Page 102 of Stay Scared

“The surveillance room holds active material. This one stores raw files and an isolated mirror.”

“You hid part of the network from Ash.”

Owen opens the maintenance door. “I hid part of everything from Ash.”

Ash’s expression hardens. “Your commitment to secrecy can wait. Mark cannot.”

Owen looks at him once. “I assumed you already had a working diagnosis.”

Cade gives a quiet snort.

Ash points toward the corridor. “Move before the two of you become unbearable.”

The passage slopes beneath the original arcade foundation, narrowing around drainage pipes and cable trays. Several lines have been ripped from their brackets, leaving black insulation curled across the concrete.

At the end waits a door with no handle and a small lens near its upper corner.

Owen looks into it.

The lock releases.

“Retinal recognition?” I ask.

“Older pattern reader.”

“You gave the building your eyes.”

“I gave it enough data to recognize them.”

“I dislike that more.”

Cold air spills from the room when he opens the door.

Server racks occupy one wall, their status indicators moving in uneven patterns. A long desk faces several monitors. Metal cabinets fill the rear alcove, and a portable camera rests on a tripod beside a calibration screen.

Plain white fixtures expose everything.

Ash crosses directly to the central terminal. “Can you reach the theater from here?”

“I can extract the original mechanical plans from the isolated mirror,” Owen says. “Verification requires eleven uninterrupted minutes.”

He wakes a monitor.

Mark appears beneath the torn theater screen. One wrist remains bound. His head stays upright, and his eyes track Rook somewhere outside the frame.

The countdown above him reads 03:38:24.

“Rook hasn’t moved him.”

“That doesn’t make him safe.”

“It means his position is unchanged. The extraction still needs eleven uninterrupted minutes. If I interrupt it, the process restarts.”

He inserts a small drive.

VERIFIED EXTRACTION: 11:00.

The countdown begins.