NOTE:
The 'Previously on...' section is that long not because I love to lengthen the episodes, but just because it was a long wait
Since it's quite important to the overall story who's who and why he's doing what, why and when, I had to put the most basic pieces in.
___________
PREVIOUSLY ON THE BARCODE
"Hold on a sec" Fox murmured. "This dark blonde type. He's going down too. That's it from me."
"No, Fox." said Carlos.***
Crackman nodded. "Okay, Brotato... See, I'll have to punish you for your disobedience."
Brotato suddenly looked up. "For my wh--?" He didn't get to finish.
***
"Your little friends Zyphon and Harp aren't around, so it would grant you a smack in the head, but I'll let it slide this time. Anyways..." Rock exhaled. "I need smokes, Torm. Care to share?"
Tormunds reached out to his pocked and handed the pack to Rock.***
"There's a guy who's been locked up in here. Goes by the name Carlos. He will make sure that none of this" Tom pointed at Brotato's head, "will happen ever again."
Brotato was taken aback. "You've given me a bodyguard?"
"In a way." ***
Brotato walked inside the cell.
"A little introduction" Crackman grinned from behind bars. "Brotato, Zyphon. Zyphon, Brotato"***
Tormunds stood up. "Thievery. Bank of America. Around 12 million dollars."
Zyphon outstretched his arms. "I had anger management problems. An arsonist-turned-murderer."
Harp then walked towards Brotato. "What these men have in common was the man who prosecuted their cases."
Brotato slowly came to a realization. "Your father's the DA who led the case against me!"
"And here's why you're here and I have an offer for you! See, I'm a black sheep of my own family. I got tied up in some stuff that might have been connected to the criminal underworld. After I was caught, my father almost had a heart attack." Harp's tone suddenly turned a lot more grim. "Right after I was arrested, I was disinherited and he doesn't acknowledge my existence anymore. Probably to clean up whatever shitstain on his pristine image I was. His words. Basically, I'm making a group of people who had to deal with him and were put behind bars. Because, you see, nothing gets my father more angry - and raises the suspicion of all sorts of media - than his own son associating himself with the people he's sending to prison."***
"Brotato's with me" Carlos said in a firm tone. "He is and will be a part of my group."
Harp gave Brotato a look. "What?!"
"Like it or not, Carlos, Brotato's my cellmate" Zyphon fired back.***
"Shut up!" Crackman yelled. "I ask you again... who did this?!"
Harp knew that he was fucked. He did the only thing he thought about in the moment.
"He did!" he pointed in the direction of Brotato.***
Crackman personally led Brotato to his temporary cell in a secluded part of prison.
"I'm so going to enjoy this one" Crackman grinned.******
SON OF A BITCH, I'MMA START KILLING FOR KICKS,
THERE AIN'T AN AIR FORCE 1 IN THE GLOBE I CAN'T FIT, GET IT?The prison officer walked inside the empty security room. He observed the monitors for a small second, but he didn't look at the prisoners. He checked whether nobody was around. He needed to be alone for a moment.
When he made sure that other officers weren't nearby, he picked up the phone and dialed the numer he had memorized by know. After several seconds, he heard someone on the line.
"Yes?"
The officer cleared his throat. "Delivering the message as follows: the problem was solved earlier than expected, but we're proceeding as planned."
There was a moment of silence on the other side.
"Alright" the voice said. "Anything else?"
"Not at the moment" replied the officer.
"Good." with that, the person on the other side hung up, while the officer left the room to go back on his patrol.
******
"I know you've requested a meeting with me, Mr Hagen, and that the matter is urgent" said Admin, sitting behind his desk, "but you've got to understand that prison rules are set for a reason. Solitary is treated as a punishment for misbehavior and the report clearly states that your client started and participated in a fight with other prisoners. He needs to think about what he did so that this situation won't repeat itself again."
Tom stood up and leaned over the desk. "We're not at a press conference, Mr Admin, so I'd be glad if you stopped treating me like a journalist who needs to be fed with some big words that in essence mean nothing." his tone was firm. "I don't need them. What I need is you letting me see my client, Brotato. I have a right to visit him and you can't prohibit me from doing that."
