A Man in Full

Conrad lies wide awake, dreading the coming morning when the deputies will penalize him, when a rhythmic thumping sound from the floor makes him realize they are in the middle of a major earthquake. The earth shakes so hard that Conrad and Five-O are thrown off their bunks. As the badly maintained prison building starts coming apart, the bunks collapse under a rain of concrete, and the floor buckles. Buried under rocks, Conrad can feel a hole in the floor. Beneath the floor, there is a narrow crawlspace. Conrad crawls into the tunnel and asks a whimpering Five-O, whose leg is badly injured, to follow. As Conrad inches on his belly through the tunnel, he can see a large opening ahead, where the outer walls of the visitor’s area have pulled away from each other. Conrad realizes that Zeus has provided him an opportunity to escape.

Five-O tells Conrad to flee. Conrad replies he will escape but not because he is scared of the deputies or Rotto. He will run away because Zeus has laid out the path for him. Conrad says goodbye to Five-O and sprints off to the highway, aware that his copy of The Stoics has been left behind in prison.