Chapter 322: Provisional Ruling
The final anchor of Zone Four took twenty-two minutes.
Kai held the carrier function steady through the mudflat layer's northwest curve and felt the edge of the coverage area close. The entity had been waiting here since the previous session. It had not withdrawn overnight. It had extended slowly into the coverage ground, following the anchor front the way it had been doing for twelve days — no rush, no impatience. Just steady movement through newly anchored stone.
Patient. Young, but patient.
Anchor forty-six seated with a clean response. The entity's signal traveled back through the anchor chain in under two seconds. The whole zone architecture registered the final piece at once — forty-six coverage points, mudflat stone, horizontal plane, southeast to northwest.
He surfaced. Pool at forty-six percent.
The entity did not conduct immediately.
He waited.
