Page 118 of Pocket Wife

“You wanted the registry to matter,” he says. “Now it does.”

The meeting hall fills with voices, but I hear only the pump beneath the floor, steady and distant, moving water through the valley Helix has just found a new way to empty.

CHAPTER 36

RETHAN

Corvek does not need to prove poison.

He only needs everyone to fear a cup.

I remain at the evidence station while the meeting hall breaks into frightened voices around me. The pump beneath the floor continues its steady work, indifferent to law, greed, and panic. Water moves through Solaris Valley the way it always has: from reserve to tank, from tank to pipe, from pipe to hand, mouth, seed tray, clinic basin.

Now Helix wants every sound of it to become suspicion.

Adjudicator Salo strikes the tribunal chime once. “Order.”

The hall quiets by force of habit, not calm.

Lucy stands with the emergency continuity panel near the front board. She keeps her eyes off me. She cannot. Helix has already won that much. During active hearing periods, I cannot privately confer with her, cannot guide the panel, cannot even let my expression become an answer she might use.

I have never hated procedure more.

Central Commerce Safety Review joins the display in a fourth panel.

Reviewer Sera Noll appears without ceremony: narrow face, gray uniform, no corporate insignia, no Authority seal. Her mandate is narrower than the tribunal’s and more dangerous in the moment. She cannot decide ownership, covenant validity, or historical fraud. She can decide whether people have to leave their homes before any of those questions are answered.

“Central Commerce Safety Review acknowledges emergency petition,” Noll says. “Claimant alleges contamination risk due to evidentiary integration with active water infrastructure. Local tribunal alleges claimant misconduct and manufactured urgency. I will hear facts relevant to immediate habitation safety only.”

Corvek inclines his head. “Helix appreciates the reviewer’s speed.”

Lucy’s fingers curl at her side.

I see it and say nothing.

Salo turns to Corvek. “State your safety basis.”

Corvek does not waste time. “The Resident Refusal Registry was discovered beneath an active emergency water reserve. The residents themselves argued that it is functionally tied to civic water pathways. The object responded to quorum through the cistern interface. It contains unknown materials, unknown age, unknown energy response, and unknown integration with potable distribution.”

Torren’s voice returns from the cistern. “That is a dramatic way to say you do not understand the scan.”

Noll’s eyes move to the feed. “Identify speaker.”

“Torren Ashby. Maintenance panel. Currently standing beside the thing Helix tried to scare everyone with.”

“Mr. Ashby,” Noll says, “you will speak when asked.”

Torren mutters something too low to record clearly.

I suspect that is intentional.

Corvek continues. “Helix requests interim evacuation of the central basin while an independent safety team determines whether the registry’s activation affected the water reserve.”

Nara rises halfway from her chair, her son asleep against her shoulder. “Evacuate to where?”

Corvek’s face softens in the manner of men who have rehearsed compassion. “Helix has prepared temporary shelter capacity outside the proposed radius.”

The hall reacts before Salo can stop it.