Free Queen of the Dead by Ty Drago Page B

wall. The prison entrance was on Fairmount, the southern side, which meant our “ladder bit” had gone down around the corner and out of view from the gate. Hopefully, the Corpses—none of whom were in sight—wouldn’t know we were here despite all the “hup hups” and the whistle-blowing.
    Making so much noise in the name of surprise was a risky tactic but a necessary one. We needed to get into that prison, and nobody figured the Deaders would just open up if we knocked.
    Sharyn joined us atop the wall. This time, she didn’t blow her whistle. From here, the crowd couldn’t see us; Corinthian Avenue was too narrow.
    Which meant the show was over.
    Eastern State Penitentiary lay sprawled out below us like a huge, many-legged spider. The design had been pretty unique in its day: a central hub topped with a guard tower, with cell blocks radiating out from it in all directions. The wheelhouse design had been copied by a lot of other prisons around the country.
    â€œRed,” Sharyn commanded. “Check the towers.”
    I pulled out my pocketknife and tapped the 7 button, springing the telescope. Peering through it, I scanned the prison’s tall central structure. Then I turned my head and studied the smaller guard towers mounted on the outer wall at each of the four corners.
    â€œClear,” I reported.
    â€œNot real big on security, are they?” Helene remarked.
    â€œYeah,” Sharyn admitted. “I’m surprised. After you two hit the gate last night, Tom and I kind of figured they’d have posted at least a few lookouts. Maybe they’re tryin’ to keep a low profile. But don’t trust it. If any of y’all sees a Deader pop up, signal the rest.”
    â€œThen what?” Chuck asked.
    â€œThen I’ll take him out before he can give the alarm.”
    â€œHow?” Burt asked.
    But Sharyn only grinned and changed the subject. “Listen up. Burt, Chuck, and Katie to hit the north side of the prison. Helene, Will, and me’ll go south. With the guard towers empty, I don’t figure they got too many Deaders in here. But that might change fast if we get spotted. Keep to the rooftops of each cell block and see what you can see through the skylights. Careful, though…some of the blocks were under repair when they closed this place down. Don’t want nobody falling through a weak spot. Everybody dig?”
    We all dug.
    â€œBurt, your team gets the ladder. You can use it to bridge over to the nearest cell block. And keep your radios on. If you spot a Corpse, radio the rest of us. And if you spot Ramirez, even better. Let’s do this, Angels.”
    With that, we split up. Sharyn went first, balancing her way along the crumbling, three-foot-wide battlement, with Helene and me following close behind. Below, on Corinthian, most of the spectators had moved on. The few that remained looked more bored than suspicious.
    Good.
    It struck me that I wasn’t scared to be doing what I was doing—well, not really . Here, I was trotting atop a wall with a three-story drop on either side of me, and the only thing running through my mind was tactics. In the four months since I’d stepped outside my family’s house in Manayunk and been hit with the Sight, most of things that used to scare me had lost their power.
    When did I get so brave? I wondered.
    We neared the southeast corner of the prison. The original stone watchtower had been updated with a more modern brick guardhouse that jutted outward along the wall just enough to keep us from getting around it.
    We stopped, crouching low and studying the prison grounds. The courtyard remained empty.
    That was the good news.
    The bad news was that the gap between us and the roof of the nearest cell block looked at least fifty feet wide!
    â€œSo…how do we get over there without killing ourselves?” I asked.
    â€œLike I told you back in Haven,” Sharyn replied,