Chapter 22: Ren Pulls Io Back

The orange cord was still taut when Hana arrived.

She had run the last four hundred meters along the cliff path, notepad tucked against her ribs, and she could see from thirty meters away that nothing had changed: Ren sitting cross-legged at the maintenance passage hatch with the cord draped across his thighs, feeding into the dark below with the particular tension of something attached to weight. The night was windless. The sea was a low, plate-metal shine at the base of the headland.

Sachi was already there, sitting on an equipment housing with her knees drawn up, arms wrapped around them. She had her eyes closed but she was not asleep. Kenji stood three meters from the hatch with his hands in his jacket pockets, watching Ren the way you watched something you were trying not to disturb.