Chapter Four: The White Ward

“Then I'll help you look.” Tang Guo entered and slapped a printout onto his blanket. A device number recovered from fibers along the torn edge belonged to an internal municipal data project: SKYWEB. At the bottom was a deleted system log she had restored: SUBJECT: LU CHEN. COMPLIANCE: 72%. His temperature had fallen to thirty-four degrees Celsius, but the silver mark on his wrist burned. He closed his eyes and, for the first time, heard an old voice directly inside his head. “The eighth person was an error you should never have saved.”