Chapter One: Twelve Witnesses

When Gu Yan woke, the ceiling was speaking. “Do not blink.” The voice came through the bedroom's bone-conduction array—calm, without gender. Zero, the first agent Gu had ever designed, never wasted words. He kept his eyes open and saw a scarlet timer hovering at the upper right of his vision: 00:02:17. “What is that counting down?” “Your exclusive authorization over this body.” Gu Yan sat up. The curtains were still drawn, morning light cutting around them like an overexposed scalpel. His phone was gone. A red lock ring glowed on the door handle. Stranger still, twelve portraits formed an arc along the edge of his vision. Every one of his agents was online.