Shorty reread the email and sat back in his chair to think. Jake had refused his offer of help. That probably wasn't a bad thing. He wasn't sure what kind of help he could have provided, if accepted.

Jake was a career criminal. The prosecution case that put him in prison was solid. There were no loopholes to exploit. If anything spoke in Jake's favor, it was that he never employed violence, preferring to benefit from the venality of others. The fact that he had never held a job was more a testament to his quick wits than his lack of ambition.

Shorty wondered for a minute if his cover was blown. He didn't think Jake suspected anything. Finding evidence that proved Big Mike was innocent was a stroke of luck. Getting Gerrity to help Raskin get into the prison farm program was a risk. But Jake could not know who Shorty had called on, only that he had connections. Jake was the kind of guy who understood and appreciated connections.

Shorty wasn't just being kind. All of this was calculated to earn Jake's trust. So far, it didn't seem to be working. Shorty was no closer to completing his assignment than when he started. He still did not know which guards were in Jake's pay. He was going to have to come up with another plan.

                                                                                         ~~***~~

Jake thought about Shorty's offer of help for a moment. His instincts told him to develop that connection further but he decided to let it simmer for a while first. Jake had plenty of time to think. He wasn't going anywhere these days. He was sure that something would occur to him before the week was up.

He had started this project over four years ago with a simple idea; a walk in the woods. Shorty seemed like the ideal person for the role. And he was. He didn't attract much attention then. It was Raskin's Plan that really revived the project. Now people were starting to take notice. Jake would have to think about this carefully. Maybe he should shut the project down. It wasn't like it was bringing in a bunch of cash.

Exposing Shorty as an undercover cop might kill the whole thing. He wasn't sure he wanted to do that yet. It might be better to string the readers along. There were certainly more stories to tell. He decided to keep the first four paragraphs in place for now and wait to see what the next prompt brought.

Jake followed his careful routine of saving his story, erasing his browser history and shutting down the computer. It was not likely that any of the guards would have the smarts, or the ambition, to try to track what he was doing, but Jake didn't take chances. No one here needed to know that he was writing on Wattpad. When everything had shut down, he signaled the correction officer to return to his cell.