Rory waited patiently for Sebastian to explain. The lights went out, and the only glow came from the floodlights in the yard. He drummed his fingers on his stomach, waiting, then sighed.

“Well?”

Sebastian chuckled below him. “You want me to tell you about the rats?”

“Yeah.”

“Only people I trust know about the rats.”

Rory didn’t bother telling Sebastian he could be trusted. He didn’t think it’d come out of his mouth convincingly enough.

He rolled on to his side, and muttered at the wall, “That’s me screwed then.”

Sebastian snorted. “You’re mine, so I can tell you. It’s quite simple, really. The guards and the governor think the prison’s got a rat problem. Sometimes packages have been nibbled, and there’s rat droppings all over the floor.”

Rory screwed up his face. “Gross.”

“Except, I just get someone to scratch up the packages. And the rat droppings? Burned grains of rice.”

“Okay, so no rats…”

“Occasionally there is, but that’s not the point. The point is, the governors and guards believe there is. They worry about health and safety reports. So they hire an exterminator, and he puts boxes of poison outside the prison. He can’t put them inside—inmates would kill each other.”

“Yeah, I bet.”

“I have a friend on the outside, he makes the rats, real fur, and tail.”

Rory shuddered, and the bed shook. “Yuck.”

“It’s been cleaned up. Anyway, he throws them over the fence, and the guards won’t go near the dead rats. They get inmates to put them in the bins, and I pick them up when I can.”

“And inside the rats?”

“Drugs, alcohol, phones, aftershave, chocolate, whatever will fit.”

“Why did you want me to get you drugs when you’re already doing it yourself?”

“I didn’t really, I wanted to know what you’d do to get my protection.”

“So that’s how you smuggle stuff in?”

Sebastian huffed. “All prisons do it differently, but I’ve been running this for years. One rat a week, haven’t been caught, and it’s preferable to getting drugs from some guys back passage.”

Rory twitched his nose. “Because it’s so much more appealing getting drugs from a rat’s stomach.”

Sebastian laughed. “Exactly, and that’s not all.”

“What do you mean?”

“The governor is so convinced of this rat problem, he bribes me with phone cards to keep the inmates quiet. Ten cards a month, and I kept the rat problem hush hush when the health inspector comes. I’m pretty much paid to smuggle stuff in.”

A silence grew between them, and Rory picked obsessively at his nails. “It—It’s really clever.”