He didn't know if he was the filmer or the next scene in the pack. But he knew one thing: he was going to make sure the last thing that hard drive ever recorded was the janitor’s surprised face, right before the water tower trestle claimed its first real victim.
The man’s smile widened. “See? A virtuoso.”
He cut the zip ties with a small knife. “The first spot is the water tower trestle on 7th Street. A thirty-foot drop to a chain-link fence. It’s never been landed. We’ll have a cleanup crew for the aftermath, of course. All you have to do is hold the camera steady. Capture the beauty of the fracture.”
“What the hell is this?” Leo rasped, straining against the ties.
Leo looked from the camera to the man’s dead eyes. He realized the truth. This wasn't a torture dungeon. It was a production studio. And his only way out was to make the most horriring masterpiece of his life.
He turned the tablet around. On the screen was a dark, searchable archive. The folder names were clinical: Subway_Grind_08 , Rooftop_Gap_22 , Handrail_Fail_15 . But next to each file was a timestamp and a word Leo didn’t expect: Terminal.
“Mickey was our last artist,” the janitor said. “But his framing was sloppy. Too much headroom. You, Leo, are a virtuoso.”