Chapter 8 The Body's Previous Tenant

• The Sub-basement Recovery Room was silent. Only the slow drip of toxic fluid from a rusty brass tap broke the quiet. Marlow Reed stood against the cold brick wall. The Undertaker draught had changed him. His heartbeat came and went. The sharp fear of his old self was gone. Now he felt like a dead man, still, hollow, empty.
• He looked at his hands. Pale. Cold. Lifeless. A gray rat ran across the wet floor. It stopped near his bare foot, sniffed, then climbed over his toes without fear. To animals, he was just another object. The factory records listed him as dead. In the world’s eyes, he was no longer alive.
• He needed to return to the Time Office. He had to secure the building after Examiner Voss’s failed attack. He pushed off the wall and stepped toward the iron staircase.