Chapter Four: The Black Tower's Stomach

Its screen cracked and Tang Ji's voice emerged. “Test record zero-four-two. Every protocol demanding sole authorization fears a second witness.” For the first time, Zhou Que stopped smiling. Lin Wu drove her copper bookmark into the port. Lighthouse copied the recording across every screen, but could not send it beyond the tower. “Exit!” Echo opened an unregistered route—not a corridor, but the gap between two adjacent app icons. They squeezed through and became motes of screen static. They fell out of an advertising display in Canopy's lobby. Hundreds of employees passed without looking up, as if three people dropping from a screen were merely a playback error.