Number One Is Not One Person

“Without her cheat, she has only a twenty-nine-year-old’s reflexes.” Xu Cheng jumped from the tower and fired her last smoke grenade at Lin Zhou’s feet. “Wall seventeen steps east. Two behind it,” she said. “You taught me data doesn’t remember why we shoot. I’ll remember the map for you.” Smoke rose. Lin Zhou closed her eyes. She stopped searching for the perfect answer learned in the future and listened to Xu Cheng. “Three steps. Stop. Turn right.” Lin Zhou eliminated one enemy in the smoke, took his weapon, then used its report to bait another. Xu Cheng abandoned her preferred long-range perch and moved at Lin Zhou’s back. They played like two people seeing the arena for the first time, dismantling the clutch with the simplest spoken