Chapter Five: Names on a Rope

Su Mi arrived in a medical transport. It crashed outside Station Seven. When the rear hatch opened, she was pressing one hand to a cut on her forehead and aiming a shock wand with the other. There was no driver, but the navigation system insisted the vehicle carried two occupants. "I helped a patient escape Medical," she said. "The system corrected itself halfway down. Suddenly I was bandaging an empty seat." She still had the man's paper wristband. Ma Wen, heat-exchanger technician. Lin added his name to the ledger. Su examined their neural interfaces and taped insulation over every synchronization port. "It will slow a rewrite, not stop one. Fear makes us trust the blank in our minds more than a stranger's handwriting."