Oryn Ashveil's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Oryn crouched over the signal-splitter in her hideout, cables spread across the floor. She ran the test one last time. The splitter hijacked one screen. Then it died. She tried a second feed. The first went dark. Her stomach dropped. The device could only seize one screen at a time. Tonight the regime aired the leader on every public screen at once. If one screen showed her proof while the rest stayed clean, the regime would cut the whole feed in seconds. One screen was not enough. She needed all of them. A knock came. Foss shuffled in, the vault clerk who filed secret copies of the regime's records. Sweat ran down his neck. He clutched his folder like always. "Finn made it into the vault," he said. "He has the file. But Oryn—the address starts in an hour." "The splitter can't do it," Oryn said. She showed him the dead cables. "One screen. That's all it takes. They cut the feed and we're done." Foss stared at the device. His inked fingers twitched. "The screens don't each pull their own signal," he said slowly. "I've seen the wiring logs. They all feed from one relay. One central line splits to every screen in Tremormaw." Oryn went still. "So if I hijack the relay itself—" "Every screen flips at once," Foss said. "But the relay isn't in your tower. It's a sealed building on the edge of the district. Layered panels. Antennas on the roof. Nobody walks in." Oryn grabbed the clerk uniform folded on her chair. She pulled it on over the jumpsuit, buttoned the stiff collar, cinched the belt. "Regime patrols wave clerks through," she said. "They won't stop one of their own." Foss shook his head. "The relay staff know each other's faces. You walk in cold, they call it in." "Then you walk in first." Oryn met his eyes. "You're regime. You clock in. I follow as your transfer." Foss's face went pale. "If they trace it back—" "They trace it back to your copies anyway," Oryn said. "You knew that when you brought the folder." He swallowed. He set the folder down and nodded once. They moved. An armored transport rolled past as they crossed to the relay building. Oryn kept her chin up, clerk's collar tight. Foss badged them through the outer door. Inside, she found the central console and spliced the splitter straight into the relay's main line. This time every test screen flickered together. All of them, at once. She locked the feed and cut Finn a signal to bring the file. Then boots hammered the corridor behind them. A relay worker had seen Foss's ghost badge flag in the log. Voices shouted for the door. Oryn had the relay. She had every screen. But now she was trapped inside the building, and the file wasn't in her hands yet.