The interphone was ringing again. The warden picked up the handpiece
and held it bonelessly at arm's length, his eyes fixed glassily on the
wall. It was Sauer from the Greensleeves again. O'Leary could hear his
maddened bray.
"I warned you, Warden!" O'Leary could see the big con's contorted face
in miniature, in the view screen of the interphone. The grin was broad
and jolly, the snake's eyes poisonously cold. "I'm going to give you
five minutes, Warden, you hear? Five minutes! And if there isn't a
medic in here in five minutes to take care of my boy Flock--your guards
have had it! I'm going to slice off an ear and throw it out the window,
you hear me? And five minutes later, another ear. And five minutes
later--"
The warden groaned weakly. "I've called for the prison medic, Sauer.
Honestly I have! I'm sure he's coming as rapidly as he--"
"Five minutes!" And the ferociously grinning face disappeared.
O'Leary leaned forward. "Warden, let me take a squad in there!"
The warden gazed at him for a blank moment "Squad? No, O'Leary. What's
the use of a squad? It's a medic I have to get in there. I have a
responsibility to those guards and if I don't get a medic--"
A cold, calm voice from the door: "I am here, Warden."
O'Leary and the warden both jumped up.
The medic nodded slightly. "You may sit down."
"Oh, Doctor! Thank heaven you're here!" The warden was falling all over
himself, getting a chair for his guest, flustering about.
O'Leary said sharply: "Wait a minute, Warden. You can't let the doctor
go in alone!"
"He isn't alone!" The doctor's intern came from behind him, scowling
belligerently at O'Leary. Youngish, his beard pale and silky, he was a
long way from his first practice. "I'm here to assist him!"
O'Leary put a strain on his patience. "They'll eat you up in there,
Doc! Those are the worst cons in the prison. They've got two hostages
already. What's the use of giving them two more?"
The medic fixed him with his eyes. He was a tall man and he wore his
beard proudly. "Guard, do you think you can prevent me from healing a
sufferer?" He folded his hands over his abdomen and turned to leave.
The intern stepped aside and bowed his head.
O'Leary surrendered. "All right, you can go. But I'm coming with
you--with a squad!"
* * * * *
Inmate Sue-Ann Bradley cowered in her cell. The Greensleeves
was jumping. She had never--no, _never_, she told herself
wretchedly--thought that it would be anything like this. She listened
unbelievingly to the noise the released prisoners were making, smashing
the chairs and commodes in their cells, screaming threats at the bound
guards.
She faced the thought with fear, and with the sorrow of a murdered
belief that was worse than fear. It was bad that she was in danger
of dying right here and now, but what was even worse was that the
principles that had brought her to the Jug were dying, too.
Wipes were _not_ the same as Civil-Service people!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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