Chapter 7: B: Rooftop Transmitter

👉 [Previous Decision]: You chose Option B – Use Marcus’s access to broadcast the document live from the roof tower.

“We need to go live with this,” I told Marcus, holding up the letter. “From the highest point possible, to hit every antenna in the city.”

Marcus nodded, his jaw set. “The old radio tower on the roof. It hasn’t been used in decades, but I can get the power rerouted. We can use your podcast equipment as a rogue transmitter.”

Under the cloak of darkness, we ascended the narrow, metal stairs to the brownstone’s rooftop. The Albany skyline stretched out before us, lights twinkling. The skeletal radio tower loomed against the night sky.

Marcus worked quickly, bypassing the main electrical panel, rerouting power to the old tower. I set up my compact podcast mixer, connecting it to the tower’s antique wiring, carefully taping the letter to the microphone stand.

“Ready?” Marcus whispered, his hand on the final switch.

“Ready,” I replied, my finger hovering over the broadcast button. This would expose everything, detonate the Pendelton empire from within.

Just as I pressed the button, the city lights around us flickered, then died. Not just the brownstone, but the entire district. Darkness swallowed Albany.

“What’s happening?” I muttered, fumbling for my phone, but there was no signal.

From the street below, I heard sirens wail, then quickly fade into silence. Car alarms, momentarily triggered, also died. Evelyn Pendelton, City Zoning Chair, had cut the power to the whole district.

Footsteps clanged on the metal stairs leading to the roof. Heavy, quick footsteps.

“Arthur’s men,” Marcus breathed, his eyes wide with alarm in the sudden, oppressive darkness. “They knew. Evelyn shut us down.”

A blinding flashlight beam cut through the black, pinning us. Then another. And another. Six hulking figures, indistinguishable in the pitch black, advanced towards us. We were trapped on the rooftop, exposed, our broadcast aborted.

“You really thought it would be that easy, Mr. Kross?” Arthur Pendelton’s voice, calm and chilling, carried from the darkness. “My sister has eyes and ears everywhere.”