On the beaches of Copacabana in Rio, sand grains resembling artificial diamonds burned Qiyue's ankles under the midday sun. Seventy-two hours had passed since the escape from the New York church, and Merchant Su Muqing had been secretly relocated to a safe house on the Bolivian border, while the scar on Qiyue's right eyebrow still throbbed faintly—the last words of the Quantum Ghost before it dissipated lingered in the depths of his consciousness like a barbed thorn.
"The signal is right beneath the main stage." Scholar Su Muqing's voice came through the earpiece, marking the core area of the Carnival parade via satellite imagery. "But the entire beach is a quantum interference zone; my drones can't get close."
Qiyue narrowed his eyes. Five hundred meters ahead, twenty giant float platforms were receiving their final decorations, and dancers in feathered bikinis tossed gold dust into the screaming crowds. Probability Vision automatically marked seventeen anomalous energy points, the most intense fluctuation originating from the central pyramid-shaped stage—seven dancers adorned in colorful bird feathers writhed at the very top, the tallest among them...
Chapter 21