Chapter Three: The Observers Are Watching

“After your prize, she’ll believe she can finally stop working nights and accept a route that looks better. That route leads to an accident arranged by the Observatory. Once you lose your only family, they become your new one.” “How do you know?” “Because that’s how they took me.” The equation did not converge. For the first time, Lin Yan did not force it to yield an answer. He pulled the storage wafer marked with his mother’s prediction. An alarm screamed. Lights ignited one by one at the far end of the room. A man of about thirty stood in the glow, dressed in a long gray coat. He looked kind. There were no guards behind him. “Welcome, Lin Yan,” he said. “I am Pei Zhao.” No equation appeared.