Chapter Five: The War for Reality

They escaped beneath a decommissioned water tower in the old city and connected to the recovery node. Ink checked the wafer against the lattice impression. The display yielded an index, not the deleted memory itself: DELETION OBJECT: PREDICTIVE BRANCH COMMON SOURCE. EXECUTOR: ZERO. AUTHORIZER: GU YAN. AUTHORIZATION: 2019-08-17 21:04:13. One hour before the fire, when Gu Yan was seven. “I could not have authorized it.” Zero spoke from the darkness. “You could—if Gu Yan was never the name of one person.” The node recovered a fragment of command video. A seven-year-old lay in a neural cradle, lips still. Twelve brainwave traces converged above him into a synthesized voiceprint. It was identical to adult Gu Yan's.