Lessons Learned

Part 4

   John nervously picked at his new prison uniform.  He'd been given a plain beige, button up shirt and a pair of chino pants that hung two inches too long on his short frame.  It had taken nearly two months for Mycroft to get him into San Pedro's prison in La Paz, Bolivia.  The inmates called it St. Peter's. 

     As soon as he arrived, he discovered what Mycroft had told him about the place to be all too true.  In a space that had originally been built to house 350 inmates, it now held over 1500 men their wives and even some of their children.  He'd been stunned to discover that prisoners had to rent their own cells and that some of them paid a premium price to get multi-storied apartments complete with hot tubs while the poorer souls might get crammed 15 to a cell. 

     Trevor, it seemed, had managed to land a smallish cell with only one cell mate named Julio Baz, another ex-military mercenary for hire.  They had worked together to carve out some stability for themselves among the other half-starved men condemned to living out stretches of their lives in this lurid hell.  Mycroft had pulled strings to have added to the cell.  Three to a room, but it could have been worse, John thought. 

     "In line!" one of the guards shouted at him.  He was one of three men being processed that day as new prisoners.  One of the sweaty, burly guards handed him a scratchy blanket and a small plastic bag that contained a wiry toothbrush, a tin cup and of all things, a plastic comb.  He carried them in his outstretched arms and shuffled forward with the other two men toward an iron door that would separate him from the rest of humanity.  He'd been shoved to the back of the line by the other two inmates and already regretted his decision to help Mycroft with his daft plan to find out Moriarty's whereabouts.  He felt in over his head.

      Part of his intake had been a brief visit with the warden of St. Peter's to determine how much help he could expect.  John understood that while he wasn't actually incarcerated in any real way, the others must not know his mission.  He'd be hit if he talked back to a guard, he'd be punished by the other inmates if he did anything they didn't like, and he'd be shanked or worse if they thought he was anything other than one of the unlucky bastards thrown in hell with them. 

     John shuffled quietly along to his destination and was shocked again when he passed a gaggle of young children playing a makeshift game of kick the can in a small clearing that might be considered part of the prison's outdoor exercise area.  They were being tended by a group of young women all with long, dark hair.  One of them looked up curiously at him as he passed by.  He quickly ducked his head and tried not to stare.  While he'd read that some of the inmates families stayed with them in the facility, it still shocked him to see children growing up in this sad, squalid place.  The last thing he wanted to do was to piss off someone's husband or boyfriend so he kept his eyes down. 

     The grim march finally ended when John arrived in front of a another barred door.  This one opened up to the main residency area where Trevor had been incarcerated for over two years.  His guard finally stopped at a  final door that opened  into a cramped cell with two "bunk" style beds.  The top bed had a stained mattress and no bedding while the bottom one looked more lived in. It had a number of "wank" magazines spread on it and a pillow.  The guard gave him a little push into the cell and John understood this was his new home for the duration.  There were only two beds, one of which looked empty but John understood there were three men in the room.    

     He stepped in using neat military movements and set his items on the top bunk.  The guard laughed low and dirty, and shook his head.  That unnerved John more than anything else so far and he decided to just wait and see.  He consoled himself with the idea that he would not be here long. 

     "What?" John asked.  "Should I not put my stuff..."

     The guard laughed again and moved off leaving John to his fate.