Sera felt the interruption before the site recorder acknowledged it.
The current around the selection grounds had a pattern she had been tracking between exercises: a low steady pull beneath the course, a stronger movement near the controlled gate, and smaller fluctuations from equipment and people moving through the area. For a moment the pattern seemed to lose a piece. It returned before she could isolate the source.
She checked the time on her watch and wrote it down. Her notebook contained the comparison from the residual-gate observation: a pulse, a missing interval in the recording, and a clock margin that prevented anyone from claiming exact simultaneity. The sensation at the selection site was familiar, but familiarity was not proof that the same mechanism had produced it.
Sera moved two steps away from the course entrance and checked again. The overlapping signals made the edge of the interruption difficult to locate. She recorded the position where she stood, the approximate duration, and the fact that she could not identify a source.
Her assigned group was gathering near the next station. She told its temporary leader, a military recruit named Orla, that she needed to report a possible monitoring discrepancy. Orla marked the departure on the group sheet and asked her to return before the next call.
