Free Web NovelChapter 70: Lev Calder’s Very Difficult Wednesday!
The thing about prison, Lev had decided by his third day, was that information moved faster here than anywhere else he had ever been.
Faster than college. Faster than the social circles back home where gossip travelled through carefully maintained channels and arrived slightly diluted. Here it moved raw and direct, person to person, in corridors and cafeteria lines and during the ten seconds two people stood next to each other waiting for a door to open.
All you had to do was be approachable.
Lev had always been approachable.
He had a face that invited conversation and a manner that made people feel like they had known him longer than they had and a specific talent for asking questions that felt like interest rather than interrogation. He had spent twenty-three years refining all of it and it worked everywhere.
It worked here too.
By Wednesday morning he knew the basic hierarchy. He knew about the Thursday games and the ranking system and what the different uniform colours meant. He knew about the recreation centre reopening. He knew about the body found on Tuesday, which had everyone moving through the corridors with slightly more awareness of who was walking behind them.
He knew about Ruaan.
Not everything. But enough to understand the shape of it.
Ruaan was top one. He had been for less than two weeks, had arrived at the bottom and climbed faster than anyone in recent memory. He was apparently close to the second-highest rank, a man named Cullen Ray, who had been top one for months before Ruaan arrived. He was also, according to several people who mentioned it with varying degrees of envy or admiration, close to one of the officers. The one who never smiled.
Nobody used the officer’s name directly. They used descriptions. ’That one.’ ’The tall one.’ ’The one who made three guards apologise in the corridor for no visible reason.’
Lev had watched Harolin in the auditorium.
He had watched Harolin’s eyes find Ruaan in the back row of a thousand-person auditorium and stay there.
He filed it away.
.
.
Wednesday was gym day.
The field was for grey and some blue. The gym was for higher ranks. Lev was grey which meant the field, which meant hot sun and limited equipment and forty minutes of running that nobody had asked for.
He found Finn near the water station.
He had noticed Finn during the first two days. He was quiet. The kind of person who mapped their environment carefully and moved through it with intention. Finn had been pointed out to him as someone who had a history with Ruaan, which made him interesting.
Lev walked over and stood next to him at the water station.
"Hot today," Lev said.
Finn looked at him briefly. Looked away.
"You’ve been here a while," Lev said. "I’m new. I don’t know anyone."
"I can see that," Finn said.
"I’m trying to understand how things work." Lev turned toward him with the open expression that had worked on everyone from college professors to security personnel. "I heard you know Ruaan. 2525. The top one."
Finn’s eyes slowly came back to him. Slower this time.
"Who told you that?" Finn said.
"People talk," Lev said. "I’m his cousin. Lev Calder." He smiled. "I just want to make sure he’s doing okay in here. You know how family is."
Finn looked at him.
He looked at the smile specifically. At the open face and the easy manner and the way Lev had positioned himself to be both approachable and slightly in need of help.
"If he’s your cousin," Finn said, "why don’t you ask him yourself?"
"We’re not close," Lev said, dropping his voice to something more personal. "We had a falling out before I came here. I’m worried about him. I just want to know if he’s okay. Who he’s spending time with. Whether people are treating him well."
Finn was quiet for a moment.
Then he said, "You want to know who’s around him."
"I’m concerned," Lev said.
"You’re not concerned," Finn said. "Ruaan doesn’t go after people. People go after him. They’ve always have, from what I can tell." He picked up his water and turned. "If you want to know about Ruaan’s people, go ask that man over there."
He pointed at Cullen.
Cullen was near the far edge of the gym in his black uniform. He was not on any equipment. He was standing with his arms folded watching the field through the window patiently like someone waiting for something to happen.
Lev looked at him.
He straightened his uniform, ran a hand through his hair, and adjusted his expression.
He walked over.
.
.
Cullen heard the footsteps and did not turn around.
"You’re in the wrong section," Cullen said. "Grey uses the field."
"I know," Lev said. He came to stand beside Cullen at the window. Close enough to make the proximity a statement. "I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m new. Lev." He paused. "Ruaan’s cousin."
Cullen turned his head.
He looked at Lev. At the face and the hair. The way Lev was angled toward him was like someone who had used their appearance as a tool enough times to do it without thinking.
He looked back out the window.
"And?" Cullen said.
"I’ve heard a lot about you," Lev said. "You were top one before he arrived. That must have been—"
Lev placed his hand on Cullen’s arm. Cullen looked at the hand.
He picked it up by the wrist with two fingers like it was something he did not want to touch more of than necessary and walked toward the nearest officer with Lev’s wrist still held between his fingers. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
Oren was near the gym entrance reviewing something on his tablet.
Cullen stopped in front of him.
"Are you resting today?" Cullen said, "Since there’s no game tomorrow."
Oren looked up. "I’m working."
"This grey uniform was talking shit about Ruaan," Cullen said, adding more to the report. "And standing where he shouldn’t be." He released Lev’s wrist. "You should definitely make him run ten laps around the field."
Oren looked at Lev. He almost didn’t care until he heard Ruaan’s name.
Lev looked at Oren with the open expression still in place, slightly strained around the edges now. "I wasn’t saying anything bad. I was just—"
"Ten laps," Oren said.
"There’s no game tomorrow, so..."
"Eleven," Oren said.
Lev closed his mouth.
He walked toward the field door. He pressed his lips together as his eyes went cold. He was angry.
.
.
Ruaan came through the gym entrance ten minutes later with a bag over his shoulder like someone who had slept well and eaten breakfast and was having a reasonable Wednesday.
He looked at the field through the window.
He saw Lev running.
He tilted his head. "What happened to him?"
Nobody answered.
He looked at Cullen and Oren standing together which was unusual enough to be interesting.
He reached into his bag. He took out two water bottles and held them out.
Cullen took his, looking at him as he smiled slightly.
Oren took his pretending not to make a big deal about it.
Ruaan looked between them and shrugged and went to find equipment.
On the field, Lev watched through the window.
Ruaan handing out water bottles like it was nothing. Cullen smiling. Oren accepting it with that particular stillness.
’This,’ Lev thought, finishing his eighth lap, ’is significantly going to be harder than college.’
He ran his ninth lap.
’I’m going to have to work much harder if I’m going to have to steal everything and everyone from Ruaan.’
