Ted Dekker - Sanctuary

The gaunt facilitator with big eyes came in, restraints in hand.

“No need for chains.” Pape waved them off. “We have an understanding.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Take him to the hard yard as we discussed. I’m sure the man would appreciate some exercise before lockdown.”

16

KEITH’S SUGGESTIONthat we go about our business as if nothing in the world was wrong was fine. I got it, I really did. If we were being watched—and we were—the reports that found their way back to Sicko would needle him, which was in and of itself a small advantage. He was obviously as interested in manipulating me as he was in achieving whatever end he hoped for.

He needed to feel his power over me, Keith said. It was why he insisted I play his game. Not rewarding him with the satisfaction of seeing me cower was our only hope of pushing him off his own game. That was probably why he was making us stew for forty-eight hours, he said. Either that or he needed the time to set up whatever awaited us.

It all made perfect sense, it really did.

It also felt impossible.

We had nearly forty-eight hours before we could go to the warehouse to learn what twisted fate awaited us, and we spent only five of them together, at Heartwell Park off of Carson Street, rehearsing every possibility and angle a dozen times, but doing it like two free-spirited hippies burning up time. Long but only a block wide, the park offered an open line of sight from either Carson or Parkcrest, and we expected to be seen lounging on benches, strolling with hands in pockets, or carelessly kicking chunks of bark along the grass, arms folded.

Under the facade, my heart refused to slow down, and my skin felt sticky. Yet with each passing hour the realization that any other course of action would only bring tragic consequences became more certain. Still, we rehearsed them all, more for Keith’s sake than mine, because I already knew what was going to happen.

We were going to play Sicko’s game. The fact was, someone certainly knew I had killed two men. And they knew Danny had killed more than two. And if they knew, they could talk. I had to get to that person, end of story. It was the only way to protect both of us.

But Keith didn’t know that. He’d suggested we play the game, but like a good lawman, his mind was always looking for the angles, the alternatives, the way out with the least amount of risk.

“For the sake of argument,” he said, “we could still involve one of my old contacts at the sheriff’s department and get him to make inquiries into Basal, just enough to put the prison on notice.”

“We’d have to assume Sicko would find out,” I said, my tingling hands stuffed in my jeans.

“There are ways—”

“Like what? Meet in the dead of night in a park like this one? We don’t know who we can trust or who’s watching. The first call into the prison would alert them that someone’s leaked something. If someone on the inside is in on this, they’ll carry out their threat.”

Keith glanced around nonchalantly, scanning for a driver or pedestrian watching us. He was always looking, always observant. “There’s got to be someone who can find out what’s happening in there without tipping them off.”

“Yesterday you said no. Now you think there is? How?”

“Probably not without tipping them off, no. Not in the time we have.”

“And you don’t think the warden’s involved,” I said.

“It would be a stretch.”

“This whole thing’s a stretch. You made the calls, right? Like you said, Pape keeps the place quieter than a corpse in Siberia. Why? Maybe this is all his doing?”

“Possible, but not likely. Going around the law isn’t as easy as it may seem.”

Unless you’re Danny, I thought.

“Either way, I’m not willing to take that chance,” I said. “This is Danny’s life we’re talking about here.”

“Fine. But if the warden’s involved, and I doubt he is, then we’re screwed.”

“This is news?”

“No. But I mean really screwed.”

“Like I said, this is news?”

He nodded and tapped a small stone to the side with his foot. The fact of the matter was, Keith couldn’t have the same motivation I had to protect and save Danny. He could only help me. God knew I needed his help, but at what cost to him?

“Maybe I should do this alone,” I said, crossing my arms. “Really—”

“It’s too late for that,” he interrupted. “People smart enough to use Randell are smart enough to tie up loose ends. I know way too much now to let go.”

I hadn’t really thought of it that way, and I felt a pang of guilt for demanding he help me. In my urgency, I’d sucked him into a place of terrible danger for my own gain. I was using him.

I pulled up, struck by the thought. He turned and looked at me with those hazel eyes. But there wasn’t any fear in them, only resolve. He was a good man, a very good man. I couldn’t help wondering what it would have been like to meet a man like Keith before Danny came into my life.

Now there was only Danny. Forever.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Don’t be. I was meant to be here.”

“No, I came to you.”

“Only because I put Randell behind bars and you were smart enough to find me. Frankly, whoever is behind this may have wanted you to find me.”

“Seriously?”

“Why not? I could verify the validity of Randell’s threat. It was probably at Randell’s request—you’re not the only one who has enemies. This is what he gets out of it.”

“What if I hadn’t come to you?”

Keith shrugged. “He’d probably have found another way to get me involved. Doesn’t matter now, we’re here. Let’s walk.”

We moved on, and my mind returned to Danny. A question that had ridden my mind through the previous night served me again.

What would Danny do?

“We could go through a judge,” I said. “Take them at gunpoint and force them to shut the prison down.”

“You know one who could do that?”

“Don’t you?”

He considered the question. “Nope.”

“Not even if we told them the whole thing? Showed them the notes?”

“Without corroborating evidence, what would stop a judge from thinking you wrote those notes as a way to get to Danny?”

“And that corroborating evidence would have to come from inside the prison,” I said. I knew all of this, but for both of our sakes I had to get it out one more time, if only to line things up again, like checking a lock on a door three times just to be sure.

“Basal’s a self-contained city with its own rules,” he said.

“Same with the inspector general’s office?”

“OIG would be our safest best, but it would still take way too much time and require an investigation that would probably be leaked to whoever’s monitoring communications.”

What would Danny do?

“Then we go straight to the warden,” I said. “Not at the prison, but at his house. In the middle of the night.”

Keith glanced at me. “We could. You want to take the risk Sicko won’t find out? The note said no warden.”

It also said I would have to kill someone. The wind was blowing my hair in my face and I was too distracted to care. “You think Sicko’s just going to let us walk when this is over?”

“Nope.”

That was quick.

“But you think we can find a way out before it gets to that point,” I said.

“He’s gotta keep pulling a lot of strings to make this happen, so yeah. There’s a good chance he’ll slip up sooner or later.”

“Sooner, I hope.”

“So do I. Like you said, until then we’re screwed.”

I nodded and swallowed. “Don’t worry. I’m good at playing games.”