Chapter 311: The Protocol
He placed anchor thirty-three before Cole arrived.
One session in the early morning, pool starting at full. The anchor seated in thirty-six seconds — faster than any contact point in the upper sections, faster than yesterday's session. The carrier function was building memory of Zone Two's specific compression character the same way it had built memory of every other stone it had spent extended time inside. Thirty-three anchors were not enough to call it mastery. It was enough to call it familiar.
He surfaced at the eighth hour. Pool at 89%.
Cole came down the ridge at the ninth hour. Alone. Same notebook.
He sat at the depression's edge on the same level as the day before, three meters off. He did not open the notebook immediately.
"I want to understand the process," he said. "All of it."
Kai began at the beginning, which was the carrier function.
