A City Without an Owner

“You thought they were buying beds?” Tang told the livestream. “No. They bought your choices with them.” Gu finally appeared on the glass bridge at Skyvault's highest level, private guards behind him. “Lin Yan, you can break the doors. Without me, thirty thousand people cannot even start the purification system.” “That's why I brought the people who actually built it.” Behind Lin, workers raised their phones. The chief engineer, pump electricians, ventilation foreman, cafeteria cooks—the people absent from the residency list knew every pipe in the city. The Echo Node divided the plans into public assignments anyone could claim. The outer pumps restarted in twenty minutes. The hospital controlled the medical level in forty-three.