The exterior reader registered a pulse inside the facility’s stated test interval.
The neutral technician marked it against the common time source, left the instrument running and sent the agreed report. She did not move the display to make it easier for the facility guard to see. The raw sequence mattered more than an immediate argument through the fence.
The guard called his desk. The desk acknowledged the observation and said the engineers were assessing it. No automatic stop followed. Rook had refused that condition before the operation began.
Juno received the trace with the concurrent utility log. A change in ordinary load appeared elsewhere in the interval, but its onset did not account neatly for the marked pulse. The exterior signature resembled part of the coastal core’s earlier recorded pattern. Timing and shape suggested a connection. They did not identify the equipment operating behind the restricted walls.
She asked a local utility technician to verify the observation with an instrument outside Aegis control at a second permitted point. Its working range differed from the first reader’s, which limited direct comparison. The technician supplied the reference check and background, then recorded the next observable departure.
The second result strengthened the warning. It did not become an independent view of the facility’s hidden machinery. Both stations were still outside, measuring effects in a network whose current connections were incompletely mapped.
