Yellow grease pencil squeaked against the frosted glass of Walk-In Beverage Cooler #3.
Julian Vance pressed the corner of the scorched blueprint flat against the condensation-slicked glass pane. He drew four heavy yellow circles around the transformer bays of District 4, his Dixon Phano #77 pencil leaving thick, oily tracks that glowed with a dull amber light under the store’s T8 fluorescent tubes.
Yellow wax was invisible to Municipal Auditors. To outside observers, it looked like smeared condensation on the glass of the soda cooler.
To the men and women gathered in the back hallway of Starlight Mart #04, it was a battle map.
The store’s narrow hallway, stockroom, and loading bay were packed shoulder to shoulder with the newly elected shop stewards of Counter-Audit Local #04.
Standing near Register 1 were convenience store clerks in faded blue aprons, led by eighteen-year-old Sammy Chen and forty-two-year-old Rosa Delgado, whose gravelly voice crackled through the speakerphone from Store #19 alongside Charge Nurse Priya Patel at St. Jude’s and Aunt Martha at the Grand Halcyon switchboard. Beside the counter stood trauma nurse Elena Rostova in hospital scrubs, transit drivers Marcus Cole and Stationmaster Hobbs in wool coats, student cryptographer Lin Mei pushing up her glasses, Chief Actuary Dr. Beatrice Hahn, Deputy Coroner Dr. Victor Corvo holding his espresso beaker, and Clara Vance monitoring the telephone patch.
