Not a compact disc, of course. In the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the Central Directorate, a “CD Form” stood for “Critical Departure Form”—the official document required when a senior archivist transferred from the Physical Realm to the Digital Hereafter. It was a form with seventy-three fields, twelve sub-clauses, and a signature block that required three different colors of ink.

The tape ended.

They called her obsolete. They gave her the CD Form.

Veenak looked down at the stack of CD Forms. At Field 47. At the clean, cold boxes.