Chapter Five: Names on a Rope

Lin remembered an empty seat and remembered Su speaking of a patient, but the man's face was gone. The closure protocol had completed a deletion whose cause appeared to follow its effect. "Ma Wen," she said, writing it on the tape over her arm. "Heat-exchanger technician. Taken, not nonexistent." The full route appeared: descend Shaft Eight, go north four hundred meters, open Lung Gate. Beside it glowed a requirement—no fewer than three hundred original-resident permissions. "There are six of us," Batu said. "Six thousand above," Zhou replied. "The archive's six thousand may not count," A-Ying said. They entered Shaft Eight as demolition charges sounded closer. Its lift was gone, leaving a maintenance ladder spiraling down the wall.