Chapter Four: The Whole World Lined Up to Fool Him

"Hey," she called. "Your mother left more than a verification code." She looked nineteen, with grease beneath her nails, and introduced herself as A-Yao, owner of a failing electronics repair stall. She inserted the drone's memory card into a cracked tablet. Whenever the Protocol's numbers changed in the stolen footage, invisible pulses crossed the image. "Not a damaged screen. A watermark." She converted the flashes into text. Beneath ZERO-0719-LAN appeared: [HARBOR 4 / ROUTE 0719 / DO NOT TRUST THE RANKING] Harbor Four. Route 0719. It was the route Lin had marked on a paper map for his mother the night she vanished. "Why help me?" he asked. "I'm not helping. I'm charging you." "How much?"