Page 110 of Stay Scared

Owen exhales through his nose.

“A record player.”

That one surprises me.

“You own records?”

“I own four.”

“What kind?”

“They came with the record player.”

“Which four?”

“I’m not answering that.”

I laugh again. “You’re embarrassed.”

“I have supplied enough material.”

“You stalked me for months. Your standards for enough are broken.”

The corner of his mouth finally lifts.

It changes his whole face.

I have seen Owen focused, angry, hungry, suspicious, and controlled so tightly that emotion had to find smaller exits.

I have never seen him look sheepish.

I like it more than I should.

I want the names of the records now. I want to know which camera he destroys when he can’t sleep, what tea he orders at Halden, and whether he has ever laughed hard enough at someone falling down to lose that careful control completely.

None of it helps us find Rook.

None of it belongs in an archive.

It belongs to a conversation Owen had to participate in.

The deletion counter reaches the final hundred files.

His thumb starts rubbing the side of his finger again.

This time, I say nothing.

I simply notice.

The extraction continues beside the deletion queue.

07:16.

Mark remains alive.

Owen opens another control panel. “There is a clean local camera layer beneath Rook’s copy.”

“What does that give us?”