Chapter Three: The Back of the City

The Erasure Hound on the light table swelled like black skin across the wall, then divided into a dozen faceless figures. Gu tore open a hatch in the floor. “They followed the negative. Go to the Back City and find Radiant's original image. As long as that one frame survives, the Redactor cannot finish consuming her.” Beneath the hatch was an old darkroom. A red safelight shone over a tray of developer, but its surface reflected not the ceiling but the night sky of the Back City. Lin jumped first. She passed through the liquid without a splash, sinking into it like a mirror. Shen raised his camera. The faceless figures had reached the ceiling. Gu held them back with her film lamp and threw him an old mechanical camera. “This was yours.”