Sha Qing

Chapter 102: The Crocodile & The Leopard (2)

Federal Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC).

The visitor placed his hand into the reader, and the invisible seal on the back of his hand became apparent to the naked eye under the UV light, showing his security level and time of entry. "Verification passed." The electronic synthesis sounded, and the thick iron door slowly opened.

"It's part of the procedures." Warden Johnson sent an apologetic 'please understand' look at the visitor, "There are two more doors in there,"

"To make sure nothing goes wrong." The visitor nodded in understanding, "Cautiousness is a good thing, especially here," he continued as he took off the badge from his chest and put it in the inside pocket of his suit, "You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not," Johnson replied with a smile, "After all, there's nothing wrong with being more careful, right, Senior Agent Lawrence?"

"You can call me Leo." The black-haired, blue-eyed man gazed ahead at the long, quiet white long corridor as if his eyes could penetrate through the heavy barriers, leading to the depths of the place.

"Please wait in the meeting room for a moment, I'll have someone summoned." The prison warden said.

Seemingly in a second, Leo suddenly changed his mind and blurted out, "No need to make deliberate arrangements. Can you give me a tour of the cell?"

"Doing that needs a formal request and approval in advance but," the warden glanced at him, his fat lips slowly widening into a grin, "procedures are dead, while people are alive."

"Excellent point, Johnson." Leo patted his fleshy shoulder, "Which one?"

"That 'number' kid? Oh yeah, let's see," Johnson flipped through the folder, "Just came in at 7R, but got transferred to 9S, Area A, No. 13 the next day."

Leo paused on his feet, "Changed cells the next day? Why? What happened?.... Something not good?"

"There's nothing unusual in the daily report. But if you're referring to ...... that kind of 'something'," Johnson pressed the corners of the mouth in an exaggerated manner, made an I'm-sorry-but-there's-no-way-you'd-be-able-to-understand look, "We do our best to avoid it, but after all, with hundreds of men, who are full of hormones with nowhere to vent, crammed into a room, you know, there's always a few handsy bastards trying to take advantage - especially of newcomers."

"So he was given a different room, only after something happened ?" Leo looked at him with an expressionless face.

Johnson subconsciously avoided Leo's gaze, a little annoyed and puzzled by the federal agent's sudden cold tone. No one wants to be accused of dereliction of duty on their own turf, even if that person is a senior FBI agent.

I'm sorry, but you didn't specify a single room when you caught him in and threw him at us, did you? He was tempted to ask in return but sensibly refrained.

Fortunately, the federal agent's eyes quickly moved away from his face and his feet continued to stride, seemingly not intending to probe deeper into the topic they just discussed.

They took the elevator and quickly reached the 9th floor to cell No. 13 in Area A, but the iron door was wide open and the inside was empty.

Johnson waved at a nearby prison guard on patrol and asked the latter with a stern face, "Where's the man inside?"