Chapter Five: The Unrecordable

She's counted in every circuit.” Evelyn's old return pass bore 07-2B-07. It had not been Yao's boarding ticket; it was a distress message sent from the seventh circuit. A bell chimed behind the hotel desk. Brass mailboxes slid out of the wall, each labeled with a lost-property number. Their boxes stood open. Beneath them were twelve locked compartments marked 01 through 12. The first bulged with photographs. The twelfth was empty. Lin touched her bell to lock 01. It opened onto a damp duty log. Passenger lists filled the first eleven sections. On every page, one guest disappeared and one crew member appeared. The driver's name changed each time until Sergei Volkov took the post on circuit eleven. Jonas was always recorder.