Admin sighed, but nonetheless smiled. "That's where you're wrong." He also stood up, but instead walked to a window and looked outside. "You don't want me to beat about the bush? Fine." he turned to face Tom once again, the smile still plastered on his face. "This is Hedgefield State Prison. There are some unique way in which we operate when it comes to certain cases. After all, there are many degenerates in this place."
He pointed his finger at Tom. "And if any of them can be deemed as posing a threat or being dangerous to his surrondings... and people around him... they may be held in solitary for the time being. Moreover, we reserve the right to deny them some of their privileges. Just like I'm doing it in this case."
He stopped smiling and raised his voice. "And if a convicted murderer disobeys any law that's in force in my prison, then he won't be allowed to visit anyone, even his lawyer... until he learns how to behave. He might be your client, but who knows? I'm responsible for your safety on these premises and if I can't guarantee that Brotato will behave properly with you around, I won't risk it. Mr Hagen, my no is final. Whatever you have to stay to Brotato, it'll have to wait until the next five days. Once he'll be back to his regular cell, you can have your 'visit'."
Tom realized he can't reason with the man. He picked up his briefcase and headed to the door. "Alright, Mr Admin. I understand" he said.
He pushed the doorknob, but stopped for a moment. He turned around to look at Admin one more time. "Thank god you're always obeying the law, with all the methods at your disposal. Who knows what would've happened if the person in charge would abuse his power... a report of even a single activity like that would be the reason to remove that person from their position, effective immediately."
Admin hissed through gritted teeth. "Is that a threat, Hagen?"
But Tom only winked at that. "I believe you're crystal clear, am I right?" he then walked out of the door, while Admin slammed his fist at his desk. He was breathing heavily, trying to cool down.
The force of the slam caused a picture he had on his desk to fall down. He picked it up and looked at the photo. His lovely daughter... he didn't have any contact with her in a long while and it seemed to take a toll on him.
Admin put the picture down and quickly picked up the phone.
"I need Crackman in my office. Now"
Brotato was supposed to be locked up in the solitary for a week. Only two days have passed, but no one - be it Harp or Carlos - knew how he was holding up. Their contacts at prison were unable to find out anything, as the only person to visit or bring him food was Crackman. This was an unusual situation - an officer in charge never really does that.
Like all the days before, Carlos was lifiting weights while Rock was reading a newspaper.
"Aren't you at least bothered how he's doing? It's been two days and no news" Rock casually asked.
Carlos lifted the weight above his head and stopped. "We know he's locked up, there's no point digging up anything more since no one knows shit, even my contacts. There's nothing I can do about that. And besides, when did you started caring?" Carlos observed him. "You were quite reluctant to help me after Brotato came for a vaction to this place."
Rock scratched his head. "I didn't mean that. It's just... isn't Hammerhead Crew paid for this? You should at least make it look like you're doing something."
Carlos lowered the weight and laughed. "I don't think Brotato's family are aware of what is going on and it's unlikely they have informants in this place. If they did, they wouldn't turn to me for help."
He resumed lifting weights.
"Anyway," Carlos continued, "why do you care about him so much? That's not very serial killer-ish, if you ask me."
Rock turned the page. "I think it's the teacher in me speaking."
"Your inner teacher told you to slaughter eighteen people." Carlos pointed out.
"I needed to express myself. Better to take it out on someone else than on secondary school children, whatever shitheads they were" Rock brushed it off. "Thanks to those killings, I was literally stressed out."
Carlos put down the weights, stood up and stretched his arms. "The only thing that got me off was Harp and his pack of idiots trying to drag Brotato towards their group. Thankfully, they've written themselves off his life. After solitary, there's no way he would associate himself with them."
Rock folded the newspaper. "You know... the way all of them reacted, it seems like Harp didn't realize that Brotato will be protected by you. I guess he tried to pull his usual 'join me because my father convicted you' shit. Harp tried that on you too, remember?"
Carlos spat to the side and flexed his muscles. "I didn't need any help from that litte fuck. His father got me imprisoned and I bet his son got locked up to try and squeeze information out of anyone in here that might be helpful. Why would he associate himself with the people his father prosecuted, huh?" Carlos took a sip from the bottle of water. "Besides, I wouldn't stand to take orders from anyone. I work better on my own."
Rock stood up and yawned. "Isn't you protecting Brotato technically an order?"
