Page 106 of Raven

“It’s Port Mrei,” Bishop says.

I can see that. What I’m seeing is that out of the thirty cameras we have in the town itself, only ten or so are lit up. The rest are blank. The live ones show people everywhere. It’s barely light outside, pouring, but the chaos on Port Mrei streets is unmistakable.

First, it looks like an emergency. Maybe the hurricane wiped away the houses, and people are scrambling. The cameras are still in night mode, so it’s hard to say.

Then another camera flickers off.

And another.

“Fuck,” someone murmurs.

I step closer and study one of the screens. There are men. And the chaos is not the desperate crowd of people. No. This is a different scenario, a mob.

“It’s a riot,” I say the obvious.

“Oh, it’s not just a riot,” Ortiz says. “Show him the footage from four hours ago.”

The cyber operations specialist points at the biggest screen, and I see a building on 6th Street, the unmistakable fence of the local jail. A group of people approaches the gates. They walk in. The video fast forwards to dozens of people pouring out of those gates twenty minutes later.

“There was no explosion or anything. How did they get out?” I ask, turning to look at Marlow, then Bishop and Ortiz, who grimly stare at the cameras.

Archer is the one who speaks. “They were let out. Butcher released the prisoners.”

“Just like that.”

“I suppose, yes.”

Another camera feed goes blank. “Wait,” Ortiz says, “rewind that feed, the one that just went off.”

The IT guy replays the last thirty seconds in slow motion. And that’s when I realize that the person standing in front of the camera is not a man. It’s a kid. A little one, only ten or so. He swings his arm, and for a second before the camera goes off, it gets really bright.

“What the actual fuck?” Marlow murmurs.

“Kids”

“What?”

“Fuck,” Bishop says. “It’s kids killing the cameras with some sort of explosives. Rewind it again.”

Marlow’s radio beeps, and the guard passes on the message that the luxury cars that no one bothered to clear for the hurricane at the East Entrance to Ayana are blown up.

“Fuck,” Marlow curses. “How did they get to the East Entrance?”

Archer ruffles his hair as Marlow snaps into the radio. “How did they get to the East Entrance unnoticed?”

Ortiz snaps his fingers at the IT guy. “Pull up the East Entrance cameras.”

And sure enough, they are blank.

“Fuck!” Marlow snaps.

While the IT guys rewind the Port Mrei cameras, we realize one horrific truth.

“Most of the cameras were knocked down by kids,” Ortiz says the verdict.

“Kids are in on it?” one of the IT guys asks.

“They wouldn’t know where all the cameras are. That means they were trained.”

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