weakness,?Scott said. The second you walk into that cell, there are gonna be thirty guys sizing you up. The bad guys will want to know if they can get their hands on your money and belongings. The weaker inmates need to know if youte going to be trying to get your hands on their stuff, or if youte one of the real psychopaths who?? beat them up just for the fun of it.
Ttatistics show that you have a seventy-per cent chance of being in a physical confrontation within your first two days inside an American prison. Where youte going inside Arizona Max, It put the chances at closer to ninety-nine per cent. Dave is going to be a physical match for anyone in there, but James is going to be one of the smallest. Dave will have to protect him.?
ite done self-defence training,?James said. it a second-dan Karate black belt.?
ite good that you can handle yourself,?Scott said. But nobody knows that when you walk through the cell door. All they?? see is that youte young and small, which makes you a target for the bullies. If someone starts on you, go in hard and try to make a good account of yourself. That way you?? earn respect and find that other inmates want you on their side.?
Lhat about Curtis??Dave asked. Lho looks after him??
Curtis has a couple of seventeen-year-old skinheads called Elwood and Kirch who make sure he doesnt get damaged. Theree also word out that anyone who touches Curtis will be stabbed to death by a biker.?
Ire there any bikers in that cell??James asked.
Scott shook his head. Ro, bikers are mostly men in their twenties and thirties, but all the kids in your cell are doing long sentences. They?? get transferred to the adult section of the prison when they turn eighteen and there will be a whole bunch of bikers ready to stab someone for Jane Oxford.?
Now come??James asked.
John answered the question. One of the ways Jane has kept her organisation strong is by looking after anyone who gets sent to prison. That means quality legal representation, financial support for families and physical protection inside prison. Shee very loyal to people who stay on her side. Thate also one of the reasons wete optimistic that Jane will be happy to help you guys out if you successfully bust Curtis out of prison.?
Of course, ite a double-edged sword,?Scott added. Deople have tried to cut deals with the FBI and give information on Jane Oxford in return for immunity, or a shorter prison sentence. Most of them either met a nasty end inside prison, or withdrew their evidence when members of their family were threatened. One guy even got taken out by a sniper when he was supposed to be under protective custody.?
James threw down a chicken bone and pushed away the last of his fries. Kyle, Gabrielle and the others had probably started their recruitment missions by now. Scotte description of the brutality inside Arizona Max made him wonder if he wasnt really the one whot drawn the short straw.
12. SENTENCE
James kept his head down on Wednesday morning, staying in his bedroom reading background documents for the mission and feeling bad about the accident het caused the day before.
His reading material included the inmate rulebook for Arizona Max, the personnel files of the officers who worked in the young offender block and criminal records of the twenty-nine inmates who currently shared the dormitory cell with Curtis Oxford.
John managed to clean the gunge out of the pool filter and fill it up. They ate lunch in the sunshine at the poolside, while John re-tested the kids on their background stories and ran through the details of the escape plan. When he was satisfied that everyone understood their job, he went inside to make phonecalls.
James and Dave sat next to each other in the shallow end of the pool. Lauren was a few metres behind, on a sun lounger. She resented the dressing over her foot, as she stared at the cool water and lazily fanned herself with a frond shet snapped off one of the poolside palms.
Dave looked at James. Hou dont seem like yourself. Are you scared??
I bit,?James admitted. Lladiator school sounds brutal.?
Dave smiled. i always get the jitters the day before a mission. You ever been on a rollercoaster??
I few.?
Lissions are like rollercoasters. You know the bit when you first get on and youte going clunk-clunk-clunk up the lift hill? And youte thinking to yourself, Why the hell