Chapter 135 | Rain

Chapter 135: Chapter 135 | Rain

Tuesday came with rain.

Not the heavy kind that flooded the streets, but the soft persistent drizzle that made the medical district look like a watercolor painting. Kai stood at the kitchen window with his tea and watched the clinic staff across the road hurry between the buildings with their jackets pulled over their heads.

Behind him, the apartment was quiet.

Shira was in the second bedroom. He could hear the form through the wall, the signal running clean, the shoulder correction holding exactly the way she had taught him. She had been in there since five. She always was.

Mira was still asleep. Her door was cracked open the way she left it when she wanted the hallway sounds to reach her. The RF-7 was silent. She had run it late into the night, the 8:19 frequency repeating through the wall until Kai had fallen asleep to it.

He finished his tea and started the specialty rotation.

The rain kept falling.

---

Mira came out at seven-thirty.

She had her hair down and her eyes still half-closed and she was wearing the soft grey cardigan that she only wore when she did not have the energy to dress properly. She looked, Kai thought, like someone who had been awake too long and had decided to be awake anyway.

She found her chair. She found her bowl. She sat.

The board appeared, slower than usual.

It said: It is raining.

"Yes," Kai said.

She held the board for a moment.

Then she wrote: I like the rain.

Kai looked at her.

She was looking at the wall near his shoulder. Her eyes were still half-closed. She had written it the way she wrote facts, like she was reporting a frequency reading or a page number.

"You do?" he asked.

She held the board.

She wrote: It sounds like the album. The blue spine one. The first track.

Kai looked at the window. The rain was a steady background hum, the kind that blended into everything else.

"I never noticed," he said.

Mira wrote: You would not. You do not have the RF-7.

She picked up her spoon.

She ate.

---

Shira came out at eight.

She had the briefing document tucked under her arm and her hair pulled back and the particular expression she wore when she had been reading something for too long. She positioned herself at the table and looked at her bowl and picked up her spoon.

Halfway through, she set the spoon down.

"The second site," she said. "The junction on page six."

Kai looked at her.

"The ceiling drop," she said. "Mira flagged it as a geological pattern. Same as Cara’s briefing. Same as the fifth site."

"Yes," Kai said.

She looked at her bowl.

"I have been thinking about it," she said.

"And?"

She picked up her spoon.

She said: "The Foundation was not just suppressing dungeons. They were suppressing a system. The pattern repeats because the structure is the same. The source node is reshaping the bedrock. The ceiling drops at the junctions because the frequency is doing something to the stone from below."

She ate.

Kai looked at her.

"You said that yesterday," he said.

"I said it yesterday," she confirmed. "I am saying it again because it is still true."

She ate.

---

Mira’s board appeared.

It said: What happens when they find the source.

Shira set her spoon down.

She looked at the board.

"Denko has the survey applications in the parallel track," she said. "When the structural surveys confirm the perimeter, the hero authority will open a formal source investigation."

"And when they find it," Mira wrote.

Shira looked at the table.

She said: "They will find what thirty-one years of suppression has been protecting."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: What if it is not a node.

Shira looked at the board.

"What else would it be," she said.

Mira held the board.

She wrote slowly.

She held it up.

It said: I do not know. That is why I am asking.

Shira looked at the board.

She looked at Kai.

She looked at her bowl.

"We will find out," she said. "When the surveys are done."

She ate.

---

The rain stopped at noon.

Kai spent the afternoon with the second site briefing. He read it twice, then a third time with Mira’s annotations open beside it, the margin notes and the circled pages and the numbers she had calculated.

At three, Shira came to the table.

She sat without being asked and pulled the briefing toward her.

She read for twelve minutes.

She looked up.

"The secondary corridor," she said. "Mira’s annotation on page eight."

"Yes," Kai said.

"The node response cycle. Forty seconds." She looked at the document. "Mira’s data from the fifth site."

"Yes."

She looked at the document.

"The second site’s node is at eight-nineteen. Lower than the fifth site." She turned a page. "The response cycle may be different."

"Mira thinks it will be longer," Kai said. "The lower frequency settles slower."

She looked at the document.

She said: "Then the clean windows will be shorter."

"Yes."

She looked at the document.

She said: "You will need to be precise."

"I know."

