The handle turned, and the corridor gave the hour back its teeth.
The aide's neutral face waited in the doorframe. "Vote in two," she said.
Ava stepped into the hall with the pad square to her palm. Noah took his half-step to the right and behind, collar open, the left-shoulder cue exactly where it belonged. Sofia fell into place at the seam with her tablet; Elias lived in the small speaker like reliable weather.
They crossed the threshold. The room had remade itself into tidiness and worry. Counsel's tablet glowed with boxes that wanted to be important. The map on the wall remembered how to be polite for now.
"Motion on the table," the CFO said, mild as milk. "Pause postings until seventeen hundred. Prudence."
"Procedure first," counsel said. "Facts, then roll call."
Vivian's glance pinned the order to the air. "Facts," she said.
Comms breathed timing into the table mic. "Vendor float shows 'Gateway Hint 15:16,'" the voice said. "Language suggests rate limit signaling, not a hold."
"Read it when it lands," Vivian said.
Elias's voice arrived as if he had entered the room without moving. "Corner Sundry pre-arming a kiosk hold," he said. "Edge intercept ready."
Sofia lifted a warm strip. "Harbor tokens 8265 and 8266," she said. "Footer eight eleven."
The aide set the strip inside the seam where paper can stare at power until it gets its way.
Noah leaned the smallest degree, completing the circuit at Ava's shoulder. Do not flinch.
Ava looked from the pad to the room. "Countersign at fourteen eighteen," she said. "Scope posted. Charity-cap channel at source with other caps unchanged. Counting Method box states adds and excludes. Proof cadence live. Harbor will speak on the minute."
"Which does not remove liability," the CFO said, friendly. "If vendor acts and we post, we may own the optics."
"We own receipts," Ava said.
Counsel's tablet chimed. "Gateway Hint 15:16," he read. "Nonbinding. 'Partners may see transient slow approvals during safety windows; no action required.'"
"Paint," Elias said from the speaker, amused. "Red stripe trying the freeway again."
"Bezel," Ava said.
"Cut," he said. "Source service blocked. Postmortem in small."
Vivian nodded to the aide. "Mirror small under the ledger," she said. "No headline."
Sofia bent to the mic. "Harbor," she said. "Consent on record. Five by phone. No names."
A donor's voice came with a coat of wind and a smile you could hear. "Consent," she said.
"On count," Ava said.
"Three," Sofia said.
"Two," the donor said.
"One," Ava said.
The reader clicked. The room let out breath it did not mean to be holding.
"Read," Vivian said.
"Approved," the Harbor lead said. "Token 8267."
Sofia wrote the number in block print and passed it to the aide. The aide set it where stubborn eyes go to learn a new habit.
The director who attacked problems in tidy rows of numbers tapped his pen once. "Liability again," he said. "If vendors escalate to holds, what is our commitment."
"Cut holds as paths inside sixty seconds," Ava said. "Post origin and time. Keep pin live. Proof every five. Measure at eighteen hundred."
Noah's fingers brushed her wrist under the table. The pressure was no weight at all and it helped.
"Read the advisory clause," Vivian told counsel.
Counsel read without performing. "Vendor advisory: 'During safety windows, partners may request exceptions via countersign. We may publish advisory paint to city maps. Advisory paint is nonbinding.'"
"Which we cut," Elias said, dry. "Because it wastes oxygen."
Vivian set her hand flat on the table. "Alternative motion text for the record," she said.
Ava did not raise her voice. "Read the advisory into minutes. Keep the pin live. Systems cuts paint inside thirty seconds and holds inside sixty. Proof every five minutes on speaker with a posted token. Measure at six."
The aide wrote it with neatness a courtroom would admire.
Sofia lifted another strip. "Harbor token 8268," she said. "Footer eight sixteen."
"Proceed to questions," counsel said.
"Who owns the knobs," the tidy director said. "Cap and velocity."
"Nearlight Finance," Ava said. "Vendor will cite at close. Our appendix reflects the rule and the countersign."
The CFO made a note, then smiled as if he had just remembered a joke about storms. "Which is not the same as being weatherproof," he said. "Voting time."
Vivian glanced at counsel. Counsel nodded.
"Roll call," she said.
A faint chime threaded the room's air. Elias's tone tightened. "Gateway Rate Limit 15:18 staging," he said. "Not a hold. A gentle choke at the edge on three kiosks."
"Proof on the minute," Ava said. "Harbor stands by."
Sofia's palm hovered over the mic as if the hand itself knew how to keep time. "Harbor," she said softly. "On our count at eighteen."
"Copy," the Harbor lead said.
Vivian did not wait for the chime to finish programming the room's nerves. "Roll call on the freeze," she said. "Pause postings."
"No," one director said.
"Yes," another said.
"No," a third said, firmer.
The CFO touched the corner of his page with gentle theatricality. "Yes," he said.
"Chair waits," Vivian said, and looked at the clock that had decided to be helpful.
"Three," Sofia said into the mic.
"Two," the donor said, amused at becoming part of a minute.
"One," Ava said.
The reader clicked. The silence came after it, not before.
"Read," Vivian said.
"Approved," the Harbor lead said. "Token 8269."
Sofia passed the slip. The aide set it perfectly square. The map on the wall tried to remember how to be a bruise and failed.
"Continue roll call," Vivian said.
"No," another director said.
"Yes," said the ally the CFO had measured ten minutes ago.
That made it even.
Vivian's pulse did not bother to speed up. She lifted her eyes to Noah's open collar, then to Ava's left shoulder, then to the ledger's edge as if reading the sentence they had invented in a stairwell.
Counsel's tablet shook a little under his steady hand. "Gateway Hint updated," he said. "Fifteen eighteen. 'Partners may acknowledge safety windows to avoid degraded experience.'"
"Off pin," Comms said in the small speaker. "Investor eyes quoting but not naming."
"Keep it off pin," Ava said. "Air only."
Elias's breath shortened one beat. "Rate limit hit," he said. "Deli kiosk. Not a hold. I am easing it at edge."
"Post nothing about rate until a person feels it," Vivian said. "We post receipts, not weather."
Sofia held her pen ready like a tool a minute had asked for. "Harbor is ready again at twenty," she said.
The tidy director slid his page back into alignment. "If tie," he said, "the Chair breaks?"
"If tie," counsel said, "the Chair breaks."
The CFO smiled a courteous blade. "Then we are tied."
Vivian looked at the aide. The aide did not smile. She lifted her pen.
"Chair votes," Vivian said.
We keep the pin live and bind this hour to minutes every five.
The aide's pen wrote the sentence like it knew its job.
The wall display blinked a new color that was not red and not green. Comms spoke without breath. "Vendor has posted 'Partner Sync 15:20—acknowledge or degrade,'" the voice said. "Timer ninety seconds."
Counsel's tablet echoed the message in tidy, unhelpful typography.
Elias did not raise his voice. "It is not a hold," he said. "But if we refuse the sync, kiosks will slow. If we accept, they will try to rename our countersign as compliance."
Vivian turned her face by a millimeter, which is how she becomes a command. "Ms. Chen," she said.
Sofia lifted her hand toward the mic as if catching a falling minute. "Harbor," she said. "On count at twenty."
The wall began to count down in numbers that had learned how to frighten timid rooms.
Ninety. Eighty-nine. Eighty-eight.