Chapter 206: The Imperial Response [4]

The hostage-takers finally agreed to a live communication session.

Naturally, the Imperial Guard had no intention of allowing the perpetrators to dictate every condition.

The negotiators insisted that the children be permitted to speak freely, that the conversations take place under medical supervision, and that the authorities receive enough information to establish whether the recordings were genuinely being transmitted from inside Saint Aurelia.

The captors rejected the second condition but accepted a shortened version of the others.

Five children would be allowed to speak with their families for one minute each. The conversations would be monitored, and any attempt to ask about the perpetrators’ identities or positions would result in immediate termination.

Lucile Chastellain was among the five.

Professor Antoine received the confirmation while reviewing documents at SkyRune.

For the first time in days, he abandoned his calculations without argument.

"I need to go."

The Imperial official accompanying the message assured him that transportation had already been arranged.

The communication session would take place at a secured government facility near the school, where the negotiators could monitor the exchange without exposing the families to unnecessary danger.

Antoine gathered his belongings, then remembered that he had left several important documents scattered across the table.

"Belozersky, would you mind taking care of these?"

"Of course, Professor. Go see your daughter."

The professor thanked him and departed with the official.

Ilya organized the remaining documents before returning to the research team. Their immediate work concerned the containment field’s automated safeguards, but the Imperial Bureau had suspended further field experiments during negotiations.

The researchers could still study the available measurements.

They simply couldn’t test their theories against the actual barrier.

That restriction was frustrating, although Ilya understood the reasoning. The captors had already demonstrated that they could detect interference, and provoking them during the first live communication session would be particularly foolish.

For the moment, everyone had something more important to accomplish.

The communication session began shortly after midday.

Ilya learned the results when Antoine returned to the workshop.

The professor looked exhausted, but his expression was unmistakably different.

He had spoken with Lucile.

According to Antoine, the connection had been established through an ordinary communication terminal modified to function within the containment field. The Imperial negotiators monitored the conversation while the captors supervised the children from their side.

Lucile sounded frightened.

She attempted to conceal it, but Antoine knew his daughter well enough to recognize the difference between her ordinary confidence and the careful way she answered his questions.

Nevertheless, she was alive.

That alone was enough to make the professor’s voice tremble when he recounted their conversation.

"She asked whether I remembered our project," Antoine said. "Imagine that. After everything that’s happened, she’s still worried I’ll forget about building that ridiculous little device."

Ilya smiled faintly.

"Then you’d better make sure the components are ready."

"I intend to."

The professor managed a tired laugh before explaining that the conversation had ended almost immediately after Lucile mentioned being hungry.

The captors had interrupted the exchange, claiming that the allotted time had expired.

That detail concerned the Imperial negotiators.

The authorities had delivered sufficient provisions for the reported number of hostages, but they still couldn’t verify how the supplies were being distributed.

Lucile’s comment might have been innocent.

Children complained about food under ordinary circumstances, and the school had been under lockdown for several days.

However, the negotiators had requested additional clarification.

Antoine was painfully aware of the uncertainty.

Still, hearing his daughter speak had restored enough of his composure that he could concentrate on the research again.

"Whatever happens, we need to find a way through that barrier," he told Ilya.

"We’re making progress, Professor. The bureau has already identified several mechanisms we didn’t understand before."

"Yes. Now we need something they can actually use."

That was difficult to dispute.

The research team had accumulated an impressive collection of measurements, diagrams, and theoretical models. Unfortunately, none of their discoveries had yet produced a practical method of reaching the children.

The Imperial Guard possessed combat wizards, trained rescue personnel, and enough equipment to overwhelm most criminal organizations in the capital.

What it lacked was a reliable way to enter Saint Aurelia without triggering the containment system’s unknown safeguards.

For the remainder of the afternoon, Antoine focused on that problem.

Rather than attempting to overcome the barrier through external manipulation, he proposed studying the conditions under which the system willingly created an opening.

The supply deliveries had already demonstrated that physical objects could pass through the field.

The captors controlled that process somehow.

If the researchers could identify the necessary conditions, they might discover a method of reproducing the opening without activating the automated safeguards.

Ilya examined the proposal alongside the available measurements.

"The system seems to treat authorized openings differently from disturbances," he observed. "Whenever the captors transfer supplies, the surrounding nodes prepare for the change before the opening appears."

