The mail from a dead man had arrived. And it was far from the last thing Marcus had to say.

MF: medium frequency. Or her late mentor’s initials—Marcus Farrow. 4410: the exact coordinates of a long-abandoned radio observatory in the Nevada desert, where Marcus had died in a freak accident fifteen years ago.

From the dry lakebed, a pillar of pale light erupted, silent and blinding. Elara shielded her eyes and whispered the phrase one more time— thmyl tryf tabt kanwn —no longer nonsense, but a warning she had delivered to herself, across time.

A holographic projection flickered above the console. Marcus’s face, younger, harried.