Chapter One: Free Water

None of them had been there during the afternoon briefing. “Lin, quit staring,” Old Ma, her supervisor, said through her earpiece. “Four hundred people still waiting at East Three.” She admitted a worried father and his son after resolving their ticket problem. The boy hugged his free bottle. The inside of its cap flashed a six-digit number: 031742. “Where did this shipment come from?” Lin Xi asked a promoter. The man's white cap hid everything but a pale strip of chin. “Everyone gets one tonight.” “Staff too?” He pressed a bottle into her hand. It was unnaturally cold, condensation tracing her palm. By the time she looked up, the cart was moving away. There was no sponsor logo on the vest—only a circle cut by a horizontal line.