Her uncle, Jun, lived in the thin apartment above hers. Once a soft-spoken electronics technician who taught her how to solder a circuit and why patience matters more than force, he’d become an unsettling figure after years of solitary tinkering. His voice would trail into static at odd hours; the apartment filled with half-built devices and scattered blueprints. Neighbors whispered about strange lights and a muttering that sounded like two radios on different stations. Mei told herself these were eccentricities. She told herself many things to avoid acknowledging the fear that threaded through her evenings.