"Nope" Carlos replied. "It's a service. And it pays good. The Crew said that the money basically funds all of our operations right now, we wouldn't even have to resort to extortion anymore."
He threw a quick glance at Rock. "But of course we're still doing that. We need to amass as much money as we can. Besides, guys want to have fun and what's better than to crack open a cash register with a shopkeeper's own head from time to time?"
Rock smiled a little. "I can see your point--" he suddenly stoped.
Carlos frowned and looked at him again. "What is it now?"
Rock nodded in the direction of one of the prison building blocks and Carlos looked at the place.. Everyone knew that's where solitary was. Moments later, they were approached by a prison officer who just went out of that building.
"Rock" he stated. His voice was firm.
Rock looked at him, his face grim. "What's going on?"
The officer ignored his question. "You're coming with me. Crackman's order."
Rock hesitated for a moment. He knew what 'Crackman's order' meant. But Brotato was in the solitary...
Carlos knew that too and never interrupted when Rock was retrieved by the officers and escorted to the solitary, but this time he knew he had to intervene. If he read the signals right - and he was almost never mistaken - Brotato's life was hanging in the balance, and if something happens to him, Carlos would be finished. Brotato's family would make sure of that...
"He's not going anywhere" Carlos said out of sudden.
Rock didn't say anything, but the officer quickly picked up his bat and smashed it across Carlos's face. The prisoner fell to the ground.
"Don't test Crack. Never do that again" the officer said. There was nothing more in the world that Carlos wanted other than ripping that officer apart, but he knew it would do no good to anyone except bringing more trouble. He stood up and said nothing.
The officer pushed Rock with the bat. "Come on, then. Move." They walked towards the building where the solitary was. The officer started the talk, just like all those times before. "Everything as usual." he said to Rock. "Crackman needs to get rid of a guy. Make it look like an accident."
Rock shook his head. "Yeah, I know."
Carlos observed them for a second. He was fucked.
With no other option, Rock went straight to the solitary, with the officer closely behind him. When they were just about to reach the entrance, Crackman walked out of the building.
"You're there? Good" he said to Rock. He then addressed the officer. "Go and deal with him. I gotta go, Admin needs me."
The officer threw him a glance. "Something wrong?"
Crack shook his head. "Nah, I don't think so. But it's good I'll be away from here, I won't have to make up any excuse like the last time."
The officer nodded. "Sure thing." With that, Crackman went to see Admin while the officer and Rock entered the building. Rock was getting more and more worried. To make things worse, he couldn't see any way out of that situation. He had to kill, there was no other way.
The situation was observed from afar by Harp, Zyphon and Tormunds.
"Is anyone else in the solitary, apart from Brotato?" asked Harp.
Tormunds stopped reading Brave New World and seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. "Not that I'm aware of."
"I think Crazy Johnny was there before, but I think he was already out, so no. I think Tormunds is right." Zyphon agreed.
"So that settles it then." Harp replied absentmindedly, still drawing some pictures in his notebook. "Brotato will be dead by the end of an hour."
Tormunds shrugged, but Zyphon seemed slightly distraught by Harp's nonchalant tone. "You don't seem to care that much about it, do you?"
Suddenly, Harp stopped drawing and closed his notebook. "Because our situation will go back to normal. Our secret dies with Brotato, so we won't have to worry about being ripped apart by both officers and other prisoners, especially Carlos."
Zyphon stared at him incredulously. "If anything, that's your secret. And wow, I didn't realize you'd go along with the killing of a man who we now know shouldn't even be here."
Harp stood up. "Hey, you're part of the group. If anyone finds out I don't have any kind of connection to my father, we'll all go down. Besides, what do you think should I do? Pull Brotato off the hook? How do you think I should do that? If Crackman ordered Rock to be brought to solitary, then there's not much I could do, even if I'd call upon my non-existent influence of my father."
Tormunds observed the scene. "Wouldn't hurt to try, though."
Harp stared at them. "What the hell is wrong with you both?" he asked them angrily. "You ask me to fight a lost cause!"
Zyphon folded his arms. "We ask you to be decent, just like you usually are."
"You're asking me to get a man out of solitary. A man who's there because of me" Harp fired back.
Zyphon countered the argument. "And if he finds out you got him out of there, he might 'forget' about our little secret and do not disclose it to anyone - say, Rock and Carlos."
