Julian Vance turned his back on the chained doors, his boots splashing through the cooling floor water as he walked toward the row of sinks.
Lin Mei was pacing frantically in front of the cracked mirrors, her slide-rule clicking between her fingers with sharp, agitated snaps.
“Forty-two minutes until two o’clock,” Lin Mei said, her voice rising in panic.
“If we miss the two o’clock Simplex punch downstairs, the building covenant revokes your supervisor status on the spot. Building Property Rule M-108 says damaging that door is an automatic forfeit.”
“If you hit that door with a hammer or try to freeze that manganese padlock, the covenant logs property destruction, revokes your badge, and slaps you with forty demerits! Silas has us completely boxed in by the administrative code!”
“Silas thinks like a bureaucrat who only reads corridor rules,” Julian said calmly.
He stopped directly behind Sink #4, where the water had begun to drain down the central floor trough.
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his heavy brass ECG calipers. With the blunt cylindrical end of the brass tool, he tapped a rectangular iron panel set into the tiled wall between the water pipes.
