The command wire ran from the city wall to an upper switch in the Registry hall. Wei led a small team through the records arcade. Civilian clerks worked at desks beside guards loyal to Wuchen. Some looked up; others kept writing.
Yan asked the clerks to leave by the east stair before the team crossed the hall. One clerk refused. The night ledger held names of families already moved into registered zones.
“If the hall changes hands, those names need to stay with the records,” the clerk said. “They tell us where people went.”
Ning sent a runner to copy the list. The clerk carried the original to the safe room, wrapped its split binding in cloth, and locked it in a fireproof cabinet. She kept the key. After comparing several entries, she agreed to leave with a guard escort.
Wuchen was not in the entrance chamber, but his seal continued to send pulses through the upper switch. The command wire fed both coercive routes and several working local barriers. Breaking it could cut power to neighborhoods that had stayed behind.
Gu found a second lever behind a panel in the registry wall. It could suspend remote commands for one hour without shutting down the lamps. The mechanism was old and heavy. At the end of the hour, someone would have to repeat the release at the console.
