THE WARDENS OBSESSION

Chapter 1: Break Him"On your knees, Carter."Ryan didn't move. Twelve inmates behind him had already dropped to the concrete the second Samuel Vale's boots hit the cell block floor, heads down, eyes on nothing. Ryan kept his eyes on Samuel."Repeat that," Ryan said. "I want to hear it twice before I say no."A guard's hand closed on his shoulder, ready to force him down. Samuel raised two fingers and the guard let go like he'd touched fire."You broke a man's jaw an hour ago," Samuel said. He hadn't raised his voice. He never did. "Give me a reason not to break yours.""He put his hands on me first. Ask your cameras. Oh wait." Ryan smiled without warmth. "Half of them in D-Block have been dark for three weeks. Funny how nobody's fixed that."Something moved behind Samuel's eyes, not anger. Attention. The kind of attention Ryan had learned to read as danger, because men who noticed things in this place tended to notice you next, and once Blackridge noticed you, it didn't stop."Cell,"

Chapter 3: Close EnoughThe door didn't break. It surrendered, hinges tearing free from rotted screws that should have been replaced a decade ago, and a man in guard's fatigues stumbled through the gap with a crowbar raised over his shoulder.Samuel didn't hesitate.He crossed the distance in two strides and drove his forearm into the man's throat, slamming him back into the doorframe before the crowbar could finish its swing. The weapon clattered uselessly to the floor. Ryan stayed exactly where he'd been told, crouched behind the desk, watching Samuel disarm a fully grown man with the kind of controlled violence that came from years of practice, not adrenaline."Who sent you?" Samuel's voice had dropped into something Ryan hadn't heard from him before, flat and merciless.The guard choked out something unintelligible. Samuel eased his grip a fraction, just enough to let him speak."Orders," the man rasped. "Just orders. Get the prisoner. That's all I know.""Whose orders?""I don't

Chapter 5: Trapped TogetherThe door had no lock.Samuel threw his weight against a rusted filing cabinet, dragging it in front of the frame with a scream of metal on concrete that felt loud enough to bring the whole ceiling down on them. It wouldn't hold for long. Nothing in this forgotten wing had been built to hold anything back."That name," Ryan said, voice shaking despite every effort to keep it steady. "That was Daniel's file. That was my brother's name on that wall.""Not now.""You don't get to say not now. Not after that." Ryan grabbed Samuel's arm, forcing him to turn, forcing him to look at him instead of the door. "You said you'd give me answers. You said later. It's later, Samuel. Tell me what my brother was doing in a room full of medical equipment that shouldn't exist."Something pounded against the door from the other side, once, testing the cabinet's resistance. Samuel's eyes flicked toward it and back to Ryan, torn between two forms of danger that both demanded his

Chapter 7: Locked Down"They're sealing the corridor," Samuel said. "Run!"They sprinted through the dark, Samuel's hand locked around Ryan's wrist, guiding him past obstacles neither of them could see. Ahead, the groan of the sealing door grew louder, metal grinding against metal as it descended from the ceiling, a barrier meant to trap them on the wrong side permanently."We're not going to make it," Ryan gasped."We will." Samuel's grip tightened. "Faster."The gap beneath the door had shrunk to less than three feet, closing steadily, unforgivingly. Samuel shoved Ryan ahead of him, forcing him to drop and slide beneath the descending steel with inches to spare, and threw himself after him a half second later. The door slammed shut behind them with a finality that echoed through the corridor like a gunshot, sealing off the pursuit voices instantly, cutting them off mid-shout.Silence. Ryan lay on the concrete, chest heaving, listening to nothing but his own pulse hammering in his ea

Chapter 9: The Only Way"Marcus." Griggs sounded almost disappointed, like a teacher catching a favorite student cheating. "I thought you had better instincts than this. Guess loyalty beats good sense after all.""Back off, Griggs." Marcus's hand hovered near his sidearm, though he didn't draw it. "You've got no authority to detain me. I still outrank you on paper, whatever Voss signed an hour ago.""On paper." Griggs smiled, and somehow that was worse than if he'd shouted. "Funny thing about paper — Voss can rewrite it faster than you can read it. Right now, you're aiding the escape of a flagged threat and a warden who's already been stripped of command. That's not a conversation you want to have."Ryan's heart slammed against his ribs as the two guards flanking Griggs shifted their stance, weapons lowered but ready, waiting for one word to change that. Beside him, Samuel had gone rigid in a way Ryan recognized now — not fear, calculation."Let them go," Samuel said. "Nobody else nee