The Man the City Swallowed

They needed a story that made all the pieces fit. Police lights rolled in from the distance. More boots echoed over the bridge. Someone was already filming. Red dots from phone cameras lit up in the rain like a row of indifferent eyes. Maria backed away in panic, repeating, it wasn't him, it wasn't him. No one listened. Ethan saw live-stream overlays. He saw a phone pointed at his face, grease and blood smeared across it, and comments flooding the screen before the stream even finished buffering. He saw the title change in real time to something like suspect in north ring terror blast. He even saw a reporter's body position carefully blocking the damaged hatch, as if someone had coached her where to stand. "Down!" somebody shouted.