Chapter 3: Jax Traces the Signal to Its Grave

The crawlspace had been home for eleven days.

Jax had stopped noticing the smell around day four — coolant and oxidized copper and the particular staleness of recycled air that hadn't been cycled in three years — which he took as either professional adaptation or neurological damage, and filed under things he would investigate later when there was a later worth investigating. His back had developed a specific complaint in the L4 region that he was also filing there. The later-file was getting crowded.

He pulled up the node log for the third time and read it with fresh eyes and the same result.