Ava did not wait for Nox to enter the Territory Registry. The Population Registry was printing new tenant pages every second, and the sixty-second cycle would not care whether Authority had opened a gate for the First Player.
She led her wardens through the lower apartments with Emilia's volunteers behind them. The gray forms came from every wall, sliding under doors and wrapping around residents' wrists whenever a registrar construct reached an unrecorded person.
"Do not burn paper until Emilia tells you what it is," Ava said, taking the first stairwell two steps at a time. "A name can be a lie, or it can be the only proof someone has left."
The distinction slowed the assault. It also kept her fire from becoming the same blunt tool the district was using to make people manageable.
Emilia's tablet divided the documents into three colors. Green names matched a living person and an older route record.
