Death is a Welcome Guest: Plague Times Trilogy 2 by Louise Welsh Read Free Book Online

like he had been up all night, but his skin was healthy beneath the tiredness, his voice free of the rawness that had made Pete’s words sound as if they were being bled from him. The sight of the man, ugly and healthy in the doorway, made Magnus want to sob with relief.
    ‘I’m McFall.’ He held up a hand in a gesture that was part salute, part supplication.
    The screw gave Magnus a sour look. ‘Kildoran?’ He squatted down and stared at Pete, keeping his distance from the bunk. There was no reply and the warder turned to look at Magnus. ‘Turn him over.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Roll him on to his back.’
    Magnus took a step backward; his spine touched the wall.
    ‘He might be infectious.’
    ‘Just do it.’
    Magnus saw a gun in the warder’s hand. His stomach gave a queasy flip. No, he realised, it was chunky and decorated with yellow flashes. Not a gun, but a Taser.
    He leaned in and touched Pete on the shoulder. ‘Pete? Pete? Are you awake, mate?’ Are you alive? he thought, but there was heat coming from the reeking body. Magnus looked up. ‘I think he might still be with us.’
    ‘I asked you to turn him over, not give me your medical opinion.’
    Magnus took a tentative hold of the blanket Pete had cocooned himself in and rolled the man towards the edge of the bed. Pete groaned. He had been sick in the night and his face was soiled with vomit. Magnus tried not to gag.
    ‘How long has he been like that?’ The disgust Magnus felt was in the screw’s voice.
    ‘He might have been ill already when they put me in here on Friday. It got worse on Saturday and much worse last night.’
    ‘And you didn’t think to report it?’
    ‘I reported it.’ It was a struggle to keep his voice calm. ‘I was told he’d be moved, but nothing happened. I’ve been locked in with him all weekend, watching the quarantine alerts on TV. For all I know I’ve got it too.’
    The hand that held the Taser twitched. Magnus flinched again, but nothing happened.
    The screw said, ‘I wouldn’t worry. You look like the kind of selfish bastard that always survives. Half an hour later and you’d probably have been chowing down on the poor sod. Come on.’
    He stepped out of the cell into the landing. Magnus followed him.
    ‘Am I going to court?’
    The screw gave Pete a last glance and then locked the door on him.
    ‘Courts are suspended.’
    The screw touched Magnus’s shoulder with the Taser, steering him to the left, along the landing, past rows of bolted doors. The air outside the cell was cleaner, but Magnus thought he could detect some taint beneath the usual prison odour of men, bleach and cheaply catered food. It was the kind of scent that might waft from a city three weeks into a refuse strike, bitter and sugar-cloying.
    Magnus said, ‘It’s illegal to hold me in prison without a trial.’
    ‘Bring it up at your hearing.’
    Netting was stretched across the higher landings, like safety nets in a circus big top, to deter ‘jumpers’. Discarded lunch wrappers and other detritus were cradled in it. Magnus wondered if it would be strong enough to hold a man. You would be taking a chance, unless you truly wanted to kill yourself. Either way, he guessed there would be a beating waiting when you got down.
    Other men were being moved from their cells too. A warder accompanied each prisoner, as if the authorities had become nervous about being outnumbered.
    ‘How many people are ill?’
    The screw ignored the question. He took the one-size-fits-all key on his chain and inserted it into a cell door.
    Magnus said, ‘At least let me have a shower. I’ve not had a wash since I got here.’
    ‘You’re fucking lucky we’re shifting you. If it was up to me nonces would be left to rot.’ The screw’s tone was amiable, as if he had grown used to hating and made his peace with it. ‘The Home Office has told us to keep healthy prisoners together and that’s what we’re doing.’
    He opened the door. A thin man was sitting on