The seventh coordinate was her own apartment. The final act of the story unfolds over the next seventy-two hours. Mira races to intercept the sixth victim—a shy, brilliant student named Ethan Lo (no relation to the inspector) who has the PDF open on his tablet inside the library’s rare book room. She talks him down by reading the file aloud in reverse order, a technique she discovers scrambles the cartographic trigger. Ethan collapses, sobbing, but alive.
But why? Mira and Inspector Lo raided The Map Room at dawn. Felix Cartes was there, grading papers. On his wall was a massive print of the same vector map from the PDF. Seven red pins. Four already marked with crosses. The fifth pin was Kai Tak. The sixth and seventh were blank. The seventh coordinate was her own apartment
“The tutor,” Chloe said, blinking. “Mr. Cartes.” She talks him down by reading the file
Mira’s number.