Chapter 288: What Remains
The first thing he noticed was the speed.
He descended to forty-eight meters for anchor thirty-five. The dual-signal grammar was familiar — archive thread and rock frequency, the same pattern he had been working with for weeks. But when he reached the anchor point, the carrier function found both signals without searching. No slow ranging-in. No careful frequency matching before the pattern locked.
Both signals resolved on the first reach.
The anchor seated in fourteen seconds. Cost: nine percent.
He held position. Nine percent for a deep interior anchor. The three anchors before the advancement had cost eleven, twelve, and fourteen percent respectively. The fourteen-percent anchor — the first one that touched the source-contact seam — had taken over thirty seconds to seat.
Fourteen seconds. Nine percent.
Anchor thirty-six.
Eleven seconds. Eight percent.
Something had changed.
He surfaced after six anchors. Pool at forty-three percent.