She turned another page.

She kept reading.

---

At five, Mira came out.

Twenty steps to the table. Unassisted.

She sat. She set the board face-up.

It said: I want to go with you.

Kai looked at the board.

Shira looked up from the briefing.

Mira held the board.

She wrote: Not into the dungeon. To the entrance. I want to be there when you come out.

Kai looked at her.

She held the board.

She wrote: I want to hear the node frequency from outside. Before you go in. After you come out. I want to compare.

Shira set her pen down.

She looked at Mira.

"Mira," she said.

Mira held the board.

She wrote: I know it is not protocol. I am asking anyway.

Shira looked at the table.

She looked at Kai.

She said: "The observer will not allow it."

Mira wrote: The observer is Marsh. She approved the solo run at the fifth site. She will approve this.

Shira looked at the board.

She looked at the table.

She said: "You will need to stay at the entrance. Behind the perimeter line."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: Yes.

Shira looked at the table.

She said: "Then I will come too."

Kai looked at her.

Shira looked at the table.

She said: "I am not going to sit here while both of you are at the entrance."

Mira’s board appeared.

It said: You want to hear it too.

Shira looked at the table.

She said: "I want to be there."

She picked up her pen.

She went back to the briefing.

---

That evening, Kai called Carson.

"The second site," he said. "Thursday. Mira and Shira want to be at the entrance."

A pause.

"Mira wants to hear the node frequency from outside," Carson said.

"Yes."

Another pause.

"Shira wants to be there too."

"Yes."

Carson was quiet for a moment.

"I will talk to Marsh," he said. "She will approve it. She approved the fifth site solo run on the condition that Mira provided the frequency documentation. This is a reasonable extension."

"Thank you," Kai said.

"The entrance is a safe zone," Carson said. "The node resonance does not propagate that far. They will be fine."

"Thank you," Kai said again.

He hung up.

---

Mira came out of her room at eight.

She had the board and the RF-7 and she walked to the table and sat.

She set the board face-up.

It said: Carson.

"He will talk to Marsh," Kai said. "She will approve it."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: Good.

She set it face-down.

She looked at the wall near his shoulder.

She said: "The rain."

Out loud.

Two words.

Kai looked at her.

She looked at the wall.

She said: "I want to listen to it. Before I sleep."

He looked at the window. The rain had stopped hours ago. The street was dry.

"The rain stopped," he said.

She picked up the board.

She wrote: The RF-7 has a recording. The blue spine album has rain sounds. The first track.

He looked at her.

"You want to listen to the first track," he said.

She held the board.

She wrote: Yes.

She stood.

She walked back to her room.

Twenty steps.

The door did not close all the way.

A moment later, the RF-7 started. The first track of the blue spine album. Rain sounds. Soft. Steady.

Kai sat at the table and listened to it through the wall.

---

Shira came out of the second bedroom at nine.

She had finished the form. Thirty-two past the cutoff. The signal had run clean.

She looked at the table. The briefing was still open.

She sat.

She looked at the briefing.

She looked at the hallway.

She said: "Mira is listening to the rain track."

"Yes," Kai said.

She looked at the hallway.

She said: "She does that when she is thinking."

He looked at her.

She looked at the hallway.

She said: "She has been doing it since the fifth site. Before you went in."

Kai looked at the hallway.

He had not known that.

Shira looked at the table.

She said: "She listens to it and she learns the frequency and she waits."

She picked up the briefing.

She read.

---

Kai went to bed at eleven.

He lay on the couch and pressed his palm to the cushion.

Shira. Her room. The deliberate quality. Settling toward sleep.

Mira. Her room. The RF-7 had stopped. The rain track was over. She was quiet.

He closed his eyes.

The system notification appeared without a chime.

『 BOND LEVEL 6.1. MULTIPLIER 2,000X. 』

『 THURSDAY: SECOND SITE ASSESSMENT. 』

『 MIRA ELYS AND SHIRA VOSS WILL BE AT THE ENTRANCE. 』

『 MIRA ELYS HAS LEARNED THE 8:19 FREQUENCY. 』

『 SHIRA VOSS HAS READ THE BRIEFING FOUR TIMES. 』

He read it.

He put the phone down.

He closed his eyes.

Thursday was two days away.