The Man the City Swallowed

Then bullets snapped off the railing behind him, spraying sparks into the rain. Ethan shoved Maria behind a drainage lip and turned toward the sound before he had time to think. The ring in his ears surged again, the world splitting into two. He braced himself against the wall and laid a palm on the cold steel. More echo memories came up. Not noise. A sequence. He could see the four men leaving the hatch moments earlier, see the bomb container shoved into a refuse bag, see the planted figure under the bridge lights, see the camera angle arranged to make a body look guilty. The silhouette was not him. Not exactly. Hat, similar build, wrong light. He was being framed.