Chapter Five: Beneath the Mask

“You didn't rescue me. You wired a battery into a machine.” He endured her stare. “Yes.” Zhou pointed at Shen's chest. Hundreds of old impacts converged on his heart, then bent away through something beneath his suit. Shen exposed a black six-pointed device embedded below his collarbone. “The amplifier lets me join larger areas. It also keeps me inside transmitter coverage. Gu can settle every stored impact through me whenever he chooses.” “Remove it,” Zhou said. “Eleven residual lines would immediately seek their anchor. Lin is the closest.” Shen handed them a paper blueprint. Beneath Pier Seven of the river expressway, a phase manifold connected the bridge to Skyweb. Zenith had replaced twelve expansion joints with remotely breakable units.