OOM: Jail, Week 3

[latino_menace]

A pen is placed in front of him, next to the yellow legal pad. It's all very neat and correct and Ramon stares at the items with blank and quiet disdain.

'You need to talk Mr. Salazar. It's the only way.'

He ignores the lawyer, turning over the latest information from Hector in his head. String them along, there's something in the pipeline brother. We need more time but not too long. I'm working on it. Keep them occupied for a few more weeks.

A few more weeks. He'd almost choked when he read the coded letter. OK, so it wasn't long in the scheme of things - but it seems like forever. He's already been here almost a full three weeks and he thinks he's going out of his mind. Boredom presses in heavily and the cell seems smaller every day. The nice dreams are turning to nightmares as memories of his last imprisonment push to the forefront of his mind. He knows it's happening because he's stressing out but that doesn't help his predicament.

Mulling over ways to stretch this out occupies as much of his time as he can force it to now. Missing Random has settled into a dull ache and only gets worse when he actively thinks about him or remembers being with him - and so, he attempts to keep him out of his mind as much as possible. It's just the easiest way to get through this.

'What good will talking do now? We've been talking for over two months.'

'Yes. But we have to put it down on paper - the evidence Bauer collected is just too strong. There's no way to avoid the facts of what he has. If you talk we can limit the damage, even get you a good deal. We know they're not interested in the drugs side of the business - if you stay silent, they'll hand you over to the DEA and the evidence will put you in the chair. If you give up your terrorist connections, Bauer...'

Ramon cuts in. 'Bauer has no evidence of my terrorist connections. Why implicate myself further?'

He knows exactly why, but going through all this kills time. Just a little but every little helps.

'...because it means that the drugs charges will be overlooked. You give useful information about your contacts in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South America and plead guilty to your associations with them. In return, you'll get a life sentence - but no risk of the death penalty and you'll be able to dictate terms, like where you go, the class of prison you're held in, things like that. We'll try and swing possibility of parole too, though I'm not sure how successful we'll be on that.'

Ramon appears to think about it. In truth, he's known all this for ages. It's not hard to put together and he's perfectly prepared to give them enough to keep him from the electric chair, simply because he's perfectly confident that he won't be serving any kind of sentence.

So once a decent amount of time has elapsed where he appears to consider his options, Ramon reaches for the pen. He hears the lawyer heave a sigh of relief and smirks internally. If only the guy knew that as soon as he read these notes, he's signed his own death warrant.

This thing is being written in your blood...