Chapter 14: The Devil’s Cage
Chapter 14: The Devil’s Cage
The heavy iron gates of the Blackwood County Correctional Facility groaned as they slammed shut, a sound that echoed like a death knell through the concrete corridors. Elena adjusted the stiff, blue uniform of a night-shift custodial worker, pulling her cap low over her eyes. Her heart thundered so loudly she was certain the guard at the front desk could hear it.
Beside her, Marcus walked with a surprisingly smooth gait, his mechanical leg brace hidden beneath baggy maintenance pants. He carried a heavy plastic mop bucket and a toolbox.
"Remember," Marcus whispered, his voice barely moving his lips as they walked down the corridor toward Cellblock C. "The guard at the monitoring station, Miller, owes me fifty grand from an old gambling debt. He turned off the security cameras for Pod 4 for exactly twelve minutes. If we are a second late, the automated lock system re-engages, and we are trapped in the cage with the monster."
"And Sarah?" Elena whispered back, her hand instinctively checking the heavy taser concealed in her tool belt.
"She’s safe with the baby. The warehouse is locked down. Nobody gets in," Marcus reassured her as they reached a heavy steel door with a reinforced glass viewing port.
A buzzer sounded with a sharp, harsh rattle. The lock clicked. Marcus pushed the door open, stepping into the dim, humid air of the isolated holding block.
There, sitting on a low concrete slab in the center of a windowless cell, was David Vance.
He was unrecognizable from the pristine, arrogant billionaire of the suburbs. His expensive clothes had been replaced by an oversized orange jumpsuit. His face was a chaotic canvas of bruises and surgical tape from where the chandelier had crushed his jaw, and his right leg was encased in a massive, heavy medical cast pinned to the floor.
When the door closed behind them, David didn't look up immediately. "I told the guards I don't want the prison food. Tell my lawyer if he doesn't get me bail by morning, I’ll buy this entire facility and have him assigned to the laundry room."
"Your lawyer isn't coming, David," Elena said, pulling off her cap.
David froze. He slowly raised his head, his one unswollen eye widening as he recognized her. A grotesque, distorted grin spread across his broken face, stretching his stitches.
"Elena..." David rasped, his voice a horrifying, wet hiss through his wired jaw. "My favorite sister-in-law. Come to finish the job? Come to see what you did to my beautiful face?"
"Shut up, David," Marcus stepped forward, dropping the heavy toolbox onto the concrete floor with a loud clang.
David’s smile vanished instantly as his eyes shifted to Marcus. The arrogance in his posture melted into genuine, primitive fear. "Kane? You... you're dead. My father killed you."
"Your father missed," Marcus said coldly. He stepped up to the plexiglass partition, pulling a portable, high-definition digital scanner and a digital audio recorder from his toolbox. "And now, you're going to help us ruin him."
David let out a wet, mocking laugh that turned into a cough, spitting a speck of blood onto the floor. "You think you can threaten me? In here? I am a Vance! My father’s lawyers are tearing the prosecution's case apart as we speak. I’ll be out in a week. And when I am, Elena... I am going to hunt you and your pathetic sister down, and I will take my son back. I will make you watch while I—"
Elena didn't let him finish. She pulled the taser from her belt, slipped her hand through the food slot of the cell door, and fired the prongs directly into David’s chest.
The high-voltage current ripped through David’s body. He let out a strangled, agonizing scream, his muscles violently convulsing as his shattered leg slammed against the concrete. He collapsed to the floor, twitching uncontrollably, tears of pure agony streaming down his face.
Elena leaned down to the slot, her face inches from his, her eyes burning with an unholy fury. "Listen to me, you pathetic piece of garbage. You will never touch my sister again. You will never see Leo again. You are going to look into that scanner, and you are going to speak the passphrase, or I will override the voltage on this device and cook your heart inside your chest. The guards won't save you. They aren't looking."
David gasped for air, clutching his chest, staring at Elena as if seeing her for the first time. The helpless housewife’s sister was gone; a killer was looking back at him.
"What... what do you want?" David whimpered, his defiance utterly broken.
"The Outer Banks beach house safe," Marcus said, holding the retinal scanner through the slot. "Look into the lens. Keep your eyelids wide open."
David hesitated, but Elena tapped the taser against the metal bar, the blue electric arc snapping violently. Terrified, David pulled himself up, pressing his face against the rubber seal of the scanner. A green laser flashed twice, reflecting off his bloodshot iris.
"Retinal signature captured," the scanner chirped softly.
"Now the passphrase," Marcus said, holding up the high-fidelity recorder. "Speak clearly."
David swallowed hard, his voice trembling. "The... The empire is built on the bones of the weak."
The recorder blinked green, confirming the vocal print matching David’s specific vocal frequency.
"Good boy," Marcus said, packing the equipment back into the toolbox.
Elena looked at David one last time. He looked small, broken, and pathetic on the cold floor of his cell. "Enjoy your stay, David. It’s about to get a lot longer."
As they turned to leave, David crawled toward the door, his fingers clawing at the metal slot. "You think you've won, Elena?! You think taking that ledger changes anything?! My father already knows where you are! He knows about the warehouse! He let you take me because you're leading his men straight to the baby!"
Elena stopped dead in her tracks, a cold dread dropping like a stone into her stomach.
"What did you say?" Elena whispered, spinning around.
May you like
David laughed hysterically, a blood-soaked, unhinged sound. "The tracker, Elena! The burner phone you took from my desk... it wasn't mine! It belonged to my father's asset manager! It has an active military-grade GPS beacon! He’s at the warehouse right now!"
Elena pulled out her personal phone, frantically dialing Marcus’s safehouse security line. The line rang once, twice... and then, the sound of a violent explosion echoed through the speaker, followed by the terrifying, piercing scream of Sarah.
