Page 74 of Dose

“Agreed,” Ezra replies. “We monitor the rerouted lots. We do not interrupt them until clinical extraction plans exist.”

He expands the hub schematic. It is still incomplete: known clean rooms in blue, inferred service runs in yellow, whole sections left gray.

“Minimum two weeks before I would recommend an access attempt,” he says. “Longer if the rerouting changes again. The objective remains quiet logistics access, not a raid.”

Theon shifts beside me. His right hand settles against the back of my chair. Not touching, but near enough that I feel the heat of it.

“Korte may be moving west,” Marcus says. “A travel authorization for part of her security detail was routed through the hub’s city last night. It is not confirmation that she will accompany them.”

The room goes very still around her name.

“How confident?” Nikolai asks.

“Better than even. Not enough to plan around her presence.”

I study the incomplete schematic. Korte taught me that uncertainty was a defect to be concealed until it could be corrected. These people mark it in yellow and gray, argue over it, and leave it visible.

That may be the most important thing they have taught me.

“She’ll be looking for me in Phoenix,” I say.

Theon’s hand closes around the chair back.

Marcus nods. “The surviving guard did not see your face, but the medication cases were assembled with your chain-of-custody logic. Korte may recognize the method.”

“Then we let her think she has.”

Every face turns toward me.

“Not a declaration,” I add. “A decoy.”

Ezra’s fingers hover over his tablet. “Explain.”

“At Site Nine, I used an old checksum sequence for controlled transfers. Korte required it after an audit failure six years ago. I stopped using it two years later because I found a faster method, but she still associates that sequence with me.”

I rise and approach the display.

“If we place that sequence in a low-value channel here”—I indicate one of the known administrative routes—“she may believe I am testing the access point I would have chosen while I still worked for her. She will harden it. If she follows her own response protocol, she will also shift oversight traffic through the secondary administrative path.”

Ezra highlights the path. “Which may expose the credential hierarchy.”

“May,” I say. “Not will.”

“And if she recognizes the decoy as a decoy?” Damon asks.

“Then we learn she has stopped relying on her old model of me. Either response gives us information, provided the test cannot lead back here.”

Marcus studies the map. “We could reproduce the sequence from archived Site Nine documents. Nothing in it would prove you are alive.”

“Unless she compares the timing with Phoenix,” Theon says. “Then the inference strengthens.”

“Yes.” I turn toward him. “That is the risk.”

He does not look away. Neither do I.

“Model only,” Nikolai says. “Ezra builds the response branches. Marcus determines whether the decoy can be inserted without touching medication flow or exposing our access. Nothing goes live without another council review.”

Theon releases the chair.