Grendel Unit 3: Fight the Power Read Online Free

through the grates, and said, "I'll pass along your little stories when I get around to it, but just so you know, I just talked to your buddy, and he wasn't interested. We're becoming friends though. Went fishing and had a few beers together, and you know what he told me? He said you were a lunatic who'd been locked up too long and you should probably just kill yourself."
    "Frank doesn't fish," Vic said.
    Slavish shrugged and said, "He wanted me to teach him."
    " You didn't really see Frank. He wouldn't say that," Vic responded, but his voice was soft and lacked conviction. "I know he wouldn't."
    " You sure about that?" Slavish said. "I invited him here to come see you and he told me he'd rather die than spend time with a dishonored criminal who embarrassed everybody he knew."
    Vic clenched his eyes shut. It was getting harder and harder to tell the lies from the truths inside the walls of the prison. He worried he was becoming conditioned to being a captive. Never, he thought intensely. I am a Unification soldier and I will continue the mission until every last threat to her existence is dead. "Where is Bal Ghor being hidden?" he growled.
    Corporal Slavish snorted slightly and shook his head. "You know what? I would probably tell you if I knew, just so I could take bets on how many days it would take you to die once they got their hands on you."
    "He is a vital target!" Vic growled. He leapt upwards, grabbing for the grates above, but they were too high. He fell swiping the air futilely, collapsing on the hard metal surface so hard it jolted throughout his body.
    Slavish looked down at him through the grating like a bored child. Like he was watching an insect struggle to get back up after having its wings ripped off. Vic got up and brushed himself off. When he looked back up, the guard had already unlocked the door he'd been guarding and gone through it, apparently bored of watching all the little insects and all their meaningless struggles.
     
    The corridors became smaller and emptier the further away you went from the essential areas of the prison. Prisoners clustered around the food dispersing stations and libraries and recreational yards. Strangely enough, they preferred to live among the other prisoners, preferring the constant threat of victimization to the even worse horror of being alone in the darkness.
    Gratersfield had been built to contain the population of entire planets if necessary, and it labyrinth was a never ending series of intersecting corridors and dead ends. But if one was bold enough, there was plenty of room to move around quietly and unnoticed. That was a blessing and a curse. It meant you had a smaller chance of running into other inmates, but also that if you did and they were hostile, you were on your own.
    The lights above the grated ceiling were a muted blue, casting shadowy grids down on the cells below. Vic noted the faces of the prisoners he passed, mentally cataloging the ones he recognized and could identify. Some were considered acceptable targets on Unification's Level Black List before they'd been captured.
    During his time in the prison, Vic had reduced their numbers by four. He had all the time in the world to add to that number.
    He made a series of turns and stopped at a short dead end. He walked toward the last cell in the line and saw a hulking figure within. The beast was pressed against the back wall, slumped forward, pretending to sleep. They'd had to remove the bunks and sink from the cell just to make room for him. His enormous feet almost stuck out into the hallway, the sharp claws attached to the toes were sharper than any of the four weapons Vic was carrying at that moment.
    "Hey," he said. "Wake up. We've got work to do."
    Monster 's eyes gleamed in the darkness as he looked up at his former Captain and muttered, "Go away, human. I told you not to bother me anymore."
    Vic kicked him on the foot and said, "Come on, get up, you big ape. It's something good."
    Monster flung