Chapter Three: Three Hundred Thousand Is Not Hush Money

It was not murder. That was more frightening. Zero had not analyzed an assassination plan. It remembered the accident. Su sat on the floor, breathing hard but watching him closely. “You knew.” “I saw the car.” “There were two vans outside the glass. The sedan came from a blind angle. You couldn't have seen it before I did.” Chen did not answer. The interface unfolded across his blood-tinted vision. [CRITICAL NODE ALTERED.] [MEMORY CONSISTENCY: 99.997%→93.412%.] [WARNING: EACH USE OF FUTURE INFORMATION REDUCES THE RELIABILITY OF SUBSEQUENT MEMORIES.] Foreknowledge was not an inexhaustible advantage. Changing the future meant burning the map. “Are we still going to the four o'clock meeting?” Su asked. “You nearly died.”