The witness line reached Ty through a shelf full of burned phones.
It crawled through cracked screens, receipt printers, body cameras, and an old tape recorder that had no reason to work. Every object in the archive woke at a different pace until Jade's cafeteria filled the room from a dozen cheap angles.
Ty saw the shelter.
He saw Waddell holding the menu.
He saw Kieran beside Jade.
He saw Jade with one hand over her right eye, watching his mouth like the room had stolen sound from her.
Her voice never reached him.
That mattered more than he wanted it to.
JJ stepped closer.
"Jade is reading your mouth like the room stole the sound."
"She cannot hear me, but she can still see enough."
The scrape in Ty's own voice made his teeth ache, which was ridiculous because he had none. He hated that a stolen face could speak smoothly while his truth had to fight through bone and fire.
Heissman adjusted the dead tape recorder.
