The new scanner was bolted to a steel plate at the end of the barricade, with a camera mounted above it and a green light that swept the lane from left to right.

“It holds the number six seconds,” Dewitt said.

“Long enough for me to read it and long enough for the camera to catch it.”

I took the brass clip out of my jacket and clipped the paper backup sheet to the tablet frame.

“Scanner goes down, this goes up.

Keep them together.”

“Every shift?”

“Every shift.” I stepped back into the sun.