Chapter Three: The Second Person Who Doesn't Exist

She worked on White Tower twelve years ago. Now every record says she never existed.” “My father worked there too.” For once they did not trade suspicion. They stood before the same tomb door. The film developed. The first photograph showed a white laboratory. Lu's father stood in the back row. Wen pointed to a woman like herself in front. “Wen Qiu.” The second showed white light swallowing the building. Along its edge: Blind-Zone Protocol activated. Twelve living administrators online. The third left everyone silent. It had been taken yesterday in Lu's room. Lu slept while Wen stood beside the bed, a hand on his forehead. Yet the mirror reflected another woman in a lab coat. Color drained from Wen's face. “I wasn't there.”