past into the mess hall and emerged, like he did everyday, on the upper floor walkway that wrapped around the room.
Kindle was nowhere in sight, but Brick saw Briggs at once. The guard leaned over the upper floor banister, fingers clenched tightly around the bar. When he heard the door open, he jolted and spun around with an almost cartoonish expression of horror twisting his features - thin lipped grimace and bulging eyes - and pressed himself back against the banister.
"She was on the rail," he said, as though that explained everything.
Brick didn't stop to look over the banister. He plunged down the stairs, taking them two and three at a time, fighting his way through the crowd that had gathered, thick as crows around a corpse, until he caught a glimpse of the girl through the throng of rubberneckers. Kindle was crumpled in a heap on the ground. There was no blood- not a solitary red drop. Brick focused on that and forced aside the rest; that she laid so perfectly still, and how she looked wrong, as though someone had taken and twisted her...
When Brick finally reached her and fell to his knees, he understood that he'd been fooling himself. Kindle was dead. She'd fallen badly, her neck snapped under her weight.
"Step aside," the shadowy shape of a guard said, but Brick ignored them. The girl's fingers clenched tight around something. A silver band dangled from the open end of her fist, shining under the cafeteria lights. Brick pried open her fingers, just like he'd done when he'd stolen her necklace, and palmed the object. He knew without looking that was Brigg's security chip.
Kindle's still warm fingers were nearly enough to made him throw up a third time, but he had nothing left in his stomach. He only retched weakly and felt himself slipping out on a merciful tide.
The crowd was closing in now, the shadow shapes a shuffling, shifting wall of darkness. Brick looked up. One face swam out of the fog. It was Briggs, his features still distorted by horror. Over the murmur of the shocked crowd, the guard's voice rang like a bell.
"She was walking along the rail. She surprised me. I didn't mean to- Oh, God. There was nothing I could do."
It was Mungojerrie and Rumpleteaser, Brick thought nonsensically. And there's nothing at all to be done about that.
Brick rose to his feet, a passenger in his own body. A laugh burbled out of him, a throaty, gutty chortle: a hungry sound. His animal had been asleep for a long time, and it was starving.