Stephen Leather - Breakout

Harper fitted it to the door, waved the other two back into cover then pulled a disposable lighter from his pocket and held it ready. Before lighting the fuse, he leaned close to the door and whispered. ‘Scouse!’

There was no response and he had to call three more times, each one at slightly louder volume, until he got a sleepy response. ‘Lex? Is that you?’

‘You were expecting Brad Pitt? Yes it’s me. Now listen, we don’t have long. Wake yourself the hell up. We haven’t got the key so I’m using a home-made charge with a somewhat unpredictable explosive. So get yourself as far from the door as you can. Turn your back, close your eyes and mouth, and put your fingers in your ears, otherwise the over-pressure when we blow the door is likely to make you deaf or something worse. Got me?’

‘Got you.’

‘Okay. You ready? Counting down: Three - Two - One.’ He lit the fuse, flattened himself against the wall alongside the entrance and put his fingers in his ears. There was a muffled bang and a dense cloud of smoke billowed around him but when it cleared, the frame charge had done its work and the door was half-open, hanging from one hinge. He ran into the cell and helped Scouse outside. He was in very poor shape, indescribably filthy and weak as a kitten, and the smell of his body and the rags he was wearing made Harper’s eyes water as he supported him. The stench from the cell was even worse and as she ran towards them, Lupa stopped, gagged and turned away, holding her scarf to her face.

‘We need to move fast,’ Harper said. ‘With luck, no one - or no one we’re concerned about anyway - will have heard the noise. Self-preservation will probably keep most, if not all of the other prisoners in their cells, because finding out what is causing noises in the night can be bad for the health, but we don’t want to be standing around out here if the noise brings any of Don Lorenzo’s boys hurrying to investigate. So Ricardo and Lupa, get Scouse back to our cell while I tidy up here.’

The two of them began half-steering and half-carrying Scouse through the passageway and across the next courtyard to the cell they had been using, while Harper dumped the bodies of the two thugs in Scouse’s cell and then dragged the door shut again, its one remaining hinge squealing in protest. Anything more than a casual look would show that it had been blasted open, but he hoped that someone entering the yard who saw a row of closed doors and no sign of the men who were supposed to be keeping watch on them, would be more concerned to track them down than carry out a cell-by-cell inspection.

He kicked some of the thick brown dust of the Altiplano that covered every surface of the prison, including the floor of the yard, onto the already congealing pool of blood where he had killed the second of Don Lorenzo’s men, hiding it from a casual glance. He looked around him, listening intently for the sound of anyone approaching, then ran through the passage and back to their cell.

Scouse was propped up on a chair, blinking in the unaccustomed light from the lamp they had lit. ‘Scouse, mate, we need to get you cleaned up and out of here pronto,’ Harper said, ‘but once you’ve washed some of that filth off your hands, you’d better eat some food if you can. Not too much at once if you’ve not had any for a while or you’ll be barfing it all up again. Then we’ll get you ready to go. Talk if you want or just stay quiet, if you’d rather.’

‘You don’t know how glad I am to be out of there,’ Scouse said, his broken teeth making him mumble his words. ‘There’s no bedding, just bare boards and the concrete floor, and it was so cold at night, I couldn’t stop shivering. I was sure I was going to die in there.’

Lupa washed the worst of the filth from Scouse’s hands, then handed him some bread and a banana. He ate both in seconds. ‘They only fed me a bowl of slops once a day,’ he said, ‘and a litre of water that had to last until the next day. I was never allowed out of my cell at all and the guards and the warden beat me all the time. They told me I had to keep my head bowed when they came into my cell and I wasn’t allowed to look at them or speak to them, but then they’d ask me questions and if I stayed silent they’d beat me for refusing to answer, but if I spoke they’d beat me anyway for breaking the silent rule.’

‘What questions did they ask?’ Harper said, still unwilling to believe that Scouse was being held as a human sacrifice but struggling for any other explanation about why he had been held so long without any ransom demand.

‘Nothing that made any sense. Things like did I have a wife and family and had I booked a hotel before I flew in.’

‘They were probably just trying to reassure themselves that no one, or at least no one powerful or influential, was going to come looking for you and start asking awkward questions of them.’ He paused, casting a critical eye over his old mate. ‘Right, let’s get to work on you. Sit on that chair and lean forward so Lupa can wash your hair.’

She poured a bucket of water over his head, rubbed it with soap and then sluiced it off with another bucketful. Harper used the scissors to cut Scouse’s hair, and applied the hair dye to it, being careful to keep it from staining the skin of his forehead. He soaped Scouse’s face and shaved him, and Lupa then went to work with the make-up she had bought, using it to hide his pallor and his bruises. Harper stripped off his clothes, handed them to Scouse to wear and, wrinkling his nose at the stench, dressed himself in the rags Scouse had been wearing. He then picked up the black marker pen they had brought in with them and carefully copied the number on his own forearm on to Scouse’s. They were of a similar build, though even before his spell in solitary confinement, Scouse had been nowhere near as fit and powerful as Harper, and he was now very emaciated. However with a wash and shave, a little grooming and make-up, and a change of hair colour, Harper felt he was close enough in looks to pass the guards at the gate using the fake passport that Harper had surrendered to them on his way in to the prison.

He checked his watch. ‘It’s just getting light and the guards will be unlocking the gate in a few minutes time. You’ll get my passport back from them. It’s fake but good enough to fool anyone, and I think we now look enough alike for you to pass as me.’ He winked at Lupa. ‘In any case, we gringos probably all look alike to them. I’ll give you some money for a generous tip for them, and once they get a sight of that, I doubt they’ll be asking any questions. They’ll just want you out of the way before they have to share it with the others. Lupa, can you give me a minute? I need to drop my trousers to get Scouse some money for his bribe.’

‘Sure, though it won’t be anything I haven’t seen before.’

Harper laughed and as she sauntered out of the cell door, he undid his jeans, retrieved the hidden condom, handed part of the contents to Scouse and slipped the rest into the pocket of his jeans. ‘There’s $100 to bribe the guards at the gate. Once you’re out, go straight to the place we’ve been staying, The Pacific Hotel, halfway up the street that opens off the far right hand corner of the square. There’s an air ticket out of Bolivia, and some walking around money waiting in my room there - Room 22 - taped to the bottom of the wardrobe. There’s a Colt pistol, another passport and some more money too, but leave those where they are. Hole up in the room, take a couple of showers, because you still definitely aren’t smelling too fragrant at the moment, catch up on some sleep and stuff your face with food. Don’t booze it up too much though because you need to keep your wits about you, and only leave the hotel to go to a dentist who can do a temporary fix on your teeth. The hotel will be able to recommend someone, and for cash in dollars, I’m sure you can jump the appointment queue. Apart from that, don’t leave the hotel at all, and definitely not after dark. It’s best if you wait there for me. I should be there later today or tomorrow, but if I’m held up, I’ll be out of here one way or another as soon as possible. If things look like they’re turning ugly, or if something goes wrong and I don’t show within a week, you can just take the passport, ticket and cash, and get a flight out of here to anywhere - Miami if you can, but if not Peru, Brazil, Chile or Argentina, and then get an onward flight as quick as you can. You should be safe to fly out of La Paz if you keep it low profile. The bad guys will be looking for incoming foreigners to shake down, not departing ones. And when you do fly out, with me or without me, don’t ever come back here.’