Prisoner 0004C

4 Minutes and 57 Seconds Since Will Hacked the Watcher

"Are you sure?" Hallie asks, snatching the Watcher out of my hand. "Doesn't it say anything else?"

"No," replies Will, his voice unsteady. "It usually should say the senders ID as well but someone has overridden the system."

"How would someone send this? And why?" Hallie questioned, handing the Watcher over to Will's outstretched hands, who held the device at arms length like it was something dangerous.

Ida suddenly spoke up, her icy-blue eyes flashing and angry. "Who gives a shit anymore? Its probably just some dumb prisoner messing around! We need to start fighting our way out of here!" Many of the other prisoners swell at her words.

My head is spinning. It doesn't feel right. Why would a prisoner send a Watcher to me, out of everyone? And how did they do it? And when?

I stare at Will, and I am surprised to see his eyes staring back. He looks at me in a mixture of fright and pity, it seems. He knows something isn't right either. I quickly stride over to him and cock my eyebrow in questioning.

"It's very difficult to hack into a Watcher like this. A strictly security Watcher, I mean. Perhaps if the message had been delivered via Holo-Message any one here could have done it. But a standard, security Watcher. Near impossible, and that's with outside assistance." He mutters this all very quickly, and I strain to make out individual words.

"What do you mean 'outside assistance'?" I ask him curiously.

"Well you'd need a lot more technology than provided in this prison to hack into the Watchers database and send the message. And whoever has sent it has overridden the system so that sender identification, time zones of when the message was sent and precise location of where the message was sent has been erased. They've removed all their footsteps." Will finishes quietly, nervously pushing his glasses back up the sweaty bridge of his thin nose.

"So you don't think it's just some dumb prisoner?" I ask him.

"It is definitely not just some dumb prisoner." Will assures me, his eyes glancing around worriedly like someone will overhear us.

A echoing crash rings around the Hull. I swivel around to see Ida, kicking at the concrete and metal walls furiously.

She's seriously lost it, I think to myself grimly as I watch her tantrum.

I turn away from Will and walk down the corridor to the Mess Hall. I find Finn still crouched over the table. He doesn't look up as I approach and I slump into the seat.

"Will hacked the Watcher?" Finn asks me, somewhat sluggishly.

"Yeah, he did." I tell him, watching as Finn rolls a ball of thread across the table, "The message was sent from inside the prison.

Finn glanced up suddenly, his elbow knocking the ball of thread to the floor.

"What?" He asks in astonishment his eyes wide.

I glance at him, surprised at his sudden display of distress.

"Yeah, but Will doesn't think someone could do it without outside assistance." I say slowly.

"No, no they couldn't," Finn muttered, wildly glancing about. He jumps up, throwing the wide range of bluish and purple bruises marring his perfect complexion into light.

"Come on," he instructs me, offering his hand to haul me to my feet. "We're going to the Hull."

As we walk he glances down at my wrist.