Chapter Two: Person Not Found

You have to cover me from the bottom upward.” Something shifted in her eyes. “The gate and database are lowest. Ye knew only my badge, so she forgot first. Jian knew me personally; he’s higher. Su Qiao—” He turned. Su Qiao was staring at his diagram as though it were a stranger’s unfinished suicide note. “Su Qiao is the top layer,” Bai Mi finished. “For now.” Gu Yan shoved a stack of catalogs from the desk. Instead of falling vertically, they slid through the air along an invisible diagonal, curved around Bai Mi’s foot, and stacked at a grid intersection. She controlled not merely layers, but alignment in physical space. He stepped half a pace left, positioning himself awkwardly between two floor seams. Bai Mi reached for him.