Business Arrangement

Part 24

CHAPTER 24:

When I was finally let out of that stuffy room, silence felt like a death sentence when I stepped out after Isabella made sure I didn't hide or grab anything from the bathroom. I noticed that Ender couldn't look at me, he was staring at reports on the very building I spoke of. Darren clearly helped him, and the two of them were staring stoically and rigidly at the paperwork, "Have you ever been to this facility?" Archer asks me out of nowhere.

I glance out the window, we were still over water, not touching the cold surface of ice yet.

"Once," I mutter.

"When?" Eliot asks next.

I traipse my eyes to the centre where all their chairs were purposely facing. Eden stares at me closely. There wasn't a free seat left for me, so I merely turn to the fruit bowl on the side bar and drop on the seat there, "I was eight. Three thousand guards, one thousand prisoners at the time. Eighteen labs, two torture labs. Organ harvesting was on the west side for the most lethal of prisoners that signed a contract to have their organs tested. The two labs branched into two sections. Physical weaponry used to scar the prisoner, and the other consisted of poisons and technological scanners to test every part of the prisoner's body. There's a large courtroom to feed you vegan and vegetarian food. The fighters were the only ones who could eat meat and necessary protein to build muscle to fight in the rings. Rings of death they called them. Guards, managers, employees all bet on those prisoners." I sigh, before continuing.

"The place is owned by the people known as the Magisterial. A collective of ancients who created the families, who formulated names, who provided funds for those who did good deeds. Bees were always the wealthiest. The most luxurious of things granted for the most...dangerous of poisonous heights. Every other family-well, assassinations we're ordered, targeted, folded into neatly tied bows for the local PD anywhere in the world. This place is a devilish assortment of fear and death. A darkness you really can't run from unless you're one very smart individual. There are three ways to escape the hell of a facility like this one." I begin, holding three fingers.

I change to one finger, "One-fight your way out. Once you reach a certain number of points, you get a free get out of jail card. When that happens, you find these exact people. A pilot, a guns man, bait and wish for luck. Number two: Bribery-the guards there are stuck in ice cold natures, limited amount of time, heaps of money, no shopping and little amounts of intimacy. Most of them have no families due to their jobs and too many of them are criminals themselves. Whom I kidding-we're all criminals, but if you get one of their cards, you can get out of many exits. But the one exit you can't touch is the eighty-feet sealed vault door at the entrance. The only in and out of this facility and it's high tech system has a twenty combination code with access denial systems after the third try. Trickier than the first option." I add, before holding up the third finger.

"The third option-most likely the dumbest and longest...the vents. You're fighting no one, they're large enough to fit anyone, but you risk overheating when while you climb, that and no one knows. Only one person knows and he's the most dangerous of them all. Only one person got out and he helped that person. The child didn't belong there. The top most-wanted dangerous prisoner taught the child how to sustain the cold before explaining the route up to the top. Every direction, every mechanical handling of fans, of poisonous darts and traps. Of climbing without a safety net. Twelve days. It took twelve days to not only teach the child, but show it how to be brave. The prisoner murdered families for over twenty-years and murdered the wrong family to which the magisterial took harsh consequences on." I murmur, running my fingers over the grape.

It's deadly silent.

"Who was that child?" Vanessa is shockingly the one to ask.

I trail my eyes over, standing slowly. I sigh in defeat while they all stare at me, "Can you guess?" I wonder.