Chapter Four: Read, No Reply

Only one monitor glowed in the guard booth. A laughing face filled its screen. Qiao Qi kept her distance and slid a printed inquiry through the window. IS ANYONE INSIDE? Text appeared on the monitor: READ. Her right leg froze in midair. Lin Mo seized her collar and dragged her out of the booth’s sight. Only when the wind flipped the paper and broke the read relationship did her foot strike the ground. “It doesn’t need a network,” she said, catching her breath. “Only a message and a receiver.” Dozens of dead windows lit beyond the wall. An eye appeared in each. The gate opened by itself, revealing a white wall covered in the same sentence: THANK YOU FOR CONTACTING US. PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE.