Page 177 of Mason

Static replaces the screen. Then another monitor drops. Then another.

The prison is blacking out again.

We’re left with only one camera feed, which is not nearly enough.

I pull my phone and call the only person inside who matters right now.

It rings once.

Then clicks.

“Mason?” Nurse Wanda’s voice is tight. Rushed. “He’s here.”

“Talk to me,” I say.

“I got him into the laundry corridor. Just like we planned.” Her breathing is fast. “He’s already changed. Dressed in catering uniform. The van’s waiting at the south dock.”

“Security?”

“Too busy tearing apart the rec yard. No one’s watching the rear lot.”

Kanyan raises an eyebrow at me, already knowing what that means.

“Where are you?” I ask.

“I’m heading out the opposite way,” Wanda says. “I’ve got my badge. They think I’m evacuating staff. Place is about to blow.”

“Figuratively?” I ask.

“No,” she says. “Literally.”

Then I hear it.

In the distance, through her line?—

An explosion.

Deep. Low. Then another.

Smoke spills across the surviving camera feed. Fire licks the edge of the screen before it cuts to black.

“She’s out,” Brando says, phone pressed to his ear. “Van’s on the move.”

“ETA?” Scar finally speaks.

“Forty minutes,” Kanyan replies. “Safe house is ready.”

“Let’s move.” I turn and head for the door, blood still drying under my sleeves. “We meet him face to face.”

Brando tosses his burner phone on the table and follows. Kanyan’s already in motion.

Scar doesn’t say another word.

But the look in his eyes says it all.

Ghost is free.

And tonight, we just burned a prison to the ground to make it happen.

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