Page 69 of Stay Scared

He steps beside the technician. “Someone physically bridged the local circuit.”

Ash looks at him, glances once at Owen’s mouth, then turns to the monitor. “Could it reach this system?”

“It reached the maze. Assume it can reach anything connected to the attraction.”

Ash moves beside him. The space between the two men is narrow enough that their shoulders nearly touch.

The technician stops working.

Ash turns to the master panel. “Shut down every attraction circuit.”

The technician hesitates. “If we kill power now, powered locks could stay engaged.”

“Release the mechanical safeties first.”

“The network reports them released.”

“The network is compromised.”

Ash opens the protective cover over a large switch. “Send people to every occupied section with manual keys and bolt cutters. Nobody performs another scene.”

The technician reaches for the hardline phone.

Ash grips the shutdown handle, looks at me once, and pulls it.

“Complete operator shutdown.”

The handle comes down.

Chapter 11

Nothing changes when Ash pulls the shutdown handle.

The backup control room stays under hard white light. Error messages continue moving across the monitors, red lock icons cover the system map, and somewhere above us, slowed carnival music keeps dragging through the building. Ash holds the handle down another second before releasing it.

“That shutdown should have killed every attraction circuit.”

Owen studies the map. “It didn’t.”

The obvious part does not need saying. The less obvious part settles colder. The system is not simply failing. Something is keeping it alive.

Ash reaches for the microphone built into the console. “House lights. Medical emergency. Initiate full property response.”

COMMAND ACCEPTED appears beside the microphone, but the building ignores him. The music continues.

Ash stares at the confirmation until a radio on the desk crackles to life beneath a wash of static.

“I found an aid room near the north warehouse,” Cade says. “Evan’s conscious, but the damn exterior door won’t open.”

Ash grabs the radio. “Is a medic with you?”

“One made it through the west route.”

“Can they stabilize him?”

“They’re working on it.”

“When he’s stable, report to main control.”