Of Lights and Shadows (Book 4)

48) Game's Up

Time ceased to pull the world forwards as it froze and hung suspended as the only man keeping it moving closed his mouth from counting. Rising to his feet Dastardious crossed with light steps over to the door and laid a rough hand on the area where he knew the lock sat on the other side. He could feel nothing through the door except the chill of the steel, neither could he see anything, but he sensed where it was.

The door was the kind that could only be opened from the outside; it offered no chance for the person locked inside to escape. But all doors could be opened if you knew how, that was something Dastardious firmly believed in. It didn't matter which side you were on, if they could be opened then they would be opened.

Moving back to the bed he felt under the covers and pulled out something. In the dark he couldn't see it, but he felt it and it brought an un-amused smile to his lips. They thought they had placed him in a random cell, did they? Well, he knew every one of them inside and out, he used them all often enough. Nothing was random when he was involved.

Crossing back over to the door, his hand felt again for the area where the lock sat. To a person inside the cell, who didn't know anything, they would see nothing. Not even if they actually fixed the lights in the room so there was something to see by. However, there was something there, it was just impossible to notice if you didn't already know it was there. A very long time ago Dastardious had placed it there.

Using the tip of the flat screwdriver he had pulled from the bed Dastardious found the tiny crack and pushed the tip in. It didn't go very far, but it was enough to turn the screwdriver into a lever. Pushing down slightly, the metal plate that he had cut out and replaced over the lock lifted up and he gripped it with his fingers and pulled it away. A faint beam of light shone through the tiny holes in the lock and with expert fingers using the screwdriver, it twisted and clicked. A minute noise in daytime, but a thunder crack at night when the halls were silent. Not that anyone besides the other prisoners would hear, the guards were never down the hall past nine o'clock in the evening. That was why he had picked that time.

The door swung open and, after returning the plate to the door and the screwdriver back to its place in the bed, Dastardious walked free.

His plan was simple; he had gone over it while counting the minutes until Silence and Dutch's return just in case they didn't show up. If they didn't show up then he would need to act, the only other alternative was to wait patiently for death. And if he could help it, he wasn't going to be the one answering for his crimes. Not with all these loose ends to tie up first, anyway.

He reached the top of the stairs and turned left before pulling to a stop. Ripping the axe from its place of honour on the wall he lifted it high and brought it down on the glass casing on the wall that housed the alarm. The blade crashed against the glass, shattering it into large chunks that went flying. There was a red button with yellow strips inside the case, and Dastardious pressed it.

The reply was instantaneous. A shrill alarm, rising higher and higher in pitch before dropping and starting over again, rang through the building.

Still carrying the axe, Dastardious walked along the corridor to the storage room where people's belongings were placed after they were taken off them and proceeded to hack down the door. All the while the alarm continued to blare and slowly life was awoken.With a final swing the door flew open and Dastardious walked in, chucking the axe to the floor as he did so.

Finding the box with his name on it, he ripped it open. His few possessions fell to the floor and he stooped to pick them up, slipping them on as he did so. The last object to pick up was his gun. He left his badge because where he was going it wasn't needed.