“Other ways that a kid could get access to, though?” She asked. She’d witnessed a few adults using guard towers as an alternate escape route, but never any kids. Rappelling or using a ladder to get down over the wall would likely result in death or serious injury if a kid tried it and didn’t know what he or she was doing. She shrugged a shoulder, again respecting the alternate opinion. It would’ve been easy enough to admit that she was one of those people who thought she could do anything, but she didn’t. “It’s an idea. And it’s your call, in the end.”
Jackie rubbed at an itch on her jaw, her thoughts going to the boy in question. “It’s like I said, boss. Some kids need a better way of channeling their aggression. A class might give him and kids like him a better way of handling themselves. Maybe he won’t bully the other kids as much.” She’d had a lot of experience with bullies, both firsthand and witnessed. “It’d also give the kids he tries to bully a better means of defending themselves against it.” It was Jackie’s turn to shrug. “My opinion, this is more a parent thing than a leadership thing. If a parent wants her kid to learn to defend himself, it ain’t leadership’s business unless that kid tries to pummel the other kids.”
Jackie could see the good in Evan’s intentions, but she didn’t fully support it. Given that they’d had a murderer living among them, as well as a suicide-bomber, this place wasn’t close enough to being a safe haven. “If that’s your goal, maybe you should come up with a better screening process for who you let in.” Spoken in an even tone, but it no less meant that she didn’t approve of how leadership handled most matters. It was an advisement, though, rather than an attack. She didn’t personally have anything against Evan, but many of leadership’s decisions were questionable. She’d known the first murder victim that had been found back in August. He’d thought this place was a safe haven, too.
“My fun side’s always out,” she responded with a laugh. “But they definitely do, yeah. It’s awesome that they’ve got room to run around now. Some of the kids were a little underdeveloped when they got here, ‘cause they couldn’t exactly do a whole lot of running or exercise like that in most of the safehouses.” It was sad, really. Many parents had been too overcome with fear to let their kids have proper fun and exercise.
She nodded. “We got Holloway working on a way to hook the network up to the warehouse, in case of emergencies and shit like that,” she informed him. “So people can still keep in touch with us. Talia’s idea.” Jackie might’ve thought of it eventually, but it was probably definitely a good thing that someone else had thought of it first. Who knows what might’ve happened if there’d been an emergency at the lab and no one could get in contact with anyone at Sing Sing?
Smirking when he took one of the lighter loads, Jackie looked at him when he spoke up again. “Basically what I just said, boss. Extra precautions, especially since she’s not immune. The closest she’s getting to those corpses is the observation cameras, and those are in two completely different parts of the warehouse.” Her lips twitched into an expression of understanding. “We’ve all taken a lot of hits in the past year. So, yeah, extra precautions. Take it from someone whose job used to be to keep people safe. Trust me.”