Chapter 326: Ridge
Zone Six took sixteen more anchors.
Kai had estimated between fourteen and twenty when he reviewed the survey notes the morning after the ceiling notification. The ridge stone's surface organization suggested closer to thirty total — less than Zone Five's tight single-axis compression, more than Zone Three's pre-positioned twenty-eight. He had seated fourteen in the first two days. Sixteen remained.
He went down at first light.
The shallow depth made the carrier function feel different. Not lighter — the pool cost per anchor was steady at eight percent, the same floor the function had held since Gene Ancient — but the distance was short. Twelve meters reached the entity's territory in seconds. There was no long approach through neutral stone. The function arrived already inside Zone Six's presence.
The entity had organized everything it touched.
