Chapter Four: Everyone Has a Line

THE PROJECTIONIST RECOGNIZES THE ARSONIST. He burst in and grabbed Qiao’s wrist. Lin threw a tray of developer at the red lamp. Deprived of an image, Gu released her. Thirteen seconds later, emergency light rose. “I saw my father,” he whispered. “The credit said she locked him in the booth.” “The film is assigning you a murderer,” Qiao said. The photographs turned over by themselves. Their backs formed the worldwide trailer poster, twenty-seven cities linked like the circuitry of an enormous projector. Fine print at the bottom read: TRAILER PRINT SOURCE—REEL SEVEN. Qiao tore open the reel can she carried. Inside was blank polyester, its edges burned by hand. A decoy.