That’s what one of the guards told me. This one was a decent bloke and didn’t take much part in beating me up. I don’t think he wanted to be there. So, he’d talk to me when no one else was around. Apparently, ‘Dirt’ and his mates had hired a few big lads and got the local cops onside, then gone and arrested J. They could have just given him a kicking and run him out of town, but they wanted him gone for good. They knew they couldn’t kill him, not without facing a murder charge themselves, so they’d jumped on something he, or someone, had said about him being a ‘king’. Smacked him around a bit and taken him to the Military Governor, saying that he was a rebel and was setting himself up to throw the invaders out. Demanded the death penalty. It’s amazing what some people will do to save their own necks – and their bank accounts. Just that morning they’d roused up half the city and dragged J to the Governor. I was told the whole thing had gone down in about a couple of hours. The Governor, to give him his due, is not a stupid man. Cruel, cold, angry and arrogant, but not stupid. He would have known exactly what J and his mates had been up to, out in the bush towns, and if he thought they were a threat they’d have been dead long before. So, I’m guessing he thought they were a nuisance at worst, and that when the local ‘leaders’ turned up, the ‘Gov’ knew exactly what they were up to. And, according to my source, he tried to give J a way out. Word was, he had a private chat with J – but no chat is private in this town. There’s always a guard or two in the room. And they only stay quiet until they’re out of that room. They said the Governor asked J if he was a king. Bounced things back and forth with him for a bit. J didn’t say ‘yes’ and he didn’t say ‘no’. Dumb move. But still, the Governor apparently wasn’t convinced he was guilty, and he’d told ‘Dirt’ that he wanted to let J go. Now, ‘Dirt’ might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but there’s one thing he knows how to do really well. He knows how to frighten people. How to spread rumours that make people so scared they’ll do exactly what they’re told. And he’d done that on that Friday morning. I don’t really know how, but he’d convinced the mob that this J was going to get 100
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