Elena Rostova kept her face steel-calm as she pulled the right earpiece of her Littmann Cardiology IV Stethoscope free and held it toward Julian.
Her hand did not tremble. Her breathing stayed slow and measured.
Across the open upper half of the Dutch Door, Student #114 still leaned forward on his chalk-caked palms. His square white teeth gleamed in the dim corridor light, and his matte-black pupils remained locked on Elena’s throat.
“Julian,” Elena said, her voice quiet and clinical. “Listen to the chest cavity on Candidate Four.”
Julian stepped up until his shoulder brushed Elena’s white dispensary coat. Keeping his eyes on Student #114, he took the right earpiece and pressed the soft silicone tip into his ear canal while Elena held the silver diaphragm against #114’s sternum.
The sound came through the dual-lumen tubing immediately.
Whir-click-whir.
A miniature capstan motor spun inside the hollow ribcage, dragging a twelve-second loop of quarter-inch magnetic tape backward across a brass playback head. The splice point snapped against the roller with a sharp mechanical pop.
