He sat in that same room now, watching his watch. 4:04. The air smelled of burnt coffee and wrongness. His reflection in the dark window didn’t blink when he did.
The clock hit 4:05.
He traced it back through old maintenance logs, ghost-punched ID badges, and a single black-and-white photograph from 2041: a private investigator named Lena Vasquez, standing outside an apartment building at 4:05 PM. In the photo, her shadow was missing. In the next frame, so was she. - - - - - - Private Eyes SPD-016 -4-5