Chapter Three: One Crate of Medicine Buys a City

Gu offered him a contract. “Work with me. I give you resources; you retrieve the remaining Shards. After twelve cycles, we stop the world on its most perfect day.” “Perfect for whom?” “Those who survive.” “And those who die?” “They return next cycle.” Lin remembered the blood on Su's hands. Death could be reversed. Pain had still happened; its victims were simply denied the right to remember it. “You don't want to stop the resets.” Lin pushed the contract back. “You want to be the only man with a button.” Gu did not become angry. “Refuse me, and you won't keep the Shard—or the doctor.” Glass shattered upstairs. Four men in black cut the lights and rushed toward the temporary clinic. Lin pressed a remote.