Malik couldn't sleep that night because the last choice could spoil everything if he made the wrong one, He kept thinking about all the guards and how they behaved and who could be the weak link after two days of paying good attention and studying the guards he finally found Bill, a guard on night shift who liked easy money. Malik didn't meet Bill in the yard. Bill met Malik in a bathroom stall, he kept looking around and breathing like a man used to being watched. Bill's problem was his gambling addiction and heavy child support he pays monthly after his divorce with his ex-wife.
Everyone has a soft spot. Malik just had to find the right one.
The plan unfolded slow but steady. Malik told them
"This was about exploiting the small things that were never fixed because no one believed they mattered, the guard who took overtime, the rusted lock on Gate C, the truck that made deliveries on Tuesdays, the maintenance window at 3 a.m. Someone forgot grease on a hinge. Someone forgot to lock a side door, you know finding small holes in a big wall."
Malik's style was simple, buy a few partners over, keep your mouth shut, and always have a fall guy in place.
He explained his plans in a way that felt honest, which was part of his charm.
"We do this clean," he told the group in low voices during the hour when the lights blinked and the guards were changing, we don't need blood, we need a truck, we need uniforms, we need a window of forty-five minutes. Forty-five minutes, and we're gone, no one is gonna try to be a hero."
Adams looking at Malik said "Forty-five minutes? If we can be quicker then it's better because if we are caught we are doomed."
Malik replied "then don't get caught."
Ricardo tapped a paper map with a pen. "They route the supply van go through is gate C on Wednesdays, the driver always lights up a cigarette by the engine, that's our moment."
Louis rubbed his hands together. "I can make a master key, if I can get the right opportunity and right tools"
Bill's voice was always low "I'll be on guard and I'll try and block the CCTV cameras. But I'll need cash, front money and a way out after. "If it goes wrong? I'll use selective honesty to telI everything I know without involving myself so your plans better be top-notch."
They made lists, they named people and times.They scheduled second plans and code words. Malik kept everything on a small scrap he hid inside the sole of his shoe.
Malik laid emphasis on trust he told them "even the smallest plan needed trust which is the easy thing to promise, the hard thing to give."
Malik Continued this is your best shots to get your life back, there's nothing that can compared with freedom."
He started building the trust with small wins. Adams got extra care from the guards who are loyal to Malik but don't know the plan, Louis got an envelope every two weeks with cash for his wife. Bill received a cashier's check for a down payment done through a number only Malik's people on the outside.
He will always ask Ricardo "what do you need?" and his response was always "Nothing but to get outta here and back to my mama."
That answer was good enough for Malik, he saw Ricardo as the "Realest Homie" in his heart.
He called Ricardo aside on the yard one afternoon and said to him "You know prison has ears everywhere, someone always talks. A man brags to feel big, a guard takes a secret and sells it, an old enemy overhears and keeps the information close like a loaded gun and wait to kill you off with it."
Ricardo said "we need to plan for that too."
Malik snapped "exactly that's the point!"
"I planned for that too, but I kept it secret, I assigned a man named Otis to be our fall guy." A loud, angry lifer who owed Malik for a thing three years ago, "He talks too much and must not be fully involved, he must not know the plan."
Otis would be seen near the van when it rolled in, shouting at guards, creating a scene. If the escape went south, Otis would take the fall. Malik didn't like making offers men couldn't refuse, but this was business.
"You sure about Otis?" Ricardo asked once, worry in his voice.
Malik shrugged. "He likes the spotlight. He'll take it." If understands everything he will not like it but men that don't think deep like Otis don't get to be choosers, the smarter guys will always choose for them."
The next day they gathered briefly and rehearsed in whispers, when a guard zapped the radios, when the lights blinked, how long to wait after the second loop of the delivery truck. They timed the van's driver in their heads.
They rehearsed in the showers, they timed steps.
Louis fashioned a key from the shop's broken bits when the guards weren't looking.
Everything moved in small increments. While they bid their time.
No plan ever survived a perfect prison, but Malik's mind is made up he will either break free or die trying, that's what he always tells himself while always selling a perfect plan to his new crew.
About a week before the scheduled attempt, a young kid named Michael bragged about knowing all the secrets and everything that goes on in the prison.
Malik pulled the team together, quietly.To be sure no one was talking outside, they gave him assurances
"We keep eyes," Malik said. "If information is out we can pause and find the mole.
If we need to stops, we stop, I'm not trying to be a hero here, but like I said before we do thia to get our lives back and this is our best shot no one should mess it up." You look at me and only me. Got it?"
They all nodded in agreement.
For Malik, that solidify things. It made the possibility of getting out successfully real.
The next day which is a Tuesday Bill said "The van may come in today not tomorrow, I'm not sure though but so I heard."
Malik acted immediately by bringing them back together again, "You bring me these keys and the van comes in we get out tonight," he said to Louis. He didn't want to be at the mercy of rumors.
Louis asked. "Tonight?"
"Yes, tonight. You're a locksmith, Louis. You can make this happen. I know you can."
Louis nodded, and that was that. The van came but was very quick and they didn't make the move, but when it happens like this supplies are usually huge the next time and they confirmed next Wednesday when the supply will be much bigger which means more time to act. Bill would be the guard on the route. Adams would create a diversion in the yard, Louis would have the key. Ricardo would open Gate C. Otis would be the visible man near the van. Malik would walk out last.
Malik lay in his bunk that afternoon thinking about his life in Sacramento and the possibility of regaining life back. He thought about the taste of freedom, about the war he would face outside when he's finally out but that didn't bother him much. The plan was a thing to focus on.
He also knew how it could end of the plan didn't work out, a bullet, a crooked guard's report, a man's throat sliced in the shower. He knew the faces of the men who would die for him if things went wrong. He had to live with that.
At dusk, as the yard lights buzzed on and the prisoners called out to each other, Malik rolled onto his side, stared at the ceiling, and felt the plan like a live animal under his skin moving around and can't let him sleep.
Everything was set. Or so he thought.
Malik closed his eyes to sleep and those obsession creep in again.
He thought about the city beyond the prison walls, about the cars, the noise, the easy money. He thought about how much he hated being told he couldn't leave. Then he waited. And waited. And tried not to imagine the sound of steel doors slamming behind him, for good or for bad.
He'd built the map with people who owed him, with men who wanted more than they had. That didn't make him noble. It made him dangerous. And in a place like Victorville, dangerous was sometimes the only thing that felt like life.
"Countdown till Thursday" he muttered to himself and for the very first time ever Malik knelt down and prayed, sleep didn't cross his eyes all that. His thoughts were louder than his voice and a "lot of