A Needle in a Haystack

Over the course of the next couple of days, Jack came to the conclusion, the place was as tight as a drum. Tension remained high in the unit, though the hostility was primarily directed outward most at Dagmara as common purpose held the uneasy alliance together with the exception of Mordred who isolated himself away and did not interact at all with the group. Efforts to engage him were met with indifference.

Meals were delivered on single plastic plates divided into three sections three times a day during lock up to be consumed in the cells. It was simple fair as Rollins had told Jack on the day he arrived, but there was plenty of it. If it was doctored or spiked with something, he couldn’t really tell.

During that time, each man was individually removed from the unit and left unattended in a 10X10 square room with a chair and a desk with a small pencil and instructed to complete a battery of paper driven psychological tests with titles like MMPI-2, R-CRAS, CPI, and MCMI. Hector refused, got stunned.

When allowed outside of his cell, Jack spent his time examining the interior of the common room, but trying to find some possible means or avenue of escape seemed like trying to find a single needle in a field full of haystacks. The majority of the masonry comprising the walls was pre-formed cinder block, painted with a flame retardant coating. Given the newness of the construction, all of the mortar seams between the bricks he examined were strong and without degradation. The floor appeared to be made out of cement pad covered in utilitarian gray carpet. The ceiling was unusual, in that it appeared to be opaque white impact resistant panels through which the overhead lights shone. Testing them, there was no give and they did not appear to budge. Similarly, there was nothing of note in the washroom, the penetrations for water and drainage, small and without decay. Essentially, it appeared as if it was a giant fully contained cement block. He was able to identify the location of several cameras, presumably with fisheye lenses, built directly into the smoke detectors affixed high up on the walls in the cells and the common room. The furniture was constructed mostly out rigid metal with cloth padding, bolted down to prevent possible use as a battering ram. The big screen TV had yet to come on and there was no remote to activate it. Whoever had designed and built the place definitely made it secure.

Consulting with John, he too met with no success. He focused on looking at human factors. Identifying the different guards they encountered and interacted with, which given the nature of the elevated security was very few. Efforts to engage any of them in casual conversation was useless, with the exception of Rollins. John got an opportunity to chat while the aged staffer was returning him to the living unit from a round of testing. Stopping outside the door, the old bull was all too happy to spend time chin wagging.

According to Rollins, there were only fourteen officers hired on to run security for the whole institution. They were prohibited from entry into the area designated as administration. When asked about the administration, the guard captain explained his dealings with the administrators was very minimal and he was not made privy to the either the nature nor the scope of the project and when he made inquiries, the Director just smiled and brushed him off.

“She’s a hard one that girl,” Rollins said,  “None of my officers got any love for her, they call her Kommandant, probably on account as we think she’s German.”

John laughed, tucking away that little nugget of dissent, thinking of ways to take advantage of the knowledge and widen the rift between the two elements. “What about others, does she have people working directly for her?” he asked.

The old veteran guard grinned, “Yeah there are a half dozen or so, but I’ve only seen a couple of them, that bunch keeps mostly to themselves, but there’s a couple of good looking gals that answer to her, I think one is a psychologist and I don’t rightly know about the other, but let me tell you they’re both pretty enough to make me suck in my gut when they’re around.”

Again John chuckled, mind absorbing every detail, every word, even the nuances of his body language. “You not worried the Kommandant is listening in?” he asked, tone conspiratorial.

He shook his head. “Living units are wired for sound and video, the halls just for video,” he answered.

“Yeah, we found the cameras easy enough and figured there were some microphones,” he admitted, no sense trying to play dumb and it was a concession to help establish some foundation toward developing mutual trust. “What we were really wondering was if they’re drugging the food, or the water,” he said. “You heard anything about that?”

Rollins paused in mid stride, a mortified expression on his jowly face, “Christ I hope not, I’ve been eating the same grub as you fellas,” he said.

“Maybe they’re testing you too, running a double blind, who knows?” John said, hammering home the idea administration was not to be trusted.

Rollins chuckled, but his eyes betrayed the doubt he felt. “What they got you boys doing in there?” he asked, changing the subject.

John shrugged, “Tests, tests, and more tests, though damned if I know why, I was hoping you could shed some light on the matter,” he answered with a chuckle.

John learned a few other things before Rollins put him back in the living unit. Rollins didn’t know about the collars or that they were capable of delivering a remote non-lethal shock, but did say it was also mandatory for all security staff to wear a metallic bracelet that looked like a match to the collar, a non-negotiable condition of employment. Also, the guards were non-union and required to sign an understanding of non-intervention in the event of being compromised or taken hostage during the course of work activity.

Aside from that, John did some experimentation to see if the electrical charge in the collar was strong enough or able to disrupt any of the electronics on the cell door locks, but after a couple of attempts of it proving to be ineffectual and both Hector and Russell were reluctant to subject themselves to subsequent jolts to test John’s theory, he decided to let it go.

Back in the living unit, Jack and John exchanged findings, though neither was heartened by the limited prospects.