Chapter Four: Read, No Reply

His body stiffened from the fingertips inward. Refusal was still a reply. Once read, it froze the action behind it. Zhou Ye snatched the paper, folded NO COMMENT into a plane, and threw it down a side passage. The surveillance cameras followed in unison. The screens changed to: TYPING… The paralysis released him. “A message that isn’t finished can’t be read,” Lin Mo realized. He took a roll of printer paper and wrote, MY ANSWER IS AS FOLLOWS. He let the long blank tail drag behind him. Without a period, the entire building could only wait. They reached an underground entrance. It had three mail slots instead of a keypad: SENT, DELIVERED, READ.