Chapter 48: Chapter 48 Conspiracy_1
"No other symptoms?"
In the infirmary, Aiden furrowed his brow at the prison doctor.
"Yes, no other particular symptoms, just a slight increase in body temperature," the prison doctor gestured toward the inmate lying in the bed behind him.
"Isn’t there also diarrhea?"
"Diarrhea is what they claim themselves, but when I checked, everything seemed fairly normal. Although they all complain of stomach pain, the location and interval of the pain vary from person to person when I asked, which makes it impossible to diagnose whether they are actually sick or not," the prison doctor spread his hands.
Aiden understood the doctor’s implication after hearing this.
The doctor harbored some suspicions that the inmates were feigning illness; indeed, inmates claiming to have headaches or stomachaches to waste time in the infirmary was not uncommon in prison, and experienced prison doctors had a degree of insight into this.
In the doctor’s view, these patients showed no difference from those pretending to be sick with symptoms of abdominal pain and diarrhea.
"But there is indeed a fever, right?" Aiden slightly furrowed his brow.
"Yes, which is why I find it strange. Generally, there would be other symptoms," replied the doctor.
"What about the blood test results?" Aiden pressed on.
"Nothing conclusive so far, at least it’s certain it’s not any known contagious disease."
"And the test results for the cafeteria food?"
"No problems found there either. I don’t think it’s likely to be food poisoning..." the doctor pondered, "All units eat from the same cafeteria; it doesn’t make sense that only the inmates in the core area would get sick."
Aiden thought for a moment, then lowered his voice and asked the doctor, "Could it be a reaction to drugs?"
"Drugs?" the doctor paused upon hearing this, "It’s possible, but with our facilities here, we can’t test for it, and... inmates shouldn’t be able to get their hands on those kinds of drugs in prison, should they?"
"That’s not certain..." Aiden immediately remembered the incident when drugs were found in cell thirteen.
"So what should we do with these inmates?" the doctor looked to his superior for instructions, "Other than giving them some antipyretics to bring down the fever, I can’t think of any other course of action."
"For now, let them stay here. Since they are showing symptoms, even if we suspect something, we still have to follow the rules," Aiden shook his head, "I’ll send a few people over to help you keep an eye on them."
"Alright then."
After giving instructions to the guards, Aiden turned to Flandre and ordered, "Go to the core area and organize a surprise inspection!"
A quarter of an hour later—
Flandre and Veronica returned to Aiden, who was standing at the end of the corridor, and shook their heads.
Meaning, they found nothing.
Aiden wasn’t surprised.
If so many inmates were showing symptoms due to a drug reaction, creating such a commotion, anyone with a bit of caution would have hidden the drugs somewhere else in advance, or at least disposed of any remaining drugs in time to avoid being caught.
"Didn’t we just have a search not long ago? Why another one?" an inmate grumbled discontentedly.
The comment became a spark that ignited complaints among the inmates.
"Exactly, isn’t this an abuse of authority!?"
"Didn’t you find nothing last time?"
"You’re so righteous, warden, acting like an emperor in here..."
...
The inmates started clamoring all at once, but after listening for a few seconds, Aiden finally spoke up, "Do you think you’re living in your own homes?"
The prison instantly fell silent.
"The prison has the right to search inmate’s rooms, and there is no frequency limit in the regulations," Aiden said expressionlessly. "Not finding contraband should be the norm. Are you going to get in my face about that? Getting a little too comfortable, are we? Now it’s your turn to tell me how to do my job?"
"..."
Less than an hour ago, these new inmates hadn’t stopped cursing Aiden, but now none of them dared to stand up to him.
Anyone with the slightest discernment could see that Aiden was not as tolerant as he was before. Although they usually enjoyed provoking the warders, there wasn’t actually anyone who dared to repeatedly test the limits at the edge of death.
Aiden felt a bit restless inside, as years of experience and intuition told him that someone was causing trouble in his prison.
The most suspicious person was undoubtedly inmate number 3340, but he hadn’t been able to catch them red-handed this time.
It was the guards’ duty to maintain order in the prison, which meant that when faced with inmates trying to challenge the order, they were mostly in a reactive position.
That evening, all he could do was let those feverish patients stay in the infirmary, and then he ordered Flandre to tighten supervision in the core area.
The next day, in the prison’s gardening workshop, the female inmates were gathered and busy transplanting and delousing flowers in the greenhouse.
"Those people who fell ill yesterday, was it your doing?" Ophelia, carrying a flower pot, came over to Meiruki and spoke to her in a low voice.
"Hmm." Meiruki replied while doing the transplanting, "I gave them a little special medicine that raises body temperature without causing other symptoms."
"Seeing Aiden unable to find anything was quite satisfying," Ophelia smirked. "But using the drugs we worked so hard to bring in just for that?"
"The infirmary is far from the core area where the guards are fewer, maybe it’s a suitable weak point." Meiruki said calmly, "Among the patients are my people. I had them take the opportunity to scout out part of the prison’s structure."
"But how did you get the stuff in?" Ophelia asked.
"That guard at the entrance to the greenhouse, her name’s Megan, and she’s into skimming off the top. Besides the workshop, she also inspects materials coming in from the outside. Slide her some money, and she turns a blind eye to the things being passed to me."
"Bribing the guards? That’s not a very creative approach."
"As long as it works, who cares. Look here." Meiruki cautiously pulled out the flower along with the soil from the pot, showing Ophelia the bottom of the pot.
Ophelia looked closely and saw various packets, large and small.
Without a doubt, these contained the drugs Meiruki had smuggled in. After learning her lesson once, she had hidden the stuff in the greenhouse.
"The thing I asked for, is it in there too?" Ophelia asked about what she cared about the most, earlier Meiruki had promised her a "Magic Potion" that would restore her strength.
"No, not here, somewhere else. Don’t look at me like that... I’m not playing games with you. I will give it to you when the time is right."
"How long do you need to prepare?" Ophelia grew impatient.
"Don’t rush, there’s not enough medicine at hand right now," Meiruki said solemnly, "Once my next batch comes in, I will spread all the drugs around. To be successful, we still need to recruit more inmates willing to cooperate..."
"What exactly are you planning?"
"I heard that about ten years ago, the warden of this prison died in an inmate uprising," Meiruki said with an implied meaning.
"You can’t be thinking of..." Ophelia widened her eyes slightly.
"It’s about time for another one," Meiruki said, stretching out her hand to flick an ant off a leaf.
