Stephen Leather - Breakout

At the back of the prison, they reached a part where the walls had collapsed. Until repairs could be completed - and the vegetation sprouting from the mound suggested it was not a high priority for the authorities - the gap had been temporarily sealed by a head-high wall topped by a barbed wire fence with a triple strand canted in towards the interior of the prison. ‘This happened while I was here,’ Ricardo said. ‘As you can see, the walls are not well-maintained anyway, but they’re very thick - a bit like the gang who tried to free some of their members by blowing a hole in the wall. They weren’t the smartest gang ever because they didn’t pack the explosives they used with anything to shield them, so when they detonated the bomb, it killed two of the gang members on the outside. Part of the wall did collapse, but the weight of stone, mortar and render falling from the floors above it, left this mound of rubble. It was so big that the gang members waiting on the inside couldn’t climb over it before the guards came running down the street and fired a few warning shots to persuade them to stay where they were.’ He shrugged. ‘It would have been much simpler and probably cheaper just to have bribed the guards to let them out.’

‘Has anyone ever broken out?’ Harper said.

‘A group of sixteen prisoners did once dig a tunnel from a cell near the outside wall. They got out, but the authorities then filled the tunnel and the whole cell with concrete, so no one else would ever get out that way. That’s the only escape I’ve heard of.’

‘So that completes that part of the tour,’ Harper said as they came back round into the square in front of the prison. ‘Now, how do we get to see the inside?’

‘We could join one of the semi-official tours,’ Ricardo said. ‘I’ve heard that if you look like a tourist, you just have to wait around in San Pedro Square and within a few minutes, someone will approach you and ask you if you want to see the prison.’

‘Then let’s put that theory to the test shall we?’

They sat on a bench but after a few minutes, despite the sunlight, the chill of the Altiplano was enough to make Harper get to his feet and pace around. ‘You sure this is going to…’ he started to say but then broke off as he saw a Latino with slicked down hair and an ingratiating smile approaching him. ‘ Buenos dias, señor, ’ the man said. ‘Hello, how are you? My name is Pedro - like the square.’ He gave another insincere smile. ‘You want to make the tour, yes?’

‘Of the prison? Yes.’

‘Normally it is 400 Bolivianos each, but I can give you a special price of 200. We go to the police station and pay them 100 and they give us a permit to enter San Pedro.’

‘And the other 100?’

‘My fee.’

Harper shrugged. ‘Okay, let’s go.’

‘ Bueno . Give me the money for the police and I’ll arrange it at once.’

‘Of course,’ Harper said, pulling three 100 Boliviano bills out of his wallet, but keeping hold of them. ‘But we’ll come with you.’

Pedro’s shit-eating smile faded away. ‘As you please, señor .’

He led them to the nearby police station, paused on the steps and held out his hand for the money. ‘You see - no tricks. I’ll just go and pay the desk sergeant.’ He pointed to a burly, mustachioed figure they could see presiding over the front desk just inside the doors.

‘Fine,’ Harper said, handing him the money. He watched closely as Pedro went up to the desk and exchanged a few words with the sergeant, who then nodded to the two uniformed policemen standing just inside the doors. They immediately stood in the entrance, blocking the way, but over their shoulders Harper caught a glimpse of Pedro disappearing from sight along a corridor. ‘Wait here,’ he said to the others, ‘and grab him if he comes back this way.’

He ran down the steps, sprinted round the corner and along the side to the rear of the building, then stood flat against the wall next to the rear entrance. He had not been there for more than forty or fifty seconds when the rear door flew open and Pedro burst out, still clutching two of the three 100 Boliviano notes in his hand.

In case any of Pedro’s mates in the police station were watching, Harper didn’t waste time on preliminaries. He stuck out a leg, tripping up Pedro as he ran down the steps. As he hit the ground with a thud, Harper booted him in the mouth to stifle any shouts for help, grabbed his wrist and rammed it up between his shoulder blades and then marched him round the corner.

‘Nice try, Pedro, but I’ll be taking care of those now,’ he said, taking the notes that, despite his injuries, Pedro was still holding. Harper then patted him down, took Pedro’s wallet from his pocket and emptied it of cash. ‘Four hundred and twenty Bolivianos ,’ he said, with a grin. ‘What do you know? We’ve even made a profit. Now, although you deserve it, because I’ll bet you and your mate at the front desk have conned hundred of tourists this way, I’m not going to break your legs. So you can walk away from here now, but if you shout out or try to go back in the police station to get your friends to help you, then I promise you that I’ll track you down and make sure that you’ll never walk again. Look in my eyes and you’ll see that I mean every word. Entiendes ?’

‘ Sí , I understand,’ he said, mumbling the words through a mouthful of blood and broken teeth.

‘Good. Vamos !’

Harper kept watching as Pedro hobbled away, and waited until he had disappeared up one of the side-streets before returning to Lupa and Ricardo. ‘Well, I got our money back and a good bit on top,’ he said, as they walked back to the square, ‘but we’re no closer to getting into the prison.’

‘Why don’t I talk to the guards and see how big a bribe we’d have to pay to go around on our own?’ Ricardo said. ‘I spent two years in here so I already know everything about the place.’

Harper nodded. ‘I like that option. You’re probably as good a guide as any, and if we’re not with a group, we’ll have more freedom about where we go.’ He paused. ‘What about Lupa, though? Is it safe for her?’

Lupa answered for him. ‘I’m not some frightened young girl who needs to be protected, Lex. If it’s safe for you and Ricardo, then it’s safe for me too.’

‘But women have been raped here, haven’t they?’

‘So have men, Lex, is that going to scare you off?’ She smiled. ‘Besides, I’ve heard so much about it from Ricardo that I’m not going to miss the chance to see it myself for anything.’

Harper and Lupa waited at the edge of the square as Ricardo pushed his way through the crowd around the prison entrance and began talking to one of the guards. Harper saw him gesture towards them and nod his head in response to whatever the guard said. He carried on negotiating with the guard for a few more minutes, even shaking his head and walking away towards Harper and Lupa at one point, before the guard called him back and made another counter-offer. At last they reached agreement and after shaking hands with the guard, Ricardo beckoned to them. ‘We’re in luck,’ he said. ‘On Mondays and Thursdays only women visitors are allowed and on Wednesdays it’s men only, but since today is Friday, we can all go in. We’ve just got to pay fifty US dollars to the guards for el ingreso - the entrance fee - and another fifty to the chief warden - the Colonel-in-Chief. I could probably have got us in for less, but once they knew you were a gringo , the price went up.’

‘It’s still a bargain,’ Harper said. ‘So when can we go in?’

‘As soon as we pay the money.’