If the small black room was used for too short a time, it would lose its meaning... For example, if it lasted less than eight hours, it would be no different from turning out the lights for someone before bed.
Tommy Lloyd had been detained yesterday afternoon, so he had to be kept there for at least one full twenty-four-hour cycle.
Then they could tell him that they had already kept him there for thirty hours. Hunger and fear would stretch his subjective sense of time, making Tommy think he had only one day left—when in fact he still had one day and six hours.
Those extra six hours were the information gap created by the Grand Guardian.
At two o'clock on Thursday afternoon, the Grand Guardian arrived at the Bureau of Supervision branch in the Red Queen District right on time.
But when they opened the secret chamber and lit the lamps, they found that the room was already empty.
Only a brass ring lay quietly on the stone bed, glittering with a brilliant golden light beneath the lamps.
"Lloyd... escaped?"
The Bureaumen responsible for the matter immediately turned solemn, but they were not nervous—they were certain there had been no problems with their procedures. They had maintained the highest level of vigilance, and even the bureau chief had personally stood guard along the only route in and out. During this period, no supplies had entered or left; not even a single box had gone in or come out.
If someone could deceive them under such circumstances, then that person had to be an enemy they could not deal with.
Naturally, that would not be their problem.
The Grand Guardian George picked up the ring and examined it carefully.
Engraved upon it was a fist covered in scars. It