Chapter 27: The Bird Was Not Qualified

Posey held Dante’s hand as Senn ordered the case down. He imagined kicking his stolen voice into silence. Impressive, except for the possibility of breaking evidence and his foot. He asked the technician where to stand while Anika drew them back.

"Please don’t answer it," Posey said, looking at him instead of the case. "I walked out with you, Dante, and I haven’t let you out of my sight." He managed to squeeze her hand without hurting his other one, although hearing himself tell her to leave him had made his stomach feel worse than the threat onstage.

The officer reached for the corridor door, then stopped before touching it. White light spread across its wired-glass window and sealed the edges of the frame. Senn ordered everyone back into the store, and Dante helped Posey turn in the narrow passage while Anika made room for the technician to retrieve her case.

They returned the way they had come, stopping beside the shelves instead of crowding the control-room entrance. From there Dante could see Professor Vale in the connecting doorway, but the stage was hidden beyond the wall. Senn told her the corridor exit had been blocked, then pointed the officer toward the loading door on the far side of the store.

Professor Vale passed the news to Professor Bell and held the connecting door open. Professor Bell called for them to stay beside the shelves, his voice strained enough that Dante stopped wondering whether the professor had everything under control. A moment later, three hooked lines appeared across the store entrance and a clear shield stretched along the path toward the loading door.

The shadow bird reached the shelf before the shield settled. "Your owner could use help, unless you’re only qualified to look ominous," Dante murmured. It pecked the shelf. He couldn’t reasonably criticize the career choice while sharing several of its qualifications.

The technician put her case on a clear shelf with Senn beside her and told everyone else to stay back. She opened the lid slowly, revealing the recorder and the card still inside its separate sleeve. A small light blinked beneath the recorder’s casing even though its power cable lay loose beside it.

"That wasn’t recorded. Give me something new." Senn supplied a number, and Dante read it. The recorder repeated him. Good, a test he understood: he knew his own material, and he hadn’t spent years rehearsing random numbers.

"The light came on before it spoke," Dante said, pointing with his elbow because Posey still had his good hand. The technician asked Senn for another number, then watched while Dante repeated it. This time she had the recorder tilted toward her, and she saw the same light blink beneath its cover.

She asked Senn to keep everyone back while she opened the recorder’s service panel with a tool from her belt pouch. A small receiver had been connected inside, where it hadn’t been visible during playback. She showed Senn the extra wires before disconnecting them with insulated grips, and the light went out halfway through Dante’s stolen voice repeating the number.

Senn photographed the disconnected receiver. The technician warned that stopping this speaker hadn’t explained how it heard them or powered the stage copy. Dante accepted the distinction. He would save the victory speech until the building stopped trying to retain its audience.

He asked whether speaking again could reconnect it, and the technician said the loose wires would stay separated while she checked. That was something he could understand without pretending to know the device. He kept his next observation quiet, asking Senn before testing anything else.

Finding one useful detail hadn’t made the recorder his to experiment with. He wanted to understand the answer well enough to explain it to Jett later, without adding powers the little receiver hadn’t actually demonstrated.

Posey asked how he’d noticed. He admitted rehearsing for years. "Then it wasn’t wasted," she said, brushing his hand. He had expected kindly disguised embarrassment. Instead, she had called his ridiculous hobby useful, and he wanted to believe her completely.

He squeezed her hand and made room for Anika returning from the loading door. He could keep enjoying his voice, even after someone stole it. The idea felt almost as good as discovering magic, with considerably fewer blisters.

Anika squeezed his shoulder, then reported that the loading door was locked. Dante enjoyed the touch until he understood the rest of her sentence, which was an unfair way to receive encouragement.

Professor Vale called from the connecting doorway that the control-room glass had cracked, but Professor Bell’s shield was holding the pieces back. Senn asked whether they could retreat, and she answered after checking with Professor Bell that the professor needed everyone at the loading exit first. Dante stayed beside Posey, where he could actually help her move.

The technician checked the supply plan posted beside the loading door while Professor Vale relayed security’s update from her phone. The main stage power was off, but a separate emergency line still fed the demonstration equipment. Dante asked whether that could be keeping the copy active, and the technician said it was something they could check, not permission for him to touch a cable.

"It’s labeled, not secret," the technician said about the emergency line. Dante apologized. He had expected a hidden weakness deserving a dramatic name. A switch would do, provided someone reached it before the professor’s shield failed.

Security confirmed they were approaching the stage equipment room. Professor Vale told them to wait for medical before disconnecting any unfamiliar feed, passing on Professor Bell’s warning about the support pads. Dante remembered Jett and stopped wishing they would simply pull everything loose.

Senn checked the evacuation plan beside the loading door. It opened onto a service landing, but its powered latch was linked to the stage panel. The officer looked through the viewing slit while Professor Vale asked the outside team to check the escape stair, keeping her phone in her hand as she moved from the connecting doorway toward them.

Dante asked whether they could break the lock. The officer told him to wait until he had checked the landing, and Dante moved Posey clear of the door. Anika rolled up her sleeves beside them. Another crash came from behind Professor Bell’s shield, making a few seconds of sensible caution feel horribly expensive.

The officer confirmed that the landing was clear and the escape stair was down. He pressed the loading-door release, and the latch clicked far enough for Dante to feel hope before it snapped shut again. A red LOCKED FROM STAGE light came on above the handle, leaving them with Professor Bell’s failing shield behind them and the last exit refusing to open.