Chapter Five: The Yesterday They Collected

“Who agreed to have it taken?” “The signatories one hundred and twenty-seven years ago.” “They consented for millions of people?” “You now understand Covenant politics.” Su Mi stopped before a vessel labeled with her name. SU MI, AGE TWENTY-FOUR—FIRST MEETING WITH LIN JIANYUE—ONE HOUR, SEVENTEEN MINUTES—PENDING COLLECTION. “That's why you can't remember where we met,” she said. Jianyue closed a hand around the camera in her pocket. The memory her ability had removed had not vanished. It had been routed here. “Time erased by the Blank flows into the Covenant,” Shang Xian said. “Your camera merely makes the collection precise.” “Lin Zhou knew?” “He formulated the silver salts.” A perfectly true answer could still cut like a knife.