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I feel… efficient. Sometimes the efficiency stings.

CELLMATE:

Like?

SHAE:

Like recognizing the exact minute a woman with a mic will choose me over the truth she suspects.

CELLMATE:

Who?

SHAE:

Pick one.

CELLMATE:

Why me, then? Why tell me this?

SHAE:

Because you’re useful.

[End clip.]

Clip 9 — Medical, 6:58 a.m. (hall cam mic)

[Ambience: gurney squeak, a blood-pressure cuff hisses.]

NURSE (off):

You should’ve told someone you hit your head.

SHAE (winces prettily):

I didn’t want to be a bother.

GUARD (same cadence as before, lower):

She’s brave like that.

NURSE:

Brave isn’t the word. Foolish is.

SHAE:

It’s okay. I’m used to pain.

NURSE:

You don’t get extra points for that.

SHAE:

No, but I get airtime.