Tang Li Yue heard the promise through the radio.
No one is putting you back.
The words were faint, half-swallowed by static and engine noise, but they reached the farmhouse dining room clearly enough.
She closed her eyes for one breath.
Lu Chengran had made a promise.
In a moving ambulance.
With pursuit behind him.
To a boy who had been bitten and had not turned.
How very like him.
How deeply inconvenient.
Xu Ren sat across from her, one hand still on the static transmitter, his wounded shoulder rigid beneath the sling. Professor Han had gone pale the moment he heard the words critical exposure case. Shen Deyuan stood behind him with a tray of instruments, antiseptic, and the grim expression of a man who knew his little medical corner was about to become something far beyond its current dignity.
Chen Qiao's voice crackled over the secondary radio from the dry creek bed.
