The date inside the fold became a classroom.
The Name Office made a poor one. Projection light spread across the drawer face in a flat rectangle, pale enough to make the burned strip look dirtier around it. A title appeared first. Heissman's hand tightened around the half-used page before anyone asked him anything.
Unclaimed response asset routing.
The words sat where a lesson title should have been.
JJ saw his hand.
"Tell me whether this one has your fingerprints."
Heissman looked at the title too long.
"Adjacent fingerprints, which may be worse for everyone."
"Adjacent is a word people use before lawyers arrive."
"I taught a later version after Mercy disappeared."
The admission took some of the heat out of the room and put it into his face. He rubbed his thumb against the burned strip until ash marked his skin.
"The later version removed the hospital label and called the same problem civil response allocation."
