Chapter Two: The Shadow Performs Only Once

Lu didn't. He studied the drone's final overhead image. The black shapes seemed chaotic, yet every one avoided a triangular patch west of the underground entrance, like water flowing around a reef. He lunged for the patch and pried up a maintenance cover. Beneath it lay not cables, but the roof of a silver tanker. The vehicle already occupied the place where it would explode tomorrow. Something had simply hidden it inside the plaza's shadow. A faceless person sat behind the wheel. It raised one hand. The same countdown from Lu's phone covered its palm: 18:06:42. At the rim of the opening, Lu's missing shadow quietly emerged. While he watched the faceless driver, it extended one long black finger toward the back of the creature's skull.