“Current return?” Severin asked.
The technician gave it before the clerk read the lowland report. The primary regulator was inside its band, with one pending correction waiting on field confirmation.
Severin watched the actual mark settle.
Then he turned to the clerk.
“The exposed lanes were evacuated,” she said. “Inspector Valen died at the release chamber.”
He knew the name.
More irritatingly, he knew the man’s handwriting. Exact entries. Firm conclusions. A habit of returning a document until the person signing it understood what the signature covered.
“Give me the warning sequence.”
