Chapter 3: The Man Behind the Glass
Maya emerged inside an abandoned storage room behind the prison kitchen.
She locked the hatch and pressed her ear against it.
Nothing.
No footsteps.
No voice from Elias.
Only silence.
The metal key in her hand had one word engraved across its surface:
ZERO
Maya returned to her room shortly before morning count. She washed the blood from her sleeve and hid the maintenance jacket beneath her mattress.
At six fifteen, two officers arrived.
“Warden Mercer wants to see you.”
Mercer’s office overlooked the eastern yard. From his window, Maya could see the exact place where Rafe had sprayed her.
The laundry basket was gone.
Every trace of the fight had been removed.
Mercer stood behind his desk.
Captain Shaw waited near the door.
“You entered a restricted area last night,” Mercer said.
Maya did not respond.
Shaw placed two photographs on the desk.
Both masked officers from Block D were shown unconscious on the floor.
The prisoner named Elias was missing.
“There was no prisoner with you,” Shaw said. “Only two injured officers.”
Maya looked at Mercer.
“Where is inmate 1178?”
Mercer’s expression remained unreadable.
“Blackridge has no inmate assigned that number.”
“He called himself Elias.”
Shaw laughed quietly.
Mercer did not.
“Your brother died three years ago,” the warden said. “Whatever you think you saw, it was not Lucas.”
“I never told you why I applied here.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Mercer opened a drawer and removed a file.
On the cover was a photograph of Maya taken outside her apartment two months earlier.
Someone had been watching her before she arrived at Blackridge.
“Who took that?” she asked.
“That is the wrong question.”
“What is the right one?”
Mercer leaned forward.
“Why did someone inside this prison want you here?”
Before Maya could answer, the office lights flickered.
Every monitor on Mercer’s wall went black.
Captain Shaw reached for his radio.
A video suddenly appeared on the largest screen.
A dim room.
A metal chair.
A man sitting with his hands restrained.
His face was partly hidden by shadow, but Maya recognized the narrow scar above his eyebrow.
Lucas had received it after falling from a bicycle when they were children.
Maya stepped toward the screen.
“Lucas?”
The man raised his head.
He looked thinner and older than he should have.
But it was him.
“Maya,” he said through the speakers.
Her knees almost gave way.
Mercer stared at the screen with genuine shock.
Lucas looked directly into the camera.
“Don’t trust the warden.”
The video distorted.
A figure entered the room behind Lucas.
Maya could not see the person’s face.
Lucas struggled against the restraints.
“You need to leave Blackridge,” he continued. “They brought you here because of Dad.”
The figure placed one hand on Lucas’s shoulder.
Lucas went silent.
Then the unseen person leaned toward the camera.
A digitally altered voice filled the office.
“Bring us the key.”
The screen turned black.
Maya felt the metal key pressing against the inside of her pocket.
Mercer noticed her hand move.
“What did Elias give you?”
She stepped backward.
Shaw blocked the door.
Mercer slowly circled the desk.
“Maya, listen to me. There are people inside this facility who do not officially exist.”
“Like my brother?”
“Like the man calling himself Elias.”
“Who is he?”
Mercer lowered his voice.
“I don’t know.”
Maya did not believe him.
An alarm suddenly sounded from the lower floors.
A computerized announcement followed.
“Security breach. East Yard. All personnel remain in place.”
Mercer turned toward the window.
Dozens of inmates were dropping to the ground as armed guards entered the yard.
One man remained standing near the fence.
Rafe Calder.
He looked directly up at Maya.
Then he raised his hand and pointed beneath his feet.
Cell Zero.
Captain Shaw seized Maya’s arm.
She drove her elbow into his ribs, shoved him into the desk, and ran.
Mercer shouted behind her.
“If you open that cell, everyone in this prison could die!”
Maya reached the corridor.
The emergency doors began closing one by one.
May you like
As the final door descended, she saw a message written in blood on the opposite wall:
LUCAS WAS NEVER THE TARGET. YOU WERE.
