TODAY, MISCHA BARTON would begin to fight back.321Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeRGU10Q6gq
She tried to sleep a bit to keep up her strength. Her dreams were horrifying. Ghoulish faces and fanged animals and water filling her nose and mouth and lungs as she screamed for help.
In the morning, she tried to eat, limiting herself to bread. Carbohydrates for energy. She didn't taste it, didn't enjoy it.
Mischa had a shift at the infirmary at 8:00. She walked down G wing, past the key-entry door for the staff's underground parking garage, past the fire-escape door, to the guard booth. She gave her ID number to the guard, Henriette, and listened to the buzz of the door. She worked like a robot inside, dressing wounds and mopping floors and looking through the window outside as a shift of guards left the prison, pulling up to the front gate in their cars, waving to the guard in the tower ten feet above, sliding their key cards, waiting for the gate to open, and leaving this hellhole for a time. Freedom!
"Mischa," said Laure, the nurse, in English. "I need----ceftriaxone."
For a while now, she'd been one of the assistants the nurses trusted with drug retrieval. Technically, it wasn't allowed. But practically, these nurses need all the time they could get with the inmates, and having them retrieve drugs for them saved tons of time.
Still, there were rules. After unlocking the cage door, close it behind you when you're inside, so nobody else can come in. Remove the drug vials from the shelf and write down what you took on a designated sheet. Don't take the syringes out of their wrappers, just bring them wrapped, along with the vials, to the doctor or nurse. Deliver the drugs, and the keys, to the medical professional and only that person.
In the end, you were delegated this task because they trusted you. But it wasn't just an honor system. One of the four security cameras in the infirmary was located right here in the pharmacy room. Two others were located in the main room of the infirmary. The last one was in the secured room. Lots of eyes watched.
There was also a nightly inventory of the drugs, and it was your ass if there was anything at all missing, even a bottle of aspirin. And finally, you were frisked upon leaving the infirmary. There was pretty much no way you could sneak drugs or syringes out of this place. A few, over the years, had tried. All of them regretted it.
Mischa took the key from the nurse and walked over to the locked cage. Once inside, she found the cefrtriaxone that Laure had requested. Without missing a beat, without any hesitation whatsoever, she also retrieved a second vial of drugs, one that Laure hadn't mentioned.
She then got a syringe for Laure to use, and a second one for her to use with the other vial of drugs.321Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmUJIdzlxFf
From the standpoint of the guard outside watching the security monitors----if she was watching at all; if she wasn't asleep, socializing or playing solitaire----there was nothing to see. That guard didn't know how many drugs Mischa was there to retrieve. Two vials of drugs instead of one, two syringes instead of one----no reason for her to care.321Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuAksRrbDSY
Had she been so inclined, she might have cared about what happened next. Mischa turned back to exit the pharmacy, which meant she turned her back to the security camera. As she walked, she unwrapped one of the syringes and removed the protective cap as well. Then she stuck the needle into the vial and withdrew the narcotic, filling the syringe. Finally, she recapped the syringe and slipped it into the waistband of her pants. All this was a piece of cake for a young woman who'd injected cocaine into her veins between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. 321Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgsllkozHqE
Maybe, just maybe, someone monitoring the room would wonder what Mischa was doing with her back turned toward the camera, but she doubted it, especially because she never broke stride.321Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡovXOQnLYgo
If she had become suspicious, Mischa would surely find out immediately.321Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIUnRWhz5e0
When she stepped out of the pharmacy, Mischa saw nothing amiss. The prison guard seated in the corner was not quite on high alert; she looked as if she were going to doze off at any moment.321Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJfScwH4dk3
Then she heard the buzz of the main door, and the outside guard, Henriette, bursting through it.321Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFQGR905yVz
