Chapter 109 - Eight

"Wake up ya damn rascals!" a guard yelled and hit all the cells. The prisoners, who were sleeping inside, grumbled as the morning bell rang out loud. Inside the prison, there were five floors. Each level had a series of cells against the walls and each unit had three to four prisoners in them. All the prisoners wore a grey uniform with number tags on them. 

The prison did not separate the inhabitants as per their crimes. Instead, the people living in the cell were determined by which one was free to accommodate extra prisoners. If the number of inhabitants crossed four, then the jail authorities took steps to fast track many of the pending executions to make space.

Every morning at 6 AM, the bells would ring to wake up the prisoners. They had thirty minutes to wash up and at 6:30 AM, a steward would come to give them breakfast. The authorities maintained a strict diet for the prisoners. Each prisoner was given one piece of bread, lettuce soup, cold vegetable broth and semolina paste for breakfast. For lunch and dinner, they were given a scoop of rice, a piece of chicken, vegetable curry, mashed potatoes and some cut fruits. On special occasions, the prisoners received extra dessert but that was it. 

After that, the prisoners were led to the grounds where they were given manual labor work like cutting bricks or fixing up different parts of the prison grounds. Some prisoners were given paid work too. The prison had numerous deals with some firms who outsource labor work to the prisoners. They earned a meager living through stitching or laundry for these firms. 

As part of their daily routine, they received one hour of break at noon and in the evening during which they could read books at the prison library or watch television at the dining room. Hundreds of guards were dispatched to check on them every minute while the CCTV cameras alerted anyone who would try to get too close to the gates.

The prison was enclosed with large electronic fences placed above the walls. If anyone tried to climb them, the electricity would fry the person so much that a foul odor of human meat would engulf the whole area. Every floor had a room in which the guards checked on the prisoners, through their monitors and they would take a roll call at least thrice a day.

But what made Aberville Prison almost impossible to escape from was the fact it was a literal maze. With enough capacity to house 2000 prisoners at a time, the prison had been built after the war specifically for the political prisoners but over time, it began to house all the dangerous criminals there. The partition walls had been built in such a way that it created several maze-like paths, making any untrained person to run around in circles. 

Only the prison guards were given a map to memorize when they started working there. The prisoners were kept in different correctional units, each separated into several buildings within the prison grounds. Each building was at least three miles away from the next, separated further by several rounds of the maze. With so many pathways, there were instances when the prisoners did not even know who lived in the cells at the other buildings. Many spent years living there but never knew each other because the maze prevented them from interacting with each other. Except for a few instances, the prisoners in each building were kept apart by the authorities. This was done to create a divide among them and prevent any uprising against the authorities.

It was in this maze where Hyun was stuck. 

He was kept in solitary confinement, which had been designed for the most dangerous criminals. It had been almost three weeks since he arrived at the prison but did not run into Six or Eight. He was sure that they were kept in different units so that they could not rally against the authorities. Even during the few hours of free time he got, he could not find them. He even asked a few of the prisoners but they did not know the members of the Light either.

Hyun was not surprised by this. The person who designed this prison was a man who once held considerable power in the country: Song Tamlin.

Curse that bastard for dying! He gritted. Song Tamlin had been dead for months and the design of the prison was missing. Tamlin claimed that he never had the design memorized but Hyun knew he was lying. The old man was not only the head of the Song mafia clan but one of the most dangerous men in the country. He had several such personal prisons of his own where his men tortured and killed many of his enemies. The government and the Company entrusted him with this task because his sadistic way to mentally torture prisoners was impeccable.

And not Hyun was desperate to escape it. The silence of his solitary cell was even more haunting. Lee had deliberately set up this for him so that Hyun would go mad within these prison walls but the latter was tougher than that. 

One of the guards was passing by as part of his daily duties. Hyun peered through his cell and tried to get the guard's attention.

"Guard!" he called out. "I want to sign up for the stitching sessions!"

The guard ignored him and walked away, making Hyun scowl in frustration. They ignored him as if he was invisible! 

"No use, they won' reply to ya."

Startled, Hyun looked around but the small window on the door was barred with iron rods so the vision outside the cell was quite limited.

"Imma here, old man!"

Hyun turned around and was surprised to see the brick on the wall moving a little until it was completely removed. A pair of dark eyes peered through it.

"Who are you?" Hyun demanded.

"That attitude ain' gonna work here, ol' man," the guy from the next cell wheezed. By the sound of his voice, he was probably in his early twenties. Hyun slightly frowned. 

"How old are you?" he asked.

"Meh, jus' ol' enuff to drink," the boy replied. "Legally at least. But there ain' no point in begging the guards for work. They won' give it to ya."

"I have to get a message out!" Hyun hissed. How do I do that?"

"Depends," the boy said. "Whom you sendin' to?"

"My men outside," Hyun replied. "So that they can find the map Tamlin created and I can escape!"

There was a short silence on the other end. "If yer lookin' to escape," the boy slowly said. "Yeh'll need more than the map. Leavin' the place won' do. Yeh gotta disappear. And in yer case, Mr. Minister, it'll be impossible. Yeh can' without my help."

"Why should I trust you?" Hyun sneered.

The boy's eyes rolled and disappeared from the hole in the wall. After a few seconds, he raised an arm to the hole for Hyun to see. It had a small blue tiger tattoo with the number '8' entangled around it.

"Is this good enuff for ya, Minister?" Eight grinned.

…..

Sunye's whole body ached in agony. She barely had the energy to lift a finger, forget about the files piled on her desk!

Damn that sadist! She cursed. For weeks, SD had been torturing her body with his rigorous training regime. She was so used to his flirty side that the serious side hit her like millions of bulldozers. 

He even controlled her diet. Sunye was not a heavy eater. In fact, her meals consisted of instant ramen and she used to go hours without eating. But he was now forcing her to eat almost every two hours. Her breakfast now consisted of skimmed milk and oatmeal while for lunch, he set green salads and a piece of chicken breast. For dinner, it was vegetable soup with fish and egg. And she had to snack on fruits or nuts in between to keep her body strong enough for the workouts. 

To her chagrin, if she missed anything from the routine, he would punish her with...love bites!

"UGH!" she winced upon thinking how he left a hickey on her neck when she skipped lunch the other day. He left a mark on such a place that she had to wear a turtleneck to work that day to hide the hickey. As part of his training, he stated that if she did not follow the routine, he would leave hickeys on her neck for everyone to see. 

"If you want me to stop leaving hickeys, then be a good girl and work hard," he had winked after he left the red mark on her. She was too weak to even protest. Seeing how serious he was about it, she had to endure the training he made her go through without any break.

"It's just until the danger passes," she told herself. "Just until the danger passes and then you'll be back home."

Just then her phone rang up. To her slight annoyance, it was Jonghyun.

"Yes sir," she greeted in a cool tone. 

"Come to my office, now!" he demanded before hanging up on her. Sunye was a little shocked by his authoritative tone.

What the hell is his problem now? She groaned. Wincing as she struggled to stand up, she tried to ignore the pain and walked towards Jonghyun's cabin, ready for another showdown if needed.

When she entered the office, SD was also there. He looked a little grim but did not glance at her. Jonghyun, too, looked frustrated. He glanced at her when she entered the office.

"What's going on?" she frowned. Jonghyun did not reply but turned his laptop around to show her a picture. It was of a man carrying an unconscious woman to a room and underneath it was an article. Sunye immediately recognized the picture. 

It was taken at Choi Kibum's club!

"The mighty lawyer who took down the Finance Minister is the mistress of the Choi clan," Jonghyun read out loud.