Chapter 993: Prison Break?
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
Sheyan was a person who attached great importance to time. There was still quite some time left until the deadline of the mission, but right after he identified his targets, he immediately investigated their addresses and rushed over to meet one of them.
The first target he chose was the person in charge of the quality control department of Workshop III. There were a couple of reasons for that. First, he had a relatively low position, so he would not enjoy much of the government's attention and protection. Second, a lower level manager like him would have a much better grasp of the people under him compared to someone high up in the hierarchy like the head of the personnel department.
Obviously, not every citizen of the United States was closely protected by secret agents, and Sheyan was also not someone who would use violent means all the time. When they knocked on the door, they were invited in to take a sit in the living room. The mistress of the house, who was in pajamas, offered them some homemade cookies and hand-grinded black coffee before she went back to her vacuuming.
The supervisor, a middle-aged man with a beer belly, was watching a European Championship game on TV with a bottle of beer in his hand. That seemed to be the reason why they were still awake at this hours.
The fat man was generous with his laughter, and when he squinted his eyes when he laughed, wrinkles could be seen on his forehead. His little daughter who was riding on a plastic horse was excited to see that they had visitors, but she was soon carried away by her mother.
Sheyan smiled at the supervisor from across the coffee table. "These cookies are so good! I'm sorry to call on you at such hours, Mr. Dursley, but rest assured, this won't take too long."
Mr. Dursley took a gulp of the beer and laughed. "No worries. There's half an hour left before the semi-final of the Euro starts anyway. Just make sure we finish before that!"
Sheyan went straight to the point. "I'm here to enquire about a person. These are the characteristics of the person."
Sheyan handed over a piece of paper on which he had written down his deductions of the target they were looking for. When Mr. Dursley looked over it, his expression sank. He was about to say something, but Sheyan spoke first.
"Please don't reject my request, because....you must first understand the consequences of refusing me. "
"First," Sheyan signaled Sanzi to bring over a password-protected suitcase and opened it in front of Mr. Dursley to let him see the stacks of banknotes in it."You'll lose $500,000 of extra income."
Sheyan threw the suitcase to the stunned man, who caught it with a stupefied look on his face. Sheyan then said with a smile, "To be honest, I'm a really strong bastard, and I usually get really angry when I'm rejected."
As he spoke, Sheyan grabbed a metal ashtray from the table and squeezed.
Mr. Dursley watched slack-jawed as his ashtray slowly crumpled into an irregularly-shaped ball. Then, from between Sheyan's fingers, solid metal seeped through like rubber!
"Now, do you recall anything? Do you perhaps have some good news for me?" Sheyan stared into Dursley's eyes and said, "By the way, you have such a lovely family."
A drop of sweat trickled down Dursley's cheek, He opened his mouth as if to say something, but found his throat so dry that he couldn't make a sound. He took a sip of beer and calmed himself before he said, "The one you're looking for is most probably Nicholas. There's only one description which doesn't fit him - Nicholas drinks, and he drinks a lot."
"Could it be someone else?" asked Sheyan with narrowed eyes.
"He's the only one who fits the description," answered Dursley confidently.
A grin broke upon Sheyan's face. "That means I can find him at the front gate of the Knox Factory tomorrow morning, right? Do you have a picture of him?"
Dursley paused for a moment before he smiled bitterly. "My man, if you want to find him, I'm afraid it won't be that simple. You'll probably have to go through some complicated procedures and even after that, you might not get approved - because he's currently locked-up in Fox River prison. His offense seems to be a rather serious one."
This time it was Sheyan's turn to be stunned. He did not expect such an outcome. After recovering from the shock, Sheyan smiled wryly and asked, "What did he go to prison for?"
"A group of people in black suits took him away. They didn't look like the police; we suspect they might be the FBI. The only answer we got for the arrest was that he was a danger to national security," replied Mr. Dursley. He had become very cooperative by now.
Sheyan nodded and stood up.
