The message reached Sub-Vault Zero via an encrypted sound relay that rattled the iron water pipes.
It was from the spoofed bright light on Captain Geng’s preserved heart:
[tracking numbers ALERT: SECTOR-04 Check-up SCHEDULED] [TRIGGER: Pipe system PRESSURE DEFICIT -0.05%] [COMMANDER: ARRAY MASTER QI HENG] [PROBE DEPLOYED: GOLDEN EYEBALL PROTOCOL] [ETA TO NODE FOUR: 42 MINUTES]
Lin Ke set down his test metal pen.
The shunt was working too well. The fifteen percent diversion into the regional underground water beds had created a tiny, tiny ripple on the main intake pipe hub—a drop of barely one part in two thousand.
To a casual mortal observer, that was background noise.
To a neurotic systems engineer like Array Master Qi Heng, a zero-point-zero-five percent drop was an unhandled strange flaw that needed a physical trace.
Node Four was the main junction pylon anchoring the southern side, located directly beneath the Azure Cloud Sect’s old family tombs—three miles behind the main mountain ridge.
