Chapter Two: The Deleted Woman Looked Back at Me

Tonight he regarded her through an invisible pane of glass. She locked the door. "At 9:50, you asked me, 'Whose?' Do you remember?" "No." "What about the comms log?" "It says we didn't speak for those three minutes." "That's what the system says. I'm asking what you remember." Outside, the moon hung between two mining towers, one narrow sliver short of full. Zhou pulled the blinds with a speed that looked like fear. "You need sleep," he said. Shen Wu borrowed an old cassette deck and pressed play. After a long hiss, a woman began breathing rapidly. "My name is Shen Zhao. The ninety-seventh year of the Jing calendar, the fifteenth day of the seventh month." The voice was identical to Shen Wu's. Zhou knocked over his coffee.