Chapter Five: I Wasn't Buying Time

Gu Ning's medicine was forty kilometers away. The storm had paralyzed the city; the fastest route took two hours and forty-seven minutes. Lin placed a Time Coin in the trade window: buy one hour so the delivery vehicle arrives sooner. [Waiting bearer must be specified.] A school bus carrying thirty-two children turned red on the map. If Lin confirmed, its hour would be spent trapped in a flooding tunnel. “They are strangers,” Bai Qi whispered through the computer. “You need never know.” Lin canceled. He asked traffic police for an emergency corridor while Tang recruited volunteers. Twelve minutes later, 5,600 people agreed to bear less than a second each. The coin activated.