All day Zeitoun made it his business to sit by the bars, waving a napkin, pleading with the guards to grant him a call. The guards seemed to relish concocting variations of their denials. “Phone’s broken,” they would say. “Not today.” “Lines are down.” “Maybe tomorrow.” “What’ll you do for me?” “Not my problem. You’re not our prisoner.” This was the first but not the last time Zeitoun would hear this. He had not been processed in a traditional way, and was not assigned to Hunt for the long term. Therefore he was not technically a Hunt prisoner, and so was not bound by the institution’s
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