"Your cooperation so far has been much to my satisfaction. You just need to fulfil one last request of mine, and we'll leave right away. No one will know that we've ever been here. Please provide me with a picture of Mr. Nicholas - a clear one."
Dursley walked into his bedroom without any hesitation and brought out a group photo to meet Sheyan's request. Nicholas' face was clearly circled with a red pen. Nicholas had a rather refined face, but he looked slightly depressed. However,his clean-shaven face showed that he still harbored hope for the future.
After obtaining the picture, Sheyan instantly got up and walked out the door. The suitcase was left behind as he promised. But after he had closed the door, he suddenly opened it again and told Dursley with a smile. "Mr. Dursley, if I were you, I'd definitely not leak a word about what happened here tonight. You'll lose those half a million dollars, at the very least."
*********
When the gang returned to the chaotic ghetto, Sheyan immediately started gathering information about the Fox River prison. The more he investigated, the darker his expression became.
According to the record, the Fox River prison was a large high security prison. In fact, it was the ultimate prison in the United States, meant for the worst criminals. The prison was notorious its torture of prisoners ever since it started its operation.
The convicts inside were only afforded nine hours of time outside their cells every week, and had minimal contact with others. They were barely exposed to the sun and even had to take meals in their cells.
The cells were built with concrete. All the furnitures in the cells were fixed in place and cannot be moved. If someone tried to block the sewer, the toilet would shut down automatically. Shower water would stop on the same time every day to prevent waste.
An abundance of advanced technologies were utilised in the prison, with more than 3,000 guards, all armed to the teeth, monitoring the prison for 24 hours a day. In addition, the military base nearby could deploy troops there within 15 minutes to quell any potential riots.
Zi was initially checking the normal visiting procedures, but after a while, she came directly to Sheyan and told him straight, "Normal visits won't work. To apply for a visit to this damned prison, you have to apply three months ahead. But that's not all. According to what it says on the internet, the chances of an application being passed are about as high as the chances of being accepted for a trip to the moon."
Sheyan asked without any strength in his voice, "Did you find any news of Mr. Nicholas?"
"I did," replied Zi, but she sigh afterwards. "His name and picture show that he's in the prison, but...that's all I could find. There are no further information about him. These heavy criminals have no human rights. There are rumours that they have to wear heavy magnetic ankle bracelets at all times."
Sheyan sucked in a sharp breath like his teeth hurt."Fox River is bigger than all of Los Angeles! We know nothing about the place, nor do we know the exact location Nicolas is detained in. Breaking into the prison is already hard enough, but we still have to bring a person out after that?! An ordinary person no less, with no superhuman strength!"
"We need information - a lot more information, and more importantly, we can't alert anyone in the process. That's why, be it bribing or coercion, we can't do it to more than three people," said Zi decisively. "For the sake of efficiency, we should start from the higher-ups in the prison. We don't have to worry too much about the breaking-in part with our strength; we should focus on how to get out of that damn place."
"You're right," Sheyan said seriously. "This damn mission is starting to stress me out. And up to this point, we still can't see the end of the mission at all."
***********
Early the next day, Sheyan set out with Mogensha to a place near the Fox River prison for surveillance. Because the facility contained secrets about the police and the military, and there weren't much information on the internet yet in this era, the two were completely ignorant of things regarding the prison administration. They could only collect information from scratch.
But the difference between an executive and an ordinary employee was still obvious from the car they drove to work. The two men could not enter the parking lot, but thanks to Mogensha's dexterity, he managed to sneak into a nearby house and lock on to a target.
"The prison doctor of Fox River Prison."
This was a crucial discovery. The prison doctor's authority was not high and he would not receive a lot of attention, but he had to set up medical records for every prisoner, which means that he possessed the basic information of every prisoner. Some prisoners may have movement difficulties and couldn't go to the medical centre, so the doctor would have to go to them. These opportunities mean that the doctor would be familiar with the internal layout of the prison.
After Sheyan took some time to have a "sincere chat" with the doctor named Balland, they successfully obtained Mr. Nicholas' prison file.