Chapter Two: Reality Has No Such Frame

Radiant appeared in footage from every angle: holding the truck, climbing from beneath the bridge, turning her face toward a dashboard camera just before she vanished. Her face was identical to Lin's. “NOT SPECIAL EFFECTS” reached the trending list. The sponsor denied involvement, then half an hour later suggested it might be “immersive urban marketing.” They called Lin seventeen times. She answered none of them. Shen examined his files. The rescue matched the abnormal photographs from the studio almost exactly, down to the cracks in the truck's windshield. But a blurred white patch had appeared at the lower right corner of each new image, as if an eraser were working from behind the picture. In frame seven, the patch touched Radiant's cape.