The System Hunter

Chapter 35: The Twelve Locked Inside

Eight minutes remained because Elias had proved the rehearsal was fraudulent.

He stared at the revised clock. The System had not punished an unlawful act; it had followed a concealed condition buried in the administrative packet. His mission completion notice still glowed green. Above it, twelve extraction permits remained valid and unusable.

"Send everything to the public printers," Rafi said.

"The relay is filtering outbound evidence," Tessa replied. "The packet is sealed as a restricted audit. I can file it in the district ledger, but Merrow's office controls the export window."

Mara studied the authorization log. "The reconciliation routine has two outputs. Time debits go through the receiving stations. A completion certificate goes to the permit board. If the certificate can't validate, the gates must remain closed. That's what they're using to trap everyone."

"Could we stop the certificate?"

"We need to stop the debit instead. Otherwise the gates stay shut while people lose time."

Tessa sent them the building's safety map. A physical override in the gate control room could hold the rehearsal in an uncompleted state for five minutes, but an automated inspector had to certify a legitimate safety hazard. The leaking service gallery qualified if they could prove water had reached live electrical equipment.

June's voice came over the shared channel. "The east pump is pushing water back into your shaft. I've got readings. That cabinet will flood."

"File the hazard under your repair credential," Mara said. "Use the same meter, not an estimate."

June was already moving. Her permit would have allowed her to leave, had anyone opened the gate. She could have waited near the exit and saved her strength. Instead she climbed into the narrow maintenance channel with a borrowed electrical meter and an evidence camera. She had been close enough to death earlier that Elias expected her to protect every second she had earned. Watching her turn back into the water made his own bargain feel smaller. She was not following him. She had chosen the people behind the barrier.

Elias left Rafi beside the cabinet and ran for the gate control room. When he reached the upper corridor, he found the qualified contestants assembled behind a locked barrier. Anika stood with Nolan and a frightened older man whose Life Balance showed nineteen minutes. Beyond them, four officers faced the crowd. Their restraint launchers were raised but not aimed.

"Who ordered the hold?" Elias asked.

The leading officer indicated his screen. "Automated safety procedure. You are under witness access, not exit clearance. Step away."

"The permits remain valid. They're being used to force people into a balance test."

"That's an allegation."

Elias displayed the copied authorization receipt. The officer glanced at it, then at the two witness names. His finger moved toward the communications switch on his collar.

A woman wearing a black pursuit jacket stepped out of the stairwell before he could speak. Valeen Cruz. Her ranking badge carried more gold bars than everyone else's combined, and her arrival quieted the crowd.

"Elias Venn," she said. "You're wanted for interference with an active continuity operation."

A red contract hovered beside her shoulder: DETAIN CLAIMANT. REWARD: 02:00:00. She dismissed it without taking her eyes off him.

"You saw the packet?" Elias asked.

"I saw a man who keeps making the city's clocks behave strangely."

"Then you've seen the wrong man." He held out the receipt. "Your badge can certify a safety hazard. Mine can't."

Valeen did not reach for the paper. "And if I do that, every hunter who fails to exit will call me responsible."

"They're already trapped."

Anika stepped between them. One of the officers shifted his launcher toward her, and Elias positioned himself within reach of its barrel, close enough to push it aside but not enough to look like an attack. He could have offered the officer a bounty on somebody else. That would have been easier than making a case. Anika raised her own certified witness card. "I will testify that the listed complainant never gave informed consent. I saw the restraints. You can detain him after you hear us."

Valeen looked past Elias to the display of falling balances. Then she checked her own account. For a moment, her expression changed.

"My adjustment is twelve percent," she said. "Yours?"

"The percentage is calculated when it runs."

"Mine is already committed." She turned the display toward him. The deduction was listed as a finalized transaction, not a proposed test.

An officer drew his launcher as Valeen reached for her badge. She gave him a look that made him lower it.

"Show me the hazard," she said. "You've got six minutes."