Page 48 of White Noise

Saga frowns.

There’s a note attached.

VOIDKING88: No expectations. You don’t even have to perform. Figured you might want something normal. I’ll pay your minimum and makeup for you missing tonights stream.

That word again.

Normal.

Saga stares at it longer than I like.

She’s exhausted. Half her security system is useless, her hand still hurts, and she keeps glancing toward dark screens because she knows better than to assume I’m gone.

I expect her to decline.

Instead, she rubs both hands over her face.

“I need to replace half this shit anyway.”

Bullshit.

The money isn’t why she’s considering it.

She wants something familiar after me.

Something predictable.

She needs to prove she can turn a camera on tomorrow and still decide who gets access to her. That I didn’t take VioletHex away from her just because I stepped out of the signal and showed her how easily I could get inside everything she thought belonged only to her.

Marcus has spent years making himself perfect for exactly that moment.

I look through his bedroom camera again.

The doll stares back.

My irritation settles into something much cleaner.

I could kill the request.

Crash the platform.

Wipe his account.

Turn every device in his apartment into melted plastic before Saga finishes thinking about it.

Instead, I wait.

Her finger hovers over ACCEPT.

I could stop her.

I don’t.

She taps the screen.

PRIVATE SESSION CONFIRMED — TOMORROW, 9:00 PM

Saga exhales slowly. “There. Normal.”