The timer counted ninety for three doors at once, and the room taught it to count for us.
"Ninety," Comms said. "Eighty-nine."
"Sites?" Ava asked.
"Greenhill Pediatrics, North Freecare, Park Clinic," Comms replied. "Consent on record. Sellers on speaker. No names."
"I'm here," Greenhill said, voice steady. "Consent."
"North here," another said. "Consent."
"Park," a third. "Consent. We have a line."
Noah's knuckles came to rest near the pad's corner, left and a half step behind. The open collar did its quiet job. The method tents faced the room like grammar.
"Assign the fallbacks," Ava said. "Phones ready at all three. If a kiosk stalls after a cut, we move the gift to phone. Numbers first."
"Controller wording ready," counsel said. "Nearlight-only acknowledgments if safety requires. No vendor language."
"Routes are named," Elias said from the speaker, tone flat with competence. "I see three hold paths: 905-A Greenhill, 905-B North, 905-C Park. Cutting is clean with Chair."
"Hold flag until the arm," Vivian said. "Record each origin and time when it lands. Pin remains live."
"Seventy," Comms said.
Sofia angled the mic to include the clinic voices without turning the lounge into a stage. "Harbor stands by for :40," she said. "Consent on record."
"Run :40 even if holds arm," Ava said. "Cadence anchors the room."
The hotel display tried a soft red border that thought it could set the tone. Elias cut it without watching the screen. Names credited. Postmortem small. The liaison nudged the PROOF AT 17:40 placard so lenses would remember what mattered.
"Fifty," Comms said.
A child in the lounge whispered to her mother that the green light is a polite light. The mother nodded, and the room improved by a degree.
"Thirty," Comms said.
"Greenhill," Ava said, "you'll go first if we need a phone proof. North second. Park holds the kiosk if the cut clears."
"Copy," Greenhill said.
"Copy," North said.
"Copy," Park said, and you could hear the line behind him standing the way good lines stand.
"Fifteen," Comms said.
Do not flinch.
"Ten," Comms said.
"Harbor on :40," Sofia said, low and ready.
"Three," Ava said.
"Two," the Harbor donor said, somewhere that sounded like tile and bread.
"One," Ava said.
Click. "Approved," the Harbor lead read. "Token 8303."
Sofia posted; the aide set the square on minutes; the tents looked like they had always belonged on marble.
"Arming," Comms said. "E-Hold-905 now."
"Greenhill hold path live," Elias said. "Chair confirm required."
"Confirm," Vivian said. "Record."
"17:40:08, origin vendor clinic-hold service," counsel read.
"Bezel," Elias said. "Cut. Source 905-A at ingress. Names credited."
"North hold path live," he added. "Confirm?"
"Confirm," Vivian said.
"17:40:12, origin vendor clinic-hold service," counsel read.
"Cut," Elias said. "Source 905-B at ingress. Names credited."
"Park hold path live," he said. "Confirm?"
"Confirm," Vivian said.
"17:40:15," counsel read. "Origin vendor clinic-hold service."
"Cut," Elias said. "Source 905-C at ingress. Names credited. All three cut."
Greenhill breathed like a room that had just remembered it had lungs. "Retry?"
"Proceed," Ava said. "Greenhill phone first."
"Three," Sofia counted.
"Two," the Greenhill donor said, a laugh caught under her breath and made brave.
"One," Ava said.
Approval. "Token 4474," Greenhill read, pleased and quiet enough to keep the line calm.
Sofia mirrored to the clinics slice. The aide slid the slip onto the seam where minutes stop pretending to be anything but facts.
"North," Ava said.
"Retry," North said. A hum, a printer, the relief that belongs to the end of a small emergency. "Approved. Token 4475."
Sofia posted. Cameras obeyed the ring and filmed paper, not faces.
"Park," Ava said.
"Retry," Park said. "It… stalls. Kiosk shows E-Proxy-201." A beat. "It is not the same code."
"Proxy route," Elias said. "A second hop trying to keep the hold's shape. I am tracing. Counsel, record proxy name if it declares."
"Lounge POS," the liaison prompted softly.
"Run it," Ava said.
The POS printed like a citizen. "Approved," the liaison read. "Token 8304."
Sofia posted. Method tents did not gloat. They never do.
"Proxy identified," Elias said. "Vendor side, not acquirer. I can cut the hop at driver ingress, but I want Chair on record."
"Confirm," Vivian said. "Record the hop."
"17:40:38, origin vendor proxy route," counsel read.
"Cut," Elias said. "Hop removed. Park, retry."
