Chapter Three: The Back of the City

The municipal archive closed at ten-thirty. When they arrived, the night notice was already taped to the glass doors. Shen gave a guard the number from the tin. After one phone call, a woman in a gray work coat came down in the elevator. She looked about fifty, silver threaded through her short hair. Her badge read GU MIAN — IMAGE RESTORATION. “Seven years later than last time,” she said. Gu led them to the second basement. Thousands of metal drawers filled the climate-controlled vault, each marked with a year and an event. Only the deepest row had no labels. She took the black sheet left by the faceless creature and placed it on a light table.