Page 143 of Pocket Wife

The records open.

Routine soil density anchors, installed for survey stability.

Three units.

Status: inactive.

Ownership: Helix Extraction Consortium.

I cannot breathe properly for one second. Not because of fear alone. Because memory rearranges itself inside me.

The lower field alarm.

The missing regulator cores.

The lower tower sabotage.

The shelter boundary.

The water hold.

All separate harms until the map shows the same hand beneath them.

“They put anchors under our line,” I say.

Corvek’s panel remains dark.

Noll asks, “Can these anchors affect water flow?”

Torren’s answer comes too fast. “If activated, yes.”

“Have they activated?”

Torren checks. The cistern feed shows him moving, scanning, swearing under his breath without sound now because Jessa has muted him properly.

Then his face changes.

I hate seeing that from a distance.

“Torren,” I say.

His eyes lift to the feed. “One unit just woke.”

The meeting hall freezes.

Rethan’s voice becomes very quiet. “Which one?”

Torren sends the signal.

The map pulses red.

Hartwell lower field.

Node two.

Beneath the line feeding the clinic tower.

Nara stands so fast her chair falls behind her.