"Retry," Park said. The machine remembered manners. "Approved. Token 4476."
Sofia mirrored to clinics. The room let out a breath it had been holding in ordinary lungs.
The bar display tried a glossy tile that said GATEWAY CLOSE, tiny script, big red. Elias cut it, bored and exact.
CFO's aide appeared with her professional page and a face that never relaxes. "Prudence note," she said. "Room-only posts while group holds circulate."
Ava touched the nearest tent with one finger. "Under that," she said.
The aide slid it beneath DECLINE vs HOLD like she was feeding the tent a snack.
The reporter lifted her mic an inch. "At what size do you stop," she asked softly. "Is there a number where cadence loses to weather."
"We stop when we have numbers we do not own," Ava said. "Or safety we cannot cut. Then we say so, on the pin, with time."
Noah's thumb pressed the underside of Ava's wrist for one counted beat and left. The left-shoulder cue held steady. The room steadied with it.
Park's seller, still on speaker, coughed a laugh he could finally afford. "We have stickers," he said. "I'm putting one on the kiosk that says this door remembered itself."
"Send me a picture after close," Sofia said, amused. "Off pin."
Comms kept the air useful. "Harbor can run :45 if you want a triple," she said. "Consent on record."
"Queue a single at :45," Ava said. "Then we walk the lounge ring."
"Three," Sofia said.
"Two," the donor said, cheerful.
"One," Ava said.
Click. "Approved," the Harbor lead read. "Token 8305."
Sofia posted; the aide set the slip. The liaison refreshed the PROOF AT placard with a pencil mark that belonged in ten thousand small rooms.
We cut Group E-Hold-905 at source and teach three doors the same second.
The sentence settled into the lounge like a weight you want.
Greenhill's line moved. North thanked nobody and everyone. Park apologized to his own kiosk for calling it names and then forgave it. The tents looked smug without committing the sin.
"Appendix note," Sofia said, writing as she spoke. "Group holds 905-A/B/C cut at ingress; one proxy hop removed; approvals posted; cadence intact."
"Posted," she added.
The reporter lowered her mic and went back to counting, which is what the best reporters do when cities are trying to be cities.
A small boy near the easel asked if he could press the green button someday. His grandmother said yes and he asked if he could practice patience for now. He did. The room took instruction from a child and improved again.
Security tipped his chin toward the ring. "Media cars steady," he said. "No one breaking the line."
CFO's aide had the decency to read the tents before pretending to be meteorology. She stepped back without making more paper.
"Walk-by," Comms said. "Riverside kiosk with consent. Seller likes proofs."
"Put them on for :50," Ava said. "Phone first. Kiosk second. Lounge POS third."
"Copy," the seller said, a grin audible.
The hotel display attempted PARTNER METRICS one more time like a dog testing a fence. Elias cut. Names credited. Postmortem small.
Noah leaned a fraction closer to Ava's shoulder, measuring the air and giving it back to her. Hold the cadence.
"Seventeen forty-nine," Comms said. ":50 in one."
"Phone," Sofia said to the Riverside line.
"Three," Ava said.
"Two," the donor said.
"One," Ava said.
Click. "Approved," the Harbor lead read. "Token 8306."
"Kiosk," Ava said.
"Approved," the Riverside seller read, delighted again. "Token 4477."
"Lounge," the liaison said, tapping. "Approved. Token 8307."
Sofia posted the set; the aide set the squares; the tents learned a new, temporary smile.
Comms breathed an incoming weather change into the ring without drama. "Heads up," the voice said. "Issuer Gray 17:41—node degrade—staging in sixty. Not a vendor item. Network-side advisory. Still float. No door text yet."
Counsel's tablet picked up the box an instant later and tried to act like a grown-up. "Issuer node performance degrade," he read. "Language suggests slower approvals for some banks. Nonbinding until network posts."
"Which they rarely do," Elias said. "But we may feel lag."
A donor with a leather folio stepped cleanly into the ring, consent already in his mouth. "High-value test," he said. "Consent on record."
The reporter lifted her mic a polite inch, eyes on numbers, finally pleased.
Security adjusted the circle by two shoes and made room for the air the hour would need.
"Timer," Comms said, merciful and exact. "Sixty. Fifty-nine."
Ava set two fingers on the method tent and pressed like a person confirming a paragraph. She looked at Noah, at the pad, at the clinics on speaker, at the donor with the folio who carried the kind of money that scares sloppy rooms.
"Yes," she said to the minute. "We count."
The timer found fifty and tried to be a law.
The ledger kept its corner and said no.