The Board chamber always ran a few degrees colder than the rest of Orion.
Mara had asked Facilities about it once.
They blamed the ventilation system, which was original construction and had never been properly updated.
She blamed the people.
Today the chill went straight to bone.
Thirty-two panes of smartglass formed the outer wall, projecting a lag-smoothed view of the city in real time. From up here, District Twelve-Lower was a smear of warm light near the river bend, indistinguishable from any other residential sector, another piece of the city that existed in data before it existed in experience.
On the central display, it was all anyone could see.
A paused frame from the stream.
An eight-year-old girl under a scanner arch, red light blooming over her head like something official had just decided what she was.
The caption running beneath it:
*REGISTRY RECOMMENDATION: PREEMPTIVE CONTAINMENT.*
*OUTCOME: RELEASED.*
*PUBLIC REACTION: ACTIVE.*
