Chapter Five: The City's Stop-Loss Order

He Lan chose a twenty-four-hour laundromat opposite the municipal emergency center. She was in her early thirties, with permanent night-shift shadows under her eyes and the dispatch headset Chen had seen in Benefit's window. Dryers revolved behind her like miniature time machines. “At 1:17 p.m. on Day Five, ammonia leaks from the Eastport cold-storage depot.” She slid over a hand-drawn map. “In the normal timeline, four hundred thirty-one people die. At 1:02, Zhou buys the trending feed. At 1:15, his warning platform raises the alarm. Nine people die, he passes his task, and he receives the interface to all city emergency data.” The day's task was already on Chen's phone.