Lin did not like the new floor.
Too quiet.
Too smooth.
Data Integrity used to be a cramped space three levels down where old terminals hummed and the ceiling leaked during heavy rain. People swore at their screens. Someone always had a fan pointed at a stack of overheating processors.
Now it was glass walls, noise‑cancelling panels and rows of identical consoles that never ran hot long enough to smell like anything.
Progress, the memo had said.
Lin called it sterilization.
The registry interface glowed on their screen, a grid of numbers and tags, each line a person reduced to a handful of fields.
POWER CLASS.
INCIDENT HISTORY.
ASSOCIATION RISK.
Their job was to make sure the columns added up.
No duplicates.
No ghosts.
No missing flags.
Today, Mara had added a new task.
Implement preliminary anomaly filter per oversight directive.
Filtering anomalies in a system built on anomalies.
