them all killed, and they were baying for his blood. Half of them were probably the same crowd who’d gone out to welcome J to the city not so long ago. Politics, eh? ‘Dirt’ starts the crowd up and I heard they were close to rioting – or that’s the way it’d looked. Soldiers on edge. Peace at risk. All getting really ugly. But the Governor still had a card to play. He said, “You know I can just let him go, don’t you? And you can’t touch him if I do.” It went all quiet. “So, I’m in a generous mood”. Can’t see anyone believing that, but anyway. “I think I’ll let your ‘king’ go. But instead, if you like, I’ll let Baz out. How about that?” I can see why he did it. Baz was bad. He was dangerous. He didn’t have a lot of friends. People knew he’d just do something stupid again, and maybe cause a lot more trouble. And for the Governor, it was no great loss. He probably knew Baz’d be back in jail or dead within a week. He must have figured that the people liked J a lot better than they liked Baz. And they had. But not that morning. Because ‘Dirt’ had worked his black magic. His mates had all chimed in, making someone without any blood on his hands look like the devil himself. The mob called for the release of Baz, as if he was some sort of hero. The Governor had misjudged it. And he was stuck. Baz was brought out. Took the applause. Shook the Governor’s hand, the cheeky dog. Somehow managed to completely forget that D and I existed. That we were still on death row. Because of him. Then he walked off into the town. Word is the Governor washed his hands straight away. Don’t blame him. Whatever Baz has got, you wouldn’t want it. And J got chucked in here with me. Along with D, who’d been brought to the cell about an hour earlier. All of us waiting for the rattle of the lock that would take us on our last walk. D was looking great. They must have sorted him out perfectly. Neat little scar from the gunshot. Well fed too. I was a little bit jealous, before I remembered the blood that night and how scared I’d been for him. We had a few tears and a hug and shared a few observations about Baz. It 101
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