They found the label pinned to the inside of the locker like a forgotten prayer: a string of letters and numbers, neat as a barcode and stubbornly human in its odd rhythm. Mara traced it with a fingertip. SSIS—she thought of systems, shutters, secrecy. 211 was the locker number the maintenance crew treated like a rumor. EN for English, JAVHD for a directory she’d never want to look up. TODAY. A timestamp: 1109202102—September 11th, 2021, 02:00? Or November 9th, 2021? Her pulse thinned the world down to two possibilities. Then “55-18 Min Free.” A promise or a warning: fifty-five minutes and eighteen minutes free. Free from what? Free for whom?