Antoine agreed.

That sequence had already been established.

However, the previous experiments had attempted to reproduce it through external interference, causing the barrier to reject the manipulation.

The professor suspected that the difference lay in how the command was introduced.

An authorized opening might begin with instructions transmitted through the system’s internal control network.

If that was true, the researchers would need to understand the command structure rather than merely imitate the resulting energy fluctuations.

One of the Imperial specialists raised an immediate objection.

"We don’t have access to the internal network. Even if we understand the command sequence, how are we supposed to transmit it?"

"We may not need to," Antoine replied. "If the regulating nodes respond to recognized conditions, there might be a way to produce those conditions without issuing a direct command."

The proposal was worth investigating.

Unfortunately, it required more information about the system’s internal behavior than the researchers currently possessed.

For several hours, the workshop examined the measurements recorded during previous supply deliveries.

Their progress was limited until Ilya noticed a recurring irregularity.

Before each authorized opening, the barrier’s outer circulation briefly stabilized.

The change was subtle.

Under ordinary circumstances, the regulating nodes constantly adjusted their output to compensate for minor environmental fluctuations. However, immediately before an opening, those adjustments became unusually uniform.

Ilya pointed out the pattern.

"Could the system be waiting for the circulation to settle before it allows the opening?"

Antoine examined the measurements.

"That would make sense. Creating a passage while the nodes are compensating for unrelated disturbances could destabilize the surrounding formation."

The Imperial specialist considered the suggestion before adding that such a safeguard would be common in sophisticated Rune Tech machinery.

A system designed to manage dangerous amounts of mana would naturally avoid altering its structure during unstable operating conditions.

The researchers began comparing the stabilization periods with the timing of previous openings.

The relationship was consistent.

Every authorized opening had occurred immediately after the barrier reached a particular equilibrium.

That was promising.

It suggested that the system required certain conditions to be satisfied before allowing a passage to form.

However, the discovery also raised an important question.

Could those conditions be reproduced from outside?

The researchers prepared another laboratory experiment.

Using their simplified model, they introduced a control mechanism that prevented the regulating nodes from opening a passage unless their circulation remained within a narrow range.

Then they attempted to reproduce the required equilibrium through carefully timed external disturbances.

Their first attempts failed.

The model continued rejecting the opening whenever the circulation became unstable.

However, after adjusting the sequence, they succeeded in creating a brief interval during which the regulating nodes reached the necessary equilibrium.

The passage opened.

It remained stable for nearly four seconds before closing automatically.

The researchers repeated the experiment, achieving similar results.

The method was still far from ready for practical use, but they had discovered something important.

Certain safeguards could be satisfied through external conditions rather than direct commands.

Antoine immediately instructed the team to document the results.

The Imperial Technical Bureau would need to determine whether the actual barrier operated according to similar principles.

Unfortunately, the current negotiations prevented them from conducting another field test.

That limitation remained unavoidable.

The researchers could continue improving their models, but attempting to manipulate the school barrier without authorization might jeopardize the fragile progress made with the hostage-takers.

By evening, the Imperial Guard received another communication.

The captors had agreed to permit additional conversations with the families of several children, provided the government continued discussing the prisoners’ release.

The authorities accepted the arrangement in principle while insisting that future sessions include clearer confirmation of the hostages’ condition.

For Antoine, the announcement offered another opportunity to hear Lucile’s voice.

He immediately requested that her name be included.

The negotiators promised to raise the matter.

Ilya was relieved to see the professor regain some of his usual determination.

Although the situation remained dangerous, the communication session had at least confirmed that Lucile was alive at the time of the call.

That was more than they had known the previous day.

As the workshop prepared to conclude its activities, Antoine received a separate report from the Imperial Technical Bureau.

The investigators had located several documents connected to the illegal Rune Tech designs mentioned by the cooperating prisoner.

Among them were references to a specialized containment system capable of maintaining multiple independent energy circuits.

The description bore an uncomfortable resemblance to the barrier surrounding Saint Aurelia.

Antoine immediately requested the complete documents.

Ilya remained at the workshop to assist with their examination.

The materials might finally reveal something about the equipment the perpetrators had installed inside the school.

And after several days of working with incomplete measurements, the prospect of examining the original designs was too valuable to ignore.