Harp sight and sat back again. "I don't think Brotato would be very forgiving after spending two days there and likely being beaten to a bloody pulp by Crackman, regardless of what I'd do."
He rubbed his temples. "But that's still not the point. If Crackman wanted Rock in solitary, then there's nothing anyone can do. Brotato's dead and nothing will change that. It's unlikely Rock will refuse to kill him, because that would mean that he'll go down. A no-win situation if you ask me."
Tormunds exhaled deeply. "As much as I like Brotato - which doesn't account for much, since I've barely met him - I have to agree with H. The situation's fucked and it's unlikely something can be done about it."
Zyphon knew Tormunds was right, but tried to push that thought away. Brotato was his cellmate and he seemed like a nice guy. This couldn't happen to him...
"And" Harp continued, as if an idea dawned on him. "Carlos said that Brotato was in his protection. If I am to guess, he was hired by Brotato's family. Imagine what happens if Brotato dies. They won't let it go. They'll try to get rid of Carlos any way they can for failing to deliver on what he promised. Our sworn enemy would finally disappear!"
Zyphon felt this was getting out of hand. "Stop scheming for a minute and listen to what you're fucking saying!"
Harp was brought back to the ground by that statement. Tormunds seemed surprised by Zypon's sudden outburst. "Careful there, mate" Torm said. "Calm down a little."
Harp turned around and walked to Zyphon. "Why do you fucking care so much for him out of sudden? Are you sure you've slept in separate beds when they brought him to your cell?"
Zyphon rolled his eyes. "I'm trying to save a person who got into this situation because of you!"
Harp got angry. "Stop pinning this on me, I acted upon an instinct!" he fired back. "I thought this could buy me time to come up with something, how could I know Brotato was in such deep shit that Crackman would want him dead?!"
Zyphon turned around and walked a few steps away, trying to gather his thoughts. "I'm sorry, man." he said after a moment.
"Whatever" Harp replied. "What's done is done. The only thing that comes out of this is that we're still covered and no one knows our secrets. Sorry for thinking ahead and neglecting your soon-to-be dead friend, but I can't waste my thoughts on that anymore."
All three sat back on the bench, trying to calm down. Tormunds resumed reading Brave New World.
"This is beyond fucked up to ask right now, I know..." he said after a moment. "...but do you guys have any cigarettes? I ran out of mine, and after Rock goes for a kill, he squezzes a pack out of me."
Harp shook his head. "Sorry, don't have any. You understand, past two days were really stresfull."
Tormunds nodded. "Yeah, sure, I get it. You?" he asked Zyphon.
"Actually, I do." he said. "But not on me. I have them stashed behind a loose brick in a wall on the opposite side of the yard. I can go get it."
"That'd be great." Tormunds said, almost smiling. "Thanks to you, Rock won't bully me today."
Zyphon stood up, but Harp stopped him. "Torm, go with him as a lookout. It's better no one saw Zyphon fiddling with the wall. There's no need for people to know where we stash some stuff."
Zyphon wanted to protest. "I'm a fucking adult, I know what I'm doing."
Harp shook his head. "Better to be safe than sorry." With that, he resumed drawing a picture. He was drawing a yard in front of his house in a village, where he used to spend vacations as a child.
Tormunds stood up. "I'll go, that's no problem." With that, they walked through the yard. Tormunds threw a quick glance behind to see whether Harp was still on a bench.
"To tell the truth, I have cigarettes." he said to Zyphon. "I just needed to talk to you, and fast."
Zyphon stared at him. "What?" he was taken aback.
"I know Brotato doesn't deserve to die, but Harp's not without right. We might be in danger if we intervene, but..." he hesitated for a moment. "...what if it wouldn't be us?"
"You know we should ask Harp first before planning something on our own. We need to know whether our own plan won't put us in even more danger." Zyphon replied, but was nonetheless paying close attention to him. "What do you propose?"
Tormunds looked around. "Let's talk to Fox. He can, uh, arrange a meeting with Sos. Maybe he could do something about it?"
Zyphon almost wanted to burst out laughing. "You can't be serious. How's that a plan? Fox is unhinged and is an associate to Carlos. Our enemy, remember? Besides, the pimp would put a high price for arranging something like that, and you know what kind of payment he wants." Zyphon shook his head. "And, finally... Sos is no one's friend. He's dangerous and never talks to anyone. He doesn't have a company in this place! And you want to somehow talk to him AND ask for a request?"
