The Cast

The chapter plates keep faces turned away or in shadow, on purpose — a face redrawn ninety-seven times is a face that slowly becomes someone else. So the faces live here instead, drawn once and locked, in the same five styles the rest of the book is drawn in. Pick one above and everybody redraws.

This was a reader’s idea. He wanted the people settled so he could keep building the rest of it himself, which is the right instinct: this page is a reference, not an instruction. If the Samantha in your head looks nothing like the one on this page, yours is the correct one.

Portrait of Samantha Hale — Samantha Hale Basalt Labs' CTO. She wrote the thing, and she was alone in the lab when it worked.

Portrait of Vlad — Vlad The third founder. He is not listed as one anywhere, and that is deliberate.

Portrait of Seth — Seth Their investor, four hours down the valley in Boulder. He answers his phone. They do not.

Portrait of Marcus Reed — Marcus Reed The CEO, and the face. He is the one people recognise, which turns out to matter.

Portrait of Nadia — Nadia Runs an atomic-physics lab up the hill at CU Boulder. She has carried Seth's secrets before.

5 of them so far. Characters appear here once you have met them in the book, so this page grows as the story does — it will never introduce someone ahead of the prose.

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The Cast

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