Chapter 36: Hands behind the mask

********

The room had no windows, and it had never needed any.

Screens lined the far wall in a shallow arc, each one holding a slice of the same night. A corridor in red light. A stairwell. A cargo bay thick with steam. The footage had been pulled, cleaned, and stitched into a single timeline, and a man in a black mask sat before it with his hands folded, watching Ghost Ship 308 die for the sixth time.

He was in no hurry. He had learned long ago that most people watch a disaster for the spectac