The Director noticed the delay.
Not in the anomaly feed.
Not in the behavioral logs.
In the compensation curves.
She stood in front of the main projection, hands clasped behind her back, eyes fixed on a column of numbers most operators never looked at unless something was already burning.
The city's pressure model had adjusted.
Too cleanly.
When the Numbers Don't Add Up
"Repeat the last five minutes," she said.
The system complied.
Graphs rewound. Overlays reappeared.
The primary anomaly—Yin Lie—showed reduced internal compression. Not resolved. Not safe. But relieved.
That alone was suspicious.
But the secondary anomaly—
Qin Mian—
her degradation rate had spiked.
Not randomly.
Not in response to external stressors.
But synchronized.
The Director narrowed her eyes.
"…Directionality," she murmured.
A Pressure That Didn't Disappear
"Did we reduce applied stress?" she asked.
"No," the system replied.
"Ambient friction constant. No escalation or withdrawal."
"Then why," the Director asked calmly,
"did the primary ease while the secondary worsened?"
Silence followed.
Then—
"Recalculating load distribution."
The projection shifted.
A new layer appeared.
It wasn't obvious at first.
Just a subtle skew—like weight sliding across a structure without changing the total mass.
The Director's fingers tightened slightly.
"So," she said,
"it didn't dissipate."
She leaned closer.
"It moved."
The Possibility She Didn't Like
"Run correlation," she ordered.
"Cross-reference internal stabilization in primary with physiological degradation in secondary."
The system paused longer than usual.
RESULT: POSITIVE CORRELATION (HIGH CONFIDENCE)
INTERPRETATION: LOAD TRANSFER LIKELY
The Director straightened slowly.
"Transfer," she repeated.
That wasn't supposed to be possible.
Not without contact.
Not without activation.
Not without visible intervention.
And yet—
The City Re-examines Its Assumptions
"Did she activate the Anchor?" an analyst asked carefully.
"No," the system replied.
"Anchor signature remains dormant. No outward correction detected."
"Then how—"
The Director raised a hand.
"Stop," she said.
She stared at the merged data model.
Two anomalies.
One strain easing.
One strain increasing.
The total remained constant.
A closed system.
"…They're sharing it," she said.
The room went quiet.
Why This Is Worse
"Is that… cooperation?" someone asked.
"No," the Director replied immediately.
Her voice was steady, but something colder had entered it.
"This is redistribution."
She turned away from the projection.
"They are not resisting pressure," she continued.
"They are learning how to route it."
That was far more dangerous.
A Miscalculation Exposed
The Director had assumed separation created fragility.
She had assumed isolation would force choice.
What she hadn't accounted for—
was sacrifice without communication.
No messages.
No signals.
No commands.
Just mutual adjustment.
She inhaled slowly.
"That means," she said,
"the test is no longer asymmetrical."
New Risk Classification
She issued a quiet command.
"Update model," she said.
"Treat secondary anomaly as active structural element."
The system complied.
THREAT MODEL UPDATED
SECONDARY ANOMALY: ROLE — LOAD BEARING
The words hung on the display.
Load-bearing.
The Director didn't look away.
The Director's Concern
"She is deteriorating faster," an analyst said.
"At this rate, failure is likely."
"Yes," the Director replied.
"And when she fails—"
She didn't finish the sentence.
She didn't need to.
The system filled in the projection.
A cascade.
A New Question
The Director clasped her hands again.
"We wanted to see who would break first," she said softly.
Her eyes narrowed.
"It appears they have decided that question for us."
She turned to the room.
"Prepare a new scenario," she ordered.
"Something that cannot be transferred."
A pause.
"Something that forces response."
Somewhere Below
Qin Mian lay against cold concrete, breathing shallowly, her body shaking from the strain she had pulled onto herself.
Yin Lie stood elsewhere, fists clenched, feeling the wrongness of relief bought at her expense.
Neither of them knew the exact words the Director had just spoken.
But both felt it—
The rules were about to change.
Not because they failed.
But because they learned too fast.