I stared at her. “Yeah? Which part? The fact that I’m in prison? That all the prisoners are kids? This freak show of a fight with a muscle-bound moron? Like, be more specific!”
Strepp nodded briskly at the guards. “Take them to the pen,” she said.
The girl had said that the guy and I would be stuck in a small room together after the fight.
So, just great.
24
MS. STREPP
HELEN STREPP KNEW WHEN TO speak and when to keep silent. You didn’t get as far as she had without that skill. So Strepp waited patiently while Warden Bell finished what she was doing. After several minutes, during which the Warden didn’t hurry one bit or even acknowledge Strepp’s presence, she finally looked up.
“Yes, Ms. Strepp?” Those three words were enough to make a lesser person tremble, coming out of the Warden’s hard slit of a mouth. She was the scariest, most imposing woman Helen had ever met. Even the Warden’s thinning white hair, cropped into a crewcut, seemed to stand straight at attention. Her large, fleshy body overpowered her desk chair, her bulk spilling over the sides. Helen tried not to mentally calculate its weight load, tried not to picture the metal legs bending slowly and then snapping.
Actually, the chair probably wouldn’t dare, she decided.
“There’s a problem.” Ms. Strepp made her face carefully expressionless, admitting neither guilt nor concern.
“Do tell,” the Warden replied, lacing her thick fingers together on top of her desk. Her cold black eyes waited and watched, like a spider’s.
Ms. Strepp breathed in slowly. She knew not to prevaricate, not to pretty it up, not to use words like might or seemed. Instead she spoke firmly, meeting the Warden’s glittering gaze.
“We took the wrong twin.”
25
THE WARDEN LOOKED AT MS. STREPP with a coldness that seemed to penetrate Ms. Strepp’s very bones.
Resolve, Ms. Strepp thought. You knew this wouldn’t be easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is.
After a moment, the Warden spoke, her voice sounding like car tires rolling over gravel. “Refresh my memory, Ms. Strepp. I know we’ve gathered several sets of twins for our… experiments. Of which twin do you speak?”
“Cassandra Greenfield. We have Rebecca Greenfield instead. From B-97-4275. The agricultural community. The girls must have switched vehicles that day.”
The Warden drummed her fingers on her desk as she digested this information. “Well, fudge,” she said.
Again Ms. Strepp waited.
The Warden sighed and moved some papers from one pile to another. Birth certificates, death certificates, autopsy reports, experiment data. It all piled up.
Then, having reached a decision, she shrugged. “Execute her. Get the other one.”
“That was my thought exactly, Warden,” Ms. Strepp said. “Then I thought, what if I use her as an example to the others? Her testing scores are dismal, as you know. Her fighting ability is pathetic. But if I whip her into shape, if she starts to perform as expected… well, the other prisoners would see what was possible. Even with clay as unpromising as Rebecca Greenfield.”
“Hm.” The Warden looked at her shrewdly. “Don’t get attached to this girl, Strepp. She won’t be with us long. You know that.”
“Of course!” Ms. Strepp looked offended at the very suggestion. “That’s why we’re here. That thought is foremost in my mind at all times, Warden. I see this as simply another experiment.”
The Warden gave a brisk nod. “Very well then, Ms. Strepp. Carry on.”
“Thank you, Warden Bell.”
Ms. Strepp lost no time leaving the office wing of the prison and returning to her own domain. She was grateful that the Warden was allowing her this experiment. It was going to be very interesting indeed. Of course, first she had to whip Rebecca into
shape. With real whips, if necessary.
26