Chapter 29: Somebody Else Paid for That

At the medical checkpoint outside the theater, Dante watched the feed junction through a responder’s camera on Professor Vale’s phone. Professor Bell stood beside him while the technician found the occupied-source number that the medical team needed to trace.

Professor Bell asked Dante to count the flashing pressure light aloud over the call. When the flashes quickened, Dante shortened his count until the technician heard, and her hand stopped above the connector before she warned the medic that disconnecting it now could hurt whoever was attached.

The number led the officers to an equipment room behind the theater, where they found a man strapped into a chair with a cable running from its base. Dante heard the report through Professor Vale’s phone and turned toward the service passage.

Dante started toward the service door, already imagining the rescue, until Professor Bell asked him to keep counting. Right, his actual assignment. Rhea stayed beside him, and he gave the technician the next flash rather than abandoning the one useful thing he’d been trusted to do.

The medic took an isolation frame into the room, and the technician explained over the call that it would support the patient while she disconnected the chair. Dante watched the junction through the responder’s camera until the frame was ready, then counted one last flash before the light faded.

Professor Vale requested a camera view of the stage, where the figure’s stolen face stretched smooth as its head lowered. The man connected to it emerged on a gurney moments later, awake behind thick glasses, with grease on his work shirt.

The man’s badge read Evan Rowe, contract technician. He gave his age as twenty-four when the medic asked, then apologized about the equipment readings. Dante told him he didn’t owe anyone an apology for being found strapped to a chair.

Evan went to medical while security sealed the rooms. Once the checks finished, Professor Vale took the group to a staff room. Dante accepted a chair that made no demands, beginning to appreciate that quality in university furniture.

Dante called Mom himself and explained that he hadn’t cast, his friends were out, and the person connected to the figure was alive. She asked about his breathing before threatening to visit with a frying pan, and he assured her that campus security had suffered enough for one afternoon.

Dante kept the call open while she asked whether he had eaten, because that ordinary question nearly undid him. He had watched his own face try to frighten Posey into leaving him, then helped count the flashes keeping a stranger trapped. Mom let him stumble through both parts before reminding him to drink the water in front of him. He did, holding the phone close enough to hear her kitchen tap.

Anika sat beside Dante after his call, her red hair damp around her pointed ears, and asked what he needed. He wanted Evan to know they were glad he’d made it out, so Posey helped draft a film invitation they could pass through staff when he felt ready.

Posey brought her chair closer to share the invitation. Dante deleted his hospital-food joke. Evan might want silence, so they saved it unsent. Planning a welcome had felt easier in his bedroom, where grateful followers never needed a quiet afternoon.

Senn returned after Evan agreed to a short account following treatment. He had accepted a paid equipment test, tried to leave and been threatened with a bill for damaged equipment through the room speaker, while his supervisor ignored his calls.

"Put the part where he asked to stop in the report," Dante said, remembering how quickly Jett had believed an official-sounding threat. Senn confirmed that he had, and Dante asked about the supplier’s original photograph before another conversation ended with nothing he could check.

By late afternoon, the supplier sent the original photograph Dante had requested, and Senn placed it beside the copy that had frightened him.

The original, dated Friday, showed a teaching figure with no face. Another picture showed Dante’s face and jacket fitted later. The frightening copy combined the finished figure with a false Thursday date. Someone had built the prediction out of photographs, and Dante had spent nights imagining what else they could see.

Dante crossed out the prediction and recorded the real dates. No glimpse of his destiny, just altered photographs. "I’d have preferred being too important for ordinary tricks," he admitted. Anika reminded him he’d requested the check. He allowed himself that victory.

He asked for copies of both pictures, then showed Posey the difference rather than handing her another frightening guess. She studied the blank face and rested her hand beside his on the table. "I’m glad you asked them to check," she said, and he moved his fingers against hers, wanting that small approval more than a room full of people admiring a lie.

The university ordered ordinary equipment; changes came through a broker. Payments and the speaker’s controller remained untraced. Dante kept his grand conspiracy on another page. One false prediction didn’t erase the people arranging it, but he would need more than an excellent title for them.

Professor Vale received confirmation that Jett’s false withdrawal had been corrected, and Anika called him before passing Dante the phone. Dante reported that they’d got Evan out without another spell, earning Jett’s offer of a medal for finally following instructions.

At the door, Dante asked Professor Bell for a practical goal. He refused to become famous only for escaping rooms. The professor proposed a supervised lift using his stopping notes, subject to medical approval. Dante wrote it down before anyone could reconsider.

"Something I can put down safely." Professor Bell asked what else he would watch. Dante listed his hand, breathing, and nearby people. He still wanted power, but successful demonstrations would be much easier to enjoy without wondering who needed a bed afterward.

Posey suggested Friday for their movie. Dante accepted and requested her neighboring seat before Jett offered himself as commentary. His friend’s understanding of tactical support remained deeply flawed, particularly when Dante finally had something resembling a romantic plan.

"Actually, I was hoping for a little less company," Posey said, watching Dante instead of Jett. Her knee rested against his under the table, and he forgot the fry halfway to his mouth. Jett offered to hire himself out as a locked door, while Dante told him this was the first useful service he’d advertised.

Later, Senn sent the broker’s collection address and asked Dante to check his saved messages for it. He found no match and reported that, then tried the address in his map without leaving his room. Tenswa returned nothing, and searching Blackwell was worse: the blue dot marking his location sat in an empty field, with no university or town anywhere around it.