Chapter Three: The Breathing Door

The temperature plunged. Every mirror beneath her feet yielded like water. Behind her, the conservation room had been compressed into a distant framed painting, Tang Qi and Gu watching from its other side. At the corridor's end came the mechanical clicks of an autorefractor. “First lock released,” a gentle male voice announced. “Observer Shen Yanqiu. Remaining correction, right eye: twelve diopters. Available replacements: eleven.” The lenses on both walls lit simultaneously. Prisoners reached toward her. Zhou Heng was among them. Yanqiu rushed forward, then stopped before his mirror. Someone stood behind him. Zhiwei waited in deeper darkness. Eleven silver filaments ran from her neck, each ending at an unopened wooden crate.