Stephen Leather - Breakout

‘Then your end will be quicker than you deserve,’ Harper said, his face implacable.

Don Lorenzo went under and surfaced twice more, his struggles growing weaker as the exertion and the cold sapped his strength. When he went under again for the third time, nothing broke the surface but a thin stream of bubbles.

They waited until it was certain that he was dead, then turned away.

CHAPTER 16

‘Right,’ Harper said, at once all business again. ‘We’ve a real need for speed now.’

‘Lex,’ Lupa said. ‘I know the guards normally stay on the gate or go to the punishment cells and don’t come into the prison itself, but in the course of this evening they’ve heard gunfire and a couple of explosions and when they next do a head count, they’ll find there are…’ She hesitated. ‘I’ve lost count - nine bodies? Surely even they are going to have to do something about that?’

Harper nodded. ‘You’re probably right, so we need to give them something else to think about before they come looking for us, all guns blazing. So, as they say in all the best cowboy movies, let’s head them off at the pass.’ He pulled the keys to the punishment cells from his pocket.

‘Why did you want those?’ Lupa said. ‘We’ve already got Scouse out.’

‘We did, but there are still a few other guys in there and if they aren’t completely wrecked by beatings and hunger, they’ll be very useful to us.’

They both gave him blank looks and he smiled. ‘We’re going to recruit a beggars army to help us fight our battle with the guards. We’re going to lead a revolt by all those half-naked, starving, lowest of the low who have been locked in the punishment cells or forced to sleep on the concrete and stone floors, begging for scraps of food and performing any task to keep them alive. So we’ll set free the men in the punishment cells, round up all the other no-hopers and then I’ll talk to them, with you two translating.

He tossed Ricardo the keys. ‘You let those guys out and tell them that if they want to stay out of those cells, they need to come with you. Lupa and I will round up the others and we’ll see you in the yard of the Cancha section in twenty minutes.’

When Ricardo entered the yard with a dozen prisoners from the punishment cells straggling behind him, he found Harper and Lupa already there with another twenty men they had rounded up. Harper jumped up on an upturned barrel outside the bar and began to address them, pausing every few seconds to allow Lupa and Ricardo to translate. ‘No one in authority cares what happens to you or goes on in this prison,’ he said, ‘as long as nothing spills onto the streets and threatens their power. Now, with your help, we’re going to overthrow the guards and when we do, you’ll be left with two choices. You could go through the gates, get back on to the streets and take your chances out there, until the police arrest you again and you get thrown back in here to be abused by a new group of guards. The alternative is to stay here and take your turn at running the place.’

There were rumbles of disbelief and disagreement as this was translated, but Harper held up his hand for silence and carried on. ‘The chief warden and the guards aren’t paid, because the governor pockets their pay from the government and he never shows up at the jail at all. So he doesn’t care who’s guarding it as long as there are no mass break-outs or bad headlines that might cause him trouble. Fernandez and his guards are vicious, even murderous, and as corrupt as hell. They’ve been taking bribes, shaking down you and your families, and forcing some of your women, wives and daughters into prostitution, while you live in worse conditions than their dogs. So it’s time to shake up the system. We’re going to take them down. Help us do it and you can take their places, wear their uniforms, guard the gates and pocket the bribes that used to go to them. Some of the guards will have to be killed, and those that aren’t, you can put in what used to be your cells, so they can see for themselves what your lives have been like.’

One of them raised his hand. ‘But they have guns and we’ve got nothing.’

Harper held up one of the improvised guns in one hand and one of the bamboo grenades in the other. ‘We have weapons, we have the element of surprise and we outnumber them three or four to one. So we have enough - more than enough.’ He paused, letting the silence build. ‘Now, are you with us? Anyone who is, step forward and come and stand beside me. The rest stay where you are and we’ll take you back to your cells or the concrete floors where you’ve been sleeping what’s left of your lives away.’

There was little movement at first, other than a shuffling of feet, but then one prisoner and then another crossed the yard to stand beside him. There was another pause, during which he wondered if he’d blown it, but then two, three and then four more men moved across. They were followed by almost all the rest, leaving just two men standing there. ‘Last chance to join us,’ Harper said and one of them shuffled across to join the ranks. The other gave a slow shake of his head, turned and walked away.

Harper raised his voice and shouted after him. ‘Keep your mouth shut and nothing will happen to you. Tell the guards what’s coming and you’re dead.’ He turned back to his army of recruits. ‘Okay, some of you will be armed, but the main job of the rest of you is just to apply pressure and create panic. Keep them off guard, hemmed in, pushing and jostling them, and make plenty of noise as well. Let’s see them flinch and make them sweat. Right,’ he said. ‘Now let’s have a show of hands. Who wants revenge on the chief warden and the guards?’

Every hand shot up.

‘Who can handle a gun?’

Only a couple of hands went down.

‘Now why does that not surprise me?’ Harper said, laughing to himself. ‘All right - who’s killed a man?’

Still about half of the hands remained up.

‘Okay. Now we don’t have enough weapons for all of you, so I’m going to give the home-made pistols we have to the three guys who look to me most likely to use them - and shoot accurately - if it proves necessary. The rest of you can take small weapons, like coshes and blackjacks, so long as they can be carried concealed. If you walk out there carrying a baseball bat, then the game will be up before it’s begun. But whether or not you are carrying a weapon, you all have an equally important role to play. So here’s what I need you to do: I want you to wait for my signal and then begin to walk through the passageway and out into the main courtyard. Don’t go as a bloc, head out there in twos and threes with a few seconds’ gap between each group. Once you’re in the courtyard, make your way towards the gates and begin to surround the guards there, but you still all need to be slow and measured in your movements. If you rush the guards, you’re likely to panic them, in which case they may draw their weapons and start shooting before you’re able to do anything about it. So take your time and don’t offer them any immediate or visible threat. Let them think that there’s at least a chance that you’re all just joining in the usual clamour at the gates, trying to shout to relatives and friends, or slip the guards a bribe to let some package or other through. But keep moving forward, denying them space, crowding and jostling them. The guys at the front need to include the ones with the weapons, but they’re only to be used as a last resort, if and when the guards try to draw their pistols. The front rank also needs to include men who are willing to try to disarm the guards if that happens, either by knocking them out before they can draw and shoot, or by taking their guns from them and using them to threaten them and, if necessary kill them.’