Chapter Three: Gu Yan Is Dead

“This isn't me,” he said. “You sound relieved.” “A contradiction is evidence.” At eleven, they entered Line Four's abandoned test station. B-04-09 led to backup platform nine; W-22-01 meant lock one on western maintenance door twenty-two. The blank card opened both, as if someone seven years ago had known Gu Yan would arrive tonight. There were no tracks at the platform's end, only a gray wall. Behind it came the low rhythm of cooling fans. Thermal imaging revealed four rectangular heat sources. One pulsed every thirteen seconds. “A CityScope node,” Ye Ning said. “A mirror node. They wouldn't put the true core in an abandoned station.”