Johan looked deep into Lana's eyes, blinking several times, trying to understand what was happening there.
"Erm... Bad news and bad news...? You mean you're not here to tell me I'm free to go back to the villa?"
Lana looked down at the floor, looking slightly embarrassed.
"I'm sorry sir... Johan... But no. Claudius has already started moving to take control of the family, and there's nothing more we can do. At least... With you in jail."
Johan sighed heavily and slowly.
He had been pacing up and down until that moment, but after he received the bitter news, he sat down on the cot and buried his face in his hands.
"Can't we even... Look for Erick?"
"That would have been a possibility, but if what you said is really true, then he won't want to get involved. He may be an asshole, but he's a frighteningly intelligent and smooth asshole. He knows that as long as he doesn't kill Clifford, he'll continue to be at risk."
"Then why the fuck hasn't he killed that asshole yet?" Johan almost shouted, punching himself in the leg.
Lana was silent for a few seconds, and before answering Johan's question, she looked at the young man for several seconds.
The line of his chin, which rose firmly, but at the same time delicately, to his ears. The nose, slightly thinned, but still strong.
The eyes, such a dark shade of gray that they could hardly be defined as light, they just didn't have that sharpness that was characteristic of Erick.
Lana was holding back with everything she had, so as not to punch that young man in the face, so much like the boss she despised so much.
"You answered that question yourself a few weeks ago..." She said, recovering a little from her stupor. "He's still, or was, useful..."
Johan crossed his legs, pressing his fingers to his temples.
"I gave that answer because I thought it was something Erick would say. I would never have thought that that bastard Clifford would be able to go that far..."
"You're talking about members of the mafia, Johan. Did you really think they'd just put their heads down and let situations get out of hand?"
"What's the worst news?" Johan asked, completely ignoring Lana's rhetorical question.
He needed answers, and Lana trusted him, so it was quite likely that she would be able to provide him with them eventually.
But at the moment, Johan was tired. And the whole story about him not being able to get out of prison was giving him a headache almost as bad as the migraine caused by whatever Claudius had put in his drink weeks before.
No, wait...
'Weeks before...'
"Lana... How long has it been since dinner...?"
A shiver ran down Johan's spine, dreading the words that would follow the question, but Lana's answer was far more frightening than Johan was able to calculate.
"Three weeks... You've been unconscious for a day, since you passed out, and all the rest of the time you've been here, between being brought here, the screening, and solitary confinement... We were without you in the villa for three weeks..."
There was something akin to shame in Lana's voice, but Johan didn't quite understand why.
However, Johan was struck by another chill when another idea crossed his mind.
"Uhm... Lana... Can I ask you one more question?"
She raised an eyebrow and only nodded positively.
"How come you didn't come looking for me when I was unconscious...?"
Lana looked down at the floor again, as if looking directly into Johan's eyes was too much for her.
"I... I'm a double agent." She finally said, after several seconds in silence. "Erick ordered me to infiltrate Clifford's inner circle, and... Do whatever was necessary to ensure that he trusted me..."
Johan thought for several moments, and when he understood the depth, the limitlessness behind her words, his eyes widened and his heart squeezed.
"I thought that by accepting Erick's offer, I would no longer be a slave to the system..." Johan said, to no one in particular, without even looking at Lana. "But it seems that even here, among the rich and powerful, there are slaves like me..."
"What do you mean-"
"What's the worst news you mentioned before?" Johan asked, vehemently ignoring Lana's attempt at a question.
The young red-haired woman stared at Johan for several moments, deciding what to do, or whether she would even answer his question.
However, she decided to play a different game.
"Why is a homeless man like you trying to be a philosopher?" Lana's tone of voice carried a similar disdain to Erick's, but it was clear to Johan that it was all a pretense.
He could feel the pain in Lana's words in his own heart.
"Look here... I may not be powerful, rich or influential. I may not even have a place to drop dead, and I may need to think every day about how I'm going to make my next move, so that I don't go to bed hungry, or without a blanket over me. But be sure of one thing. There is one type of person I hate more than anyone else in the world. Those people who give up fighting against the system, against those who enslave them, without even trying."
Johan gasped as he said those words to Lana, who just listened, her jaw dropped almost to the floor.
"You're the worst kind of person, Lana Baker. Do you know why?"
Lana could only gesture with her chin, asking silently.
"Because it doesn't matter who your boss is, whether Erick Vaughn or Claudius Clifford. They only pay you, but you have all the power to say no, turn your back, and walk away, but you stay... And that's why you'll never stop being abused, by one or the other. At least I never gave up, and I always fought back when life wanted to bring me to my knees..."
The sound of the slap filled the solitary confinement like fireworks, and the force in Lana's palm made Johan's face turn to the side.
However, she said nothing for a few moments.
Just silence.
A silent eternity later, she finally said, with tears in her eyes and her voice choked with sobs.
"There won't be a trial, you've already been convicted, and your sentence will be ten years in the Hollowood maximum security prison."
Johan stared, speechless, as Lana turned to leave.
Before the solitary door closed with a thud, however, Lana said.
"Enjoy your stay in hell, and I sincerely hope you really believe your own words, because you're going to need every drop of faith you have in them... Slave..."