Chapter 6 - The Green Light
The repair crew came on a Wednesday.
Nothing about it looked secret.
That was the point.
Two technicians pushed ladders through the dining hall, replaced wiring, tested monitors, and complained loudly about old equipment.
Lucia watched from across the room.
Ana watched Lucia.
By dinner, the camera above Table Seven was working.
But its green indicator had been covered with a tiny strip of dark tape.
From the floor, it still looked dead.
Only four people knew the truth: Warden Keller, Investigator Shaw, one technician, and Ana.
“Why tell me?” Ana asked during a confidential meeting.
Shaw folded her hands. “Because you sit in that dining hall every day, and I don’t want you doing something stupid because you think we aren’t watching.”
“I’m not going to bait her.”
“Good.”
Ana meant it.
Then Renee’s commissary money disappeared.
The prison system showed a purchase Renee had never made: thirty dollars in coffee, candy, deodorant, and stamps.
“That’s impossible,” Renee said. “I was in medical when commissary came.”
Ana checked the receipt.
The signature was a bad imitation.
Renee shook her head. “If I report this, she’ll know.”
“She already knows you don’t want to pay.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“Because right now she thinks I’m scared.”
“You are scared.”
“I need her to keep thinking that.”
Ana understood the logic.
She hated it anyway.
At dinner, Lucia walked past Renee’s table and dropped a sealed coffee packet onto her tray.
“Thanks,” Lucia said.
Renee’s eyes filled with tears.
Ana stood.
Lucia stopped.
For one dangerous second, the room seemed to shrink around them.
Ana remembered Shaw’s warning.
Do not provoke Vega.
So Ana did not say a word.
She picked up her tray, crossed the room, and sat somewhere else.
Lucia laughed.
“Smart girl.”
Ana kept eating.
But she had chosen a seat with a clear line to Table Seven.
Lucia never noticed the small green glow that appeared for half a second when the technician removed the tape remotely during a test.
Ana did.
So did Phelps.
His face changed.
May you like
He excused himself from the dining hall and hurried toward the staff corridor.
Thirty seconds later, the camera feed cut to black.
