Page 72 of Stay Scared

Nothing.

Trailer Six is gone from the map, and his expression answers before he does.

The door behind us opens.

Cade enters wearing the skull mask. Blood covers one forearm and has dried dark around the straps of his vest.

“Evan’s with the medic. The aid-room door locked behind me when I left.”

Ash turns toward him. “Can they open it from inside?”

“Manual release is dead.”

“Other staff?”

“Didn’t see anybody.”

That gives us the same answer twice. Main control is empty. The route Cade crossed is empty. Whatever moved the staff did not only clear one room.

Cade looks at me, checks my face, then the shoulder the maze compressed.

“What happened?”

“The walls activated while the maze was in maintenance mode,” Owen says. “I got her through the moving section.”

The skull turns toward him. “She use the signal?”

“She did not.”

Cade looks at me again, then at Owen’s white mask clipped to his belt. The blood on Cade’s arm and the empty control room leave no room for the argument trying to happen anyway.

Every monitor goes black, and all six of us stop.

Then the fourth mask fills the screens.

The beak is closer than it was inside Owen’s altered loop. Scratches mark the surface near one temple, and the hood behind it disappears into darkness. A heavy curtain hangs behind him.

Ash reaches for the microphone.

The man raises one finger, the same gesture he used in the storage room.

Ash stops with his hand over the control. A speaker above the console activates.

“Director Langston.”

Electronic distortion covers most of the voice, though not all of it.

Ash presses the communication switch. “Release my staff.”

The beaked mask tilts.

“Your staff already did exactly what they were told.”

“Whose instructions?”

“Instructions carrying your authority.”

A second monitor changes.