Nox kept his hand an inch from the engine core housing while the conductor's warning played through every channel. Three conduits left the housing and vanished through the dungeon wall, each carrying the separate rhythm he had felt beneath the freight controls.
Vasa checked the signal traces from the hospital junction, then went silent for a moment too long. "He is telling the truth," she said. "Those lines are carrying heat, ward power, and water-pump authority to three Ironvale districts."
"Civilian districts?" Nox asked.
"I do not have their full population records," she replied. "I have hospital intake, street relay traffic, and emergency pressure reports. They are occupied."
The engine could be broken. Its core was close, its freight guards were down, and the conductor had just admitted the thing he wanted hidden. Destroying it would stop the train, leave Holt's destruction order exposed, and turn three neighborhoods dark before anyone could decide what to do next.
