[Flashback] The universe does not sing; it hisses

[Silen]

The number of pairs of eyes that turned to him from within the cells was unsettling. Silen had been told there was a single prisoner here: get them out, use the distraction caused at the other entrance by those who hired him, and leave before things got worse. Now, this was beyond any of his expectations. Whom, exactly, was he supposed to help here? He didn’t know, hadn’t a clue. And he was too short on time to figure it out.

A smiling face of an attractive woman caught his stare and even before Silen spotted the coils of her gorgeous tail, he already knew: he was talking to another naga. Was it her? Did it make sense to send one naga to help free another, trapped in this jail? Could be, could be not, and Silen could improvise. A louder, rougher voice of a human male broke in with an answer.

"Roger," the snakeling responded, breaking his gaze from the girl. "Prepare the others, stay steady". He nodded to the man and quickly slithered forward.

The alarm was pounding already, and as he checked the corner, Silen spotted a man rushing from a side door with a WC sign, trying to zip his pants while running. The guy only had a guard's baton on his belt, and he headed toward the existing entrance down the corridor. He faltered, failing to use a code lock on the first attempt, providing an extra second for Silen to reach him at the same moment as the green light flashed. The man yelled and tried to pull his baton out as Silen grappled him and opened the door, using him as a living shield.

The control room was empty. Equipped with a control panel and a cluster of old, inoperative surveillance monitors, it looked messy with pizza boxes and beer cans piled in corners.

"Open the cells and leave unharmed," Silen proposed, but the guard swore, trying to wrestle free from the grapple.

"You're a goner, worm," he hissed, sounding as if he were a snake himself, while Silen dragged him toward the panel. It wasn't too big, but Silen was bad at reading, and most of the writings looked worn. Still, he spotted that the man was trying to pull himself away from a big black rotary lever.

"This?" he asked, dropping a loop of his tail over the man's neck and strangling him down. Humans are fragile, a little pressure was all it took to drop one unconscious. As he turned the switch, a clear clank sounded in every cell, signaling the doors unlocking.