The cafe clock reads 2:14. Vesna has lived this same hour four times. Across the room, a man stirs cold coffee and smiles at her. His name is Calder, and he comes from a future that erases hers. He was sent back to cut one second out of history. She was sent to do the same to him. They both know it. Neither one moves. Whoever acts first, in the right second, wins. The loser's whole world just stops.

Vesna decides to talk first. She picks up her cup, crosses the room, and sits down across from Calder like an old friend. "Four loops now," she says quietly. "You keep dying at 2:15. So do I. Maybe we're both wrong about which second matters." Calder's smile stays put, but his hand moves under the table.

Calder's hand whips up with a device of his own. Vesna grabs his wrist across the table. The two machines press together and start to whine, both trying to cut the same second from opposite sides. The cups rattle. The clock hand jams between 2:14 and 2:15, then both devices burst in a flash of light, and the cafe is simply gone.