The contact log tried to win by repeating itself.
It gave the same times, the same blank boxes, and the same authority stamp at the end of the line. Ty watched the entries crawl across the drawer again and understood why the file liked repetition. People got tired. Once they were tired enough, an empty box could start to look like an answer.
Family contact had been deferred at 22:44, deferred again at 22:51, then deferred by authority code at 23:03.
JJ sat on the drawer edge with her marked wrist tucked against her body.
"If it prints deferred again, I am suing paper."
Heissman said that might be the first complaint the room understood. JJ told him to save encouragement for people with healthier hobbies.
The log printed again anyway. The ink came out clean each time, like cleanliness could make an absence behave. Ty watched the blank name field and felt the trick in it. Blank looked harmless. Blank looked like nobody had been harmed yet. The times beside it said otherwise.
