Chapter 9 - THE NIGHT GRAYSTONE BURNEDThe list changed everything.
Federal investigators recommended immediate transfers for Pike and Walter.
Walter refused to disappear.
Pike couldn't.
He still worked inside Graystone.
Derek had fewer options than both.
"You should transfer," Walter told him.
They sat inside the education room during afternoon lockdown.
"Where?"
"Another federal facility."
"So I run."
"Living isn't running."
Derek shook his head.
"If the people behind Rusk want me hurt, transferring tells them they're winning."
Walter stared.
"That sentence sounds impressively brave and profoundly stupid."
"Learned from you."
"I sincerely hope not."
The corruption network had not disappeared with Rusk's arrest.
Northstar was only one branch.
Investigators suspected prison employees in at least four states had participated in kickbacks, falsified purchases, contraband trafficking, and retaliation against whistleblowers.
Somebody had created the list months earlier.
Walter.
Elena.
Pike.
Derek.
Four loose ends.
Derek's inclusion revealed something disturbing.
His administrative grievances had mattered more than anyone realized.
The network had noticed.
Graystone tightened security.
Outside investigators controlled sensitive records.
Employees were searched entering and leaving.
For several days, nothing happened.
Then on Sunday evening, the power failed.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Backup generators should have restored full electricity within thirty seconds.
They didn't.
Cell doors remained electronically locked, but surveillance cameras failed across two units.
Smoke appeared near the prison laundry.
"Fire!" someone shouted.
Alarms began screaming.
Sprinklers activated.
Water poured through corridors.
Correctional officers scrambled.
Derek smelled smoke.
Real smoke.
Thick.
Chemical.
Not an accident.
"Everybody stay calm!" Pike shouted from the lower tier.
Men yelled through doors.
Smoke seeped beneath them.
A maintenance failure prevented several ventilation dampers from closing.
Within minutes, C Block became hazy.
Derek's cell unlocked under emergency protocol.
So did dozens of others.
That was when he understood.
Someone wanted chaos.
Prisoners spilled into the tier.
Guards ordered them toward evacuation points.
Then the lights died completely.
A man screamed.
Metal crashed.
Derek heard running feet.
Someone grabbed his shirt.
He swung instinctively but stopped.
Mason.
"Chase's guys are moving."
"What?"
"I saw them downstairs."
"Where?"
"Education wing."
Walter.
Derek ran.
Smoke burned his lungs.
Sprinklers soaked the floor.
Sirens echoed.
Men pushed in opposite directions.
He reached the education corridor.
Locked.
Derek slammed the door.
"Walter!"
No answer.
He hit it again.
Then Solomon appeared carrying a steel maintenance bar.
"Move."
Two strikes broke the latch.
They entered.
Walter lay beside a desk.
Conscious.
Blood on his forehead.
Derek knelt.
"What happened?"
"Someone hit me."
"Who?"
"Didn't introduce himself."
Derek helped him sit.
A shadow moved behind them.
Chase Rainer stepped through the doorway.
He held no weapon.
His face was terrified.
"Derek."
"What did you do?"
"Nothing."
"You were here."
"I came to warn him."
"Bull."
Chase shook his head.
"Listen to me. One of the guards paid Torres."
Derek frowned.
Miguel Torres was a kitchen worker and Chase associate.
"Paid him for what?"
"Start the laundry fire. During evacuation somebody was supposed to get Mercer."
Walter wiped blood from his forehead.
"Who?"
Chase looked toward the hallway.
"I don't know."
A gunshot cracked.
Everyone froze.
Federal prisons were tightly controlled environments.
Inmates almost never heard gunfire inside housing units.
Another shot.
Then shouting.
Pike appeared.
"Get down!"
They dropped.
An officer ran past.
Not prison uniform.
Plain clothes.
One of the federal investigators.
"Security breach!" he shouted. "Staff member armed!"
Derek looked at Pike.
"Who?"
Pike's face went white.
"Medical administrator."
The same official supposedly arrested the previous day had been released temporarily pending formal charges.
He returned using another employee's access badge.
Nobody yet knew how.
But he had one target.
Walter.
"We need to get him outside," Pike said.
The nearest secure evacuation point was through the recreation corridor.
They moved.
Pike first.
Walter between Derek and Solomon.
Chase followed.
Smoke thickened.
Men coughed.
Sprinklers continued raining.
At the recreation gate they encountered the administrator.
Dr. Raymond Keller.
Sixty years old.
Neat gray hair.
A pistol shaking in his hand.
Pike stopped.
"Keller."
"Move."
Nobody moved.
Keller aimed at Walter.
"You ruined everything."
Walter stared through the smoke.
"I don't believe we've met socially."
Even now.
Derek almost laughed.
Keller's hand trembled.
"You should've died from the medication."
Derek's body went cold.
There it was.
A confession.
Pike slowly raised his hands.
"Raymond, federal agents are everywhere."
"I have a car."
"You're not leaving."
"Move!"
Solomon shifted.
Keller pointed the gun at him.
"Don't."
Walter spoke.
"Raymond."
Keller looked at him.
Walter's voice remained calm.
"Do you know the difference between prison and consequence?"
"What?"
"Prison is a place."
Walter stepped forward.
Derek whispered, "Don't."
Walter ignored him.
"Consequence is what follows you wherever you go."
Keller's jaw tightened.
"Shut up."
"You can shoot me."
Walter took another step.
"Then you'll still be Raymond Keller."
"SHUT UP!"
The gun moved.
Derek saw Keller's finger tighten.
He didn't think.
He moved.
He slammed into Walter.
The gun fired.
Pain tore across Derek's shoulder.
He hit the floor.
Someone shouted.
Solomon tackled Keller.
Pike kicked the gun away.
Federal agents rushed in seconds later.
Derek lay staring at the ceiling.
Smoke drifted overhead.
Walter's face appeared.
"Derek."
"I'm fine."
Blood spread through his shirt.
Walter pressed both hands against the wound.
"You've been shot."
"Graze."
"How would you know?"
"Saw movies."
Walter laughed once, almost hysterically.
Derek looked at him.
"You okay?"
Walter stared.
"You just took a bullet for me."
"Don't make it weird."
"You're an idiot."
"You already said that."
Paramedics arrived.
Derek was carried out.
As he passed Chase, the younger inmate stood against the wall shaking.
Derek reached out.
Chase took his hand.
"Tell them what you know," Derek said.
"They'll charge me."
"Probably."
"I'll lose good time."
"Maybe."
Chase looked terrified.
Derek squeezed his hand.
"Responsibility."
Chase stared at him.
Then nodded.
That night, from a hospital bed under armed guard, Derek learned the fire had been contained.
No inmate died.
Four suffered smoke inhalation.
Keller was arrested on attempted murder, conspiracy, and firearms charges.
Torres confessed to starting the fire.
Chase gave investigators everything he knew.
And Walter Mercer sat beside Derek's bed until nearly midnight.
At some point Derek woke and found the old man asleep in a chair.
For several minutes, he simply watched him.
Then Walter opened one eye.
"Creepy."
Derek smiled.
"Thought you were asleep."
"I was."
"Go home."
"No."
"Walter."
"No."
Derek stared at the ceiling.
"Remember the ice water?"
"Unfortunately."
"Feels like years ago."
"Six months."
"That's it?"
"Yes."
Derek shook his head.
"What would you have done if I'd kept being who I was?"
Walter thought about it.
"Waited."
"For what?"
"For you to get tired."
"Of what?"
Walter smiled.
"Being angry."
May you like
Derek closed his eyes.
For once, there was no answer needed.