"I thought you wanted to save an innocent person?" Tormunds asked. "And if it does turn out we will save him, he might turn a blind eye on Harp's secret, hell, we might even call upon a favor and ask him to spy on Carlos for us. I'm just offering a possible solution."
"Possible solution?" Zyphon didn't budge. "Yes, I don't want to lose another cellmate, especially since he seems like a nice guy. But what you're saying is impossible to do. Fox never works with anyone if there isn't something for him in it, and Sos... I'd rather stay away from him, like everyone else. If there's a possibility to save Brotato, it's only through Harp, and he won't go with it."
Tormunds didn't say anything to that. He didn't have to, he knew Zyphon was right.
"That's mental. It won't work" Zyphon added.
Tormunds sighed. "Yeah, you're right. Forget that I asked."
******
"You wanted to see me, sir?" Crackman walked inside the office. Admin was behind his desk, checking out some case files.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be right with you." Admin seemed to be reading the files very carefuly. Crackman sat on a chair and waited in silence. It didn't take long. Admin finished reading, closed the case file and threw it on his desk. Crackman looked at the cover and immediately realized what it was - a case file on one of the prisoners, Sos. A big, red stamp that read 'CONFIDENTIAL' was visible on the cover.
Crackman always wondered what was so special about Sos. When he was placed in this prison, Admin had Crack double the security, list Sos as extremely dangerous and to be approached with caution. Nobody knew why - Crackman ordered some people to make a research on him, but nothing could be found. One would assume that such a dangerous criminal would attracked attention, especially from media, but any search turned out to be empty. There was literally nothing on him - the only file on Sos was restricted and always in Admin's possesion.
Crackman observed Sos from time to time. All prisoners strayed away from him and he seemed awfuly silent, without keeping contact with anyone. His reputation of a blank page and supposed extremely violent past - as Admin insisted - was widely known in prison. What Sos did, though, seemed to be the sweet secret of the courthouse who proceeded with his case, as well as Admin who seemed to be aware of why Sos was convicted.
Admin cleared his throat. "I summoned you because we might have a problem. Well, it actually depends on you whether something will happen or not."
Crackman raised his eyebrows. "That sounds... weird. Did something happen?"
"Not yet, but it might, I'm afraid" Admin scratched his head and looked to the window. "A lawyer was here today. Tom Hagen. He works for the prisoner we currently have in a solitary. Brotato, to be precise."
Crackman huffed, annoyed. "Oh, that idiot. Ever since he got here he caused nothing but trouble for us. You know he comes from a crime family?"
Admin leaned back on his chair. "Yeah, the ones who are not guilty until proven otherwise."
Crackman hissed through gritted teeth. "Yeah, and my house caught fire on its own."
Admin nodded, wondering about something. "Yeah, well, if they'll get their way, it might not end here, I'm afraid. I denied Hagen a visit due to Brotato's dangerous behaviour and him being placed in a solitary. No visitors, no lawyers."
Crackman folded his arms and laughted silently. "Well, that's how we operate. National Defense Authorization Act allows us to do that, I don't see what's wrong with that."
Admin didn't look amused. "Well, if Brotato was a terrorist placed here under the order of the President and the government." he sighed. "We're yet to become a second Guantanamo and hiding behind NDAA is a serious stretch of our law."
Crackman shrugged, not really bothered by that. "It works and no one ever questioned that when it comes to our practices."
"Well, that's where you're wrong" Admin leaned over his desk. "Brotato's lawyer is this annoying type who doesn't like when he doesn't get what he wants. On his way out, he hinted at his knowledge of our pristine clean practices."
"You think there's going to be trouble?" Crackman asked, his voice stern.
"There might be if we won't smooth things over." Admin pointed out. "We'll get Brotato out of solitary and allow his lawyer to visit him, let Hagen know that his fucking pet is all fine and dandy. Then hopefully he'll leave us alone."
A shiver ran down Crackman's spine. He didn't reply and looked down, fiddling with his fingers. Admin immediately noticed something was off.
"What's wrong?" Admin asked carefuly.
Admin looked up, his eyes completely empty. "I think I've made a big mistake."
