Even though she had seen pictures and videos, looked at maps, and had it described to her numerous times, Cadence still wasn’t prepared for the enormity of Eastern State Penitentiary. Standing on the outside, looking up at the massive structure, it was hard to imagine what it must have been like to know you’d be spending years—maybe decades—entrapped inside, coming through the colossal outside wall into the building as a prisoner.
It had taken several vehicles to transport them all to the site, and they had parked them all in various locations a few blocks away so that there was no way Gibbon could hear them coming. Likewise, the teams approached from different directions. While Cassidy wanted to send out a message to see if he was there, Cadence ordered her to wait until everyone was in position. They didn’t want to tip him off that something was up and have him make his escape over the looming brick wall before they were in position to stop him.
Getting over the wall was a beast for some of the members, but for Cadence it was just a matter of standing back a few feet and taking a running leap. She wasn’t sure exactly how high it was—maybe twenty or thirty feet—and she landed atop the two feet span with no problem. Looking down on the other side, she saw trees and overgrown shrubbery and thought she’d need to be more cautious jumping down.
“Why can’t we just use the gate?” Cassidy was asking over the IAC.
“Too obvious,” Elliott replied. “Come on. You’ve got this.”
“It’s too high,” Cassidy said. “There’s no way I can jump up there.”
Cadence turned around to see her sister wringing her hands, clearly nervous, and felt bad that she’d just left her behind. She was focused on the hunt; it would be hard to remember that her sister was there while she was trying to get Gibbon. She may be forced to do what she was doing right now and leave Cass to the others.
“I’ll give you a boost,” Brandon encouraged, bending down and putting his hands out in front of him.
“I still can’t,” Cassidy said, looking at the wall and then back at Brandon.
Aaron had been walking the perimeter checking to make sure everyone else was getting into position, and when he saw the trio at the bottom of the wall, he stopped and put his hands on his hips. Cadence knew that look. “Cass, come on. You can do it,” she yelled down to her sister.
“What’s the problem?” Aaron finally asked.
“Nothing. Cass is just having a little trouble getting over the wall, that’s all,” Brandon explained with a shrug.
Aaron exhaled loudly, and Cadence knew he was losing patience. “We don’t really have time for this,” he muttered. “Elliott, get up there.”
With a questioning glance but no response, Elliott leaped toward the top of the wall. He didn’t quite make it, but he was within reach of the lip, and he grabbed it with one hand and pulled himself up to standing.
As soon as Elliott was next to Cadence, Aaron approached Cassidy. “What are you doing?” she asked as he grabbed her around the waist.
He didn’t answer. “Ready?” he asked, and before Elliott could even nod, he picked Cadence’s little sister up and tossed her up to Elliott.
Despite their agreement to keep completely silent, Cassidy let out a loud yelp, and Cadence watched her flying through the air, hopeful that Elliott would catch her without knocking both of them backward. He easily plucked her out of the air, and Cadence put her hands on his shoulder to steady them both.
“What the hell?” Cassidy shrieked, this time on the IAC.
“You’re welcome,” Aaron said and then hurdled himself clean over the wall, landing on the ground on the other side between two trees.
“What the hell, indeed,” Elliott muttered.
“Elliott, meet Green Aaron. He can do lots of things that regular Aaron couldn’t do,” Cadence explained as Brandon came to a stop next to her on the other side. Then, looking at her sister, she said, “Ready to go down?”
“No!” Cassidy said, emphatically.
“Well, you can’t stay up here,” Elliott reminded her.
“You’re going to blow out your knee again,” Cassidy said to her older sister as she peered down at the ground.
Cadence thought Cass must be as terrified as she had been herself when Aaron threw her out of the plane. But she knew she could jump from here with no problems. Unfortunately, her sister wouldn’t know that until she did it. “Come on, Cass,” Cadence said, “you can do it.”
“No,” Cassidy said again.
This time, it was Elliott’s turn to sigh. “Get on my back, little girl,” he insisted, turning to the side so she could do just that. Even as Cadence boosted her sister up, she could tell that Cassidy was trembling. As soon as her hands were clasped around Elliott’s neck, he jumped. This time Cassidy didn’t scream, but Cadence could tell she was terrified. Elliott landed with no problems, and then Cadence and Brandon found decent landing spots and flung themselves off of the wall to join the rest of the team.
By the time Cadence landed, Aaron was already several yards ahead of them, and once she made sure Cass was okay, she bounded off to join him. Andrew was walking toward them, and even though he seemed to be attempting to be stealthy, his footsteps were loud on the cold ground and he was not carefully picking his way through the shrubbery.
“What’s going on?” Aaron asked as Andrew came to a stop in front of them.
“These placements,” Andrew said, one hand on his hip, “my team is saying you told them all to cross the wall, but I told them to stay outside of the perimeter. Now, they don’t know what to do.”
“We want them on this side of the wall,” Aaron replied, and Cadence could tell by his expression that he was about to be fed up with this waste of time as well.
“Why?” Andrew questioned. “Don’t we need them on the other side so if Gibbon gets over the wall, we can chase him down?”
“No, we need them on this side of the wall so that Gibbon doesn’t get out,” Aaron explained, his voice straining.
“If he gets over that wall, he’s gone,” Cadence interjected, putting her hand on Aaron’s arm. “We won’t be able to chase him down.”
“Well, I still think it might be a good idea to have a man or two on the other side,” Andrew said, his voice teetering on condescending.
“I have an idea: let’s do it my way, and if I’m wrong, you can tell me about it tomorrow, okay?” Aaron asked and Cadence stepped in front of him. She wasn’t sure what had him so wound up, but clearly he was upset about something, and while Cassidy’s freak out and Andrew’s baby fit weren’t helping, he wouldn’t normally get this out of sorts about something like this.
“Andrew, tell them to get over the wall. It’ll be fine. Hopefully, they won’t even see Gibbon,” she said with a smile and as much patience as she could interject into her voice.
Andrew glanced at Aaron and then back at Cadence before he said, “Fine,” and disappeared into the foliage.
Cadence turned around. “Are you okay?” she asked, putting her hands on his shoulders.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said with a shrug. “Just tired of people not following directions. Which one of us do they listen to? How about me. Last I checked, I’m the one running this operation.”
“Calm down,” Cadence urged, running her hand down his arm. “He’s not very good at his job, remember?”
“Right. And I think I’ll replace him. Tomorrow.”
“Okay, but for now, we need to get in there. Come on. Did you hear Cale’s call that the medical team is in place?”
“No, but then, I guess I don’t usually pay as much attention to Cale as some people do,” he mumbled.
“What?” Cadence asked, turning to give him a sharp look.
“Nothing. Let’s go.”
Cadence definitely knew that something was going on now, and though she had no idea what it could be, she hoped it didn’t affect the hunt.
“Hey boss man, you sure you don’t want me in that watch tower?” Elliott was asking. “I know you said watch the halls from inside this little center chamber, but why don’t I leave that to the docs that are already here and head out there, in case we have a runner.”
“Sounds good,” Aaron said, though Cadence could tell by his tone he was acquiescing without even considering the options. Still, it did seem to make sense that someone should be up there, and now that Elliott was back, he was the best candidate.
