Page 143 of Stay Scared

I turn toward Owen. “Can you put me on his stream?”

Owen looks up sharply. “Rook controls the outgoing encoder.”

“I asked whether you can get me onto it.”

He looks back at the relay. “There is a projection transmitter downstream from his encoder. I could insert a local source after his edit.”

“Could he edit me before it goes out?”

“Not the insertion itself. He could terminate the entire uplink.”

“Then that works.”

Cade comes toward me. “What the hell are you planning?”

“Something he didn’t.”

“That tells me fucking nothing.”

“It’s what you’re getting.”

His hand starts toward me, then curls at his side instead. “What do you need?”

The question lands harder than any argument about getting me outside.

I point toward the projection door. “Nothing closes that door.”

Cade looks at the frame, then at me. “I can do that.”

He moves into the doorway and braces himself so any mechanism trying to seal it has to go through him first.

I turn toward Owen. “Build the connection. Nothing gets stored locally.”

He opens a manual camera case beneath the transmitter. Inside is a compact camera with a wired switch and a physical lens cover.

“No wireless control. No local storage unless we enable it.”

“Use it.”

Owen mounts the camera beside the projection window and connects the outgoing cable. Then he steps back.

I look at Ash. He watches me without blinking.

“If I need information about the perimeter, you answer me. Nothing else.”

“You are taking control of the broadcast.”

“I’m taking enough of it to stop police from dropping that curtain on Mark.”

“You do not know how many people are watching.”

“Enough of them are watching.”

My founder key comes out from beneath my shirt. I put it on the console beside the camera. Ash watches the steel hit the metal surface.

“You carry that when we leave.”

“I will.”