Page 142 of Pocket Wife

Then the colors settle.

Helix’s shelter plateau sits across the east feeder.

Its proposed evacuation radius follows the central basin water loop.

Its early survey corridors cross the lower field line, the west overflow, and the old school pump route.

Its mineral access grid does not avoid the hidden water network.

It traces it.

Jessa whispers, “They knew.”

Rethan corrects her softly. “They knew enough to aim.”

Kaun’s seal flashes hard enough to brighten the whole display. “Specialist Veyr, overlay Chapter Five field incident.”

I go cold before the map changes.

Hartwell lower field.

The day Helix transports crossed the soil without permission.

I thought it was intimidation.

Then sabotage.

Then survey marking.

The sealed map accepts the old footage.

Three transports.

Three stops.

Three points across the lower field line.

Rethan enlarges the coordinates.

At each point, the display finds a matching pressure node in the newly sealed civic map.

Noll’s voice loses some of its distance. “What are those points?”

Torren answers over the cistern link, no humor left. “Water support nodes. Old clay-to-stone transitions. If you stress them, the line fails. If you reinforce them, you control flow. If you install under them…”

He stops.

I hear my own heartbeat before I hear the pump.

Salo turns to Kaun. “Do we have subsurface scans from that day?”

Kaun answers, “Helix filed agricultural soil disturbance records.”

“Open them.”

Sen stands. “Those records were routine.”

“No,” I say, staring at the display. “They were on my land.”