******
About half an hour later, the door to the building where solitary was, opened up and Rock walked outside with an officer behind him. He let him go on the yard.
Harp, Zyphon, Tormunds - and Carlos from afar - all observed the scene unfold. Rock slowly walked towards Carlos across the yard, while - to their surprise - the officer turned the other way around and made his way to Harp, Tormunds and Zyph. Moments later - to Carlos's horror - they saw a body in a plastic bag being wheeled out of the building into the main one.
"You" the officer pointed at Tormunds. "Cleaning duty. Come on"
Tormunds slowly stood up and looked at the guys. Zyphon seemed distraught, while Harp looked to his side, silent. Tormunds followed the officer and moments later they were inside the building.
Suddenly, Zyphon stood up and stormed off without saying anything. Harp seemed surprised by this.
"Hey!" he called after him. "Where are you going?"
There was no response.
Tormunds and the officer climbed the stairs to the second floor and the officer stopped him by one of the cells. Upon nodding, the door opened up, but T could clearly see everything even before entering the place.
Blood was everywhere. A big pool was on the floor, but the walls were also splatters on the walls - as if someone was repeatedly beaten. Tormunds inspected the place closer and saw smears on both the walls and metal bars at the entrance. Bloody palm prints were on them, as if a man grabbed them for support, trying to get up. It looked like it wasn't just a kill. The murderer was a pure psychopath.
"The bucket and the rags are in the corner." the officer said. "Clean it up. I don't want to see a single spot."
******
The day was slowly coming to an end and everyone entered the building. Prisoners stood outside their cells while the officers checked whether everything was in order. Zyphon stood outside his cell alone. Harp and Tormunds looked up from the floor below him.
"I think it really hit him bad" Harp whispered.
Tormunds looked at Zyphon again. He had a blank expression on his face. "I know." he agreed. "And thank God they didn't have him clean it up. It was a real mess."
Harp glanced at Tormunds. "That bad?"
Tormunds sighed, looking down. "It looked more like a torture chamber than a cell."
Harp rubbed his temples. "Shit" he whispered again. He then looked at the cell where Rock and Carlos were. They didn't seem too worried - instead, they behaved just like every single day. "This is strange" Harp said, but then suddenly stopped.
Two officers walked Brotato down the hall. He walked quite slow and had a some bruises on his face. It looked like walking cause him a lot of pain, but he tried to hide that fact.
Harp was shocked and so was Tormunds. "He's alive?" he asked. "You said the place looked like a butcher shop!"
Tormunds was taken aback by the situation. "Because it was! I thought... I thought Rock fucking destroyed him!"
"Then what's he doing here?" Harp asked. "And why did they need Rock inside if Crack didn't made him kill Brotato?"
"How the fuck should I know?" Tormunds fired back.
The officers walked Brotato to his cell, where a stunned Zyphon waited for him. Crack also made his way here.
"I give you your cellmate back" he patted Brotato on the back, which cause Brotato to hiss in pain. "Not my best work, I'm afraid, but it'll do. Don't think he'll cause any more trouble."
Brotato stared at Zyphon. His eyes were completely empty.
"Hey there, man" Zyphon offered a small welcome.
But Brotato didn't say anything. He just walked past him, walked to his bed and lied down, face turned to the wall.
"Well, that's all from us then" Crackman announced with a smile. "Time to go, guys" he told other officers and they walked away. Zyphon knew that Brotato was mad. He looked down quickly to see that both Tormunds and Harp seemed worried, unable to process what just happened. Zyphon looked to the side to see Carlos and Rock entering their cell nearby, small smiles appearing on their faces.
We're fucked, thought Zyphon.
He couldn't ponder about that more, as a sudden scream caused everyone to look for its source. Zyphon didn't have any trouble finding it - it was right across the balcony, in front of his cell.
He saw that Sos pushing Crackman to the ground - the officer's right arm was broken, dangling slightly from side to side and a bone cutting through the skin. Other officers quickly surrounded the area - some pushed Sos inside his cell while others helped Crack to get up.
"We need help, get a doctor!" one of the officers yelled.
Doors to the cells were shut and the light was turned off. Prisoners couldn't see a thing, but they could still hear Crackman's muffled screams, even as he was being walked away from the place.
END OF EPISODE 3