“Are they okay? Tell me the truth. No bullshit.” Stone looked Knox directly in the eye.

“I didn’t do anything to them. And as far as I know, they’re fine.”

“They don’t know anything and did nothing. If we manage to get out of here you put that down in your report. This is about me, not them.”

“Okay.” He leaned close to Stone and whispered in his ear. “But they still managed to follow me up here.”

“You’re sure? You saw them?”

“Not exactly, but it couldn’t have been anyone else. At least the chick is up here. Susan, not that that’s her real name. Pretty sure she spun a story at a local diner that almost got my ass handed to me.”

“If she did, it was only out of friendship to me, Knox. She’s not worth going after. You’ve got me. That’s all Hayes wants anyway.”

“But still, you think they might figure out we ended up in here?”

“I’m not sure because even I can’t believe we’re here.”

Knox slapped his hand against the hard wall. “So how do you think they’re running a drug op from a supermax prison?”

“Haven’t gotten that all figured out yet. But it’s not like they have to worry about witnesses. They sort of have a captive audience.”

“And the prisoners might not even know. But I guess all the guards are in on it.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” said Stone thoughtfully.

“Why?”

“There was one guard who used to work here. He was killed in a deer hunting accident that I don’t think was so accidental. His name was Josh Coombs and I believe he stumbled onto what was going on here and paid the price for it.”

“Coombs? Also the name of the folks who got blown up.”

“Yeah. Willie knew Debby Randolph hadn’t killed herself. His mom’s in on it, I’m pretty sure. They used her to try and kill him with an overdose. When that didn’t work, they went for essentially a homegrown IED.”

“Mother killing her own son?”

“In a town called Divine. Yeah.”

The door to the cell was hit with a massive blow. Both men staggered to their feet and backed away.

“Shut up in there!” a man screamed through the door.

“Okay, we’re shutting up,” Knox said.

“I said shut up, assholes.”

Knox and Stone said nothing, just stared at the door.

“One more word and we’re extracting your asses.”

Silence.

“Okay, you asked for it. Walk over to the cuffing slot, turn around and extend your hands through the opening. Now!”

Stone and Knox looked at each other. Stone went first, extending his hands through the slot with his back facing the door. He was cuffed hard, his bony wrists slammed together and cut by the edge of the slot. Then Knox did the same.