Nightrise

himself."
    Rabb. Jamie had to remind himself that they were talking about him.
    The judge thought for a moment, then nodded. "Very well. It'll be a hard lesson, but maybe that's what he needs." There was a file in front of her. She closed it. "Twelve months in Silent Creek."
    The security guard stepped forward and Jamie was led out through a side door, his feet moving only inches at a time. The last thing he saw was Alicia watching him. Her eyes were wide and full of dread.

    ***
    They took him by minibus, still shackled, with a bottle of water wedged between his knees. He was going to need it. The temperature would rise quickly as soon as the sun rose, and they planned to drive all night. There was nobody else on the bus: just the driver — an old, weather-beaten man — and a guard who had briefly checked Jamie's wrist and ankle restraints and then ignored him.
    It had been eight o'clock in the evening when they left. Jamie had watched the darkness fall before he had nodded off, sitting uncomfortably upright, asleep but still aware of the shuddering movement of the bus. When he opened his eyes, the light dazzled him. They had left the highway and were following a track, kicking up a cloud of dust all around them. Jamie could see only sand and scrubland with a few Jericho trees dotted around the landscape. A mountain range, burned red by the sun, stretched out across the horizon.
    And then the road dipped. They had come to a miniature valley. And now he saw his new home, Silent Creek. The two words were written on a sign — unnecessarily. The inmates surely knew where they were, and there was nobody else to read it for miles around. Despite everything, Jamie felt a shiver of excitement. He had seen the sign before — inside the head of Colton Banes. Scott was here, somewhere inside this complex. Jamie felt sure of it. He would find his brother and the two of them would bust out.
    The nightmare was almost over.
    A long, rectangular compound stood in front of him. The buildings were low-rise but they were surrounded by a razor wire fence at least thirty feet high. There were two satellite dishes pointing up toward the sky, and on the other side Jamie saw a playing field with two goals — but of course there was no grass, not in this heat. The surface was yellow-gray sand. At the far end of the field, there was a wall — like all the buildings, made out of cinder block and topped with more razor wire. As they bounced down toward the main gate, Jamie caught a glimpse of more buildings on the other side of the wall but realized he would be unable to see them again without the advantage of height. For some reason, Silent Creek had been divided into two: one third on one side, two thirds on the other.
    The minibus passed between a number of outlying houses. These must be where the guards and maintenance staff lived. Jamie was annoyed with himself. He had only woken up at the last minute and he had no idea how near they were to any town or community. Scott would have been better prepared.
    But it was too late to worry about that now. They had stopped in front of the gate. This was the entrance to the prison, known as the sally port. There was a buzz and the gate slid open electronically, allowing them into a narrow corridor between two lines of razor wire. The minibus jolted forward and stopped in front of a second gate. This opened only when the first one had closed. Now, at last, they were inside the prison. Jamie looked around him, searching for surveillance cameras.
    There were no guard towers. Nor was there anybody in sight.

    The minibus stopped one last time. The door hissed open.
    "All right! Out!" They were the only words the guard had spoken since they had left.
    Jamie shuffled out of his seat, along the aisle and out of the door. At once the heat hit him. It was like being physically battered. He was forced to squeeze his eyes shut, then open them more carefully, fighting against the glare. He was already sweating. The temperature had to be in the hundreds. Even the air was scorched. He looked around. The sun had sucked the color out of almost everything. The silver of the fence, the gray sand, the ash-colored cinder block…they all seemed to seep into each other like an overexposed photograph. An electric generator and a fuel tank stood next to each other, locked in a cage.
    They were bright yellow. There was nothing else to catch the eye.
    "This way!"
    The guard led him to a door set in a wall that opened