Chapter Three: The Back of the City

The metal grip fitted Shen's palm with terrifying familiarity. Two nearly worn-away words were engraved beneath the body: FIXED FOCUS. A broken image stabbed into his mind. Seven years ago, hundreds of people looked up at him in a subway tunnel. He stood before a derailed train, framing the whole collapsing passage. Beyond the white light, someone shouted his title. Shen pressed the shutter with his own hand and cut that name from everyone's memory. The vision vanished. “I've been there before,” he said. Gu blocked a lunging Hound. A crack opened in her film lamp. “You didn't visit it.” For the first time, grief showed in her eyes. “You photographed half that city into existence.” Shen jumped into the developer tray.