Nightrise

leaned across the table. He had been named after the city where he'd been born. He was a tall, handsome black boy who never spoke about the crime that had brought him here. 'You want to know about the other side, you need to talk to Koring," he whispered. "He works both sides of the wall."
    "How do you know?" Jamie asked.
    "I've seen him come in through the medicine wing."
    The medicine wing stood right up against the wall. Everyone knew that it served both sides of the prison. At least, that was what they said.
    "He's one of the only ones who's allowed," Baltimore went on. "They've got guards working the whole time on the other side. Armed guards. They don't have nothing to do with us."
    "You want to visit the other side, just ask Max," DV said. He smiled briefly. "The only trouble is, he'll have your brain wired up to a computer, and the next time anyone sees you, you'll be a vegetable like all the others."
    The meal came to an end. The boys handed in their trays and plastic forks, then turned out their pockets and stood with their legs apart for the pat-down before they were returned to their cells for an hour's rest.
    As they left the room, walking slowly through the blinding sunlight, Jamie noticed Joe Feather standing on the edge of the football field, examining him. It seemed to him that the intake officer had been watching him from the moment he had arrived. Did he suspect something? If so, Jamie would have to move quickly. He might be running out of time.
    He remembered what Feather had said when he was processed. He had seen the tattoo on Jamie's shoulder and had asked, 'You have a brother?" There was only one way he could have known that. He had seen Scott. And that meant that Scott had to be here, at Silent Creek.
    Jamie was sure of it. After all, it made sense. Silent Creek was the only privately run prison in Nevada and it was part of the Nightrise Corporation. According to Alicia, Nightrise had been responsible for the disappearance of not one but many boys with paranormal abilities. What better place to keep them than within a maximum security prison, miles from anywhere, in the middle of the Mojave Desert? He had seen the name in Colton Banes's thoughts. And what else could there be, concealed on the other side of the wall?
    Jamie took off his sneakers (it was rule number 118 or 119…no shoes inside the cell) and left them neatly in the corridor. The other boys had done the same. He went into the cell and a few seconds later there was a buzz and the doors slid shut electronically. His room, painted white, measured ten steps by five. There was a bunk that was actually part of the floor, molded out of it. The cement simply rose up to form a narrow shelf with a thin, plastic mattress on top. Opposite the bed, he had a metal shelf that acted as a desk, with a chair bolted into the floor. A stainless steel unit stood beside the door — a toilet and a basin combined. There was a mirror made of polished steel. And that was it. The room had a single window, a long strip no more than a few inches wide. There were no bars. Even if he had been able to smash through the industrial-strength glass, he could never have slipped out.
    The other boys had told him that the door was electronically sealed, and whenever he was alone, locked into the cell, Jamie had to fight back a growing sense of panic. Alicia knew he was here. At the end of his second week, he would be allowed to telephone her. But she was his only link with the outside world. What if something happened to her? Then he would be stuck here as Jeremy Rabb — or Indian.
    How long would it be before he went crazy and either had to be locked up in isolation or drugged?
    But that wasn't going to happen. Jamie still had his power, and tonight he was going to use it. There would be a guard on duty in his unit and that guard would take him to the other side of the prison. He would find Scott and together the two of them would walk out.
    Except…
    It was only now, when it was much too late, that the first whispers of doubt came. Scott had the same powers as Jamie — so why hadn't he used them to break out himself? Was there something Jamie didn't know? Why was he so certain that Scott was even there? A sickening thought occurred to him. Scott could be dead. He could have escaped and gotten lost in the desert. Anything could have happened.
    Sitting alone on his bunk, Jamie opened his mind as he had done every night since he had arrived. He was sending his