The following three days were the most difficult that Michael had faced since the beginning.

Not physically, but the shoulder had opinions about the material runs and placement work, as well as everything that needed two functional arms. It was hard in the sense that sustained pressure over several days with an unmovable deadline was challenging—the kind that demanded constant decision-making and focus.

It required the mental discipline of someone who understood that even stopping to breathe was a luxury the timeline couldn’t afford right now.

He slept only four hours each night and was on the watchtower before sunrise every morning, monitoring the pulse and examining the southeast signature.

It remained in the same place—two blocks closer than before the wall was completed, stationary and patient. Interestingly, this steadiness was more unsettling than movement because deliberate patience can be a different kind of threat.

Cole’s group worked from six in the morning until dark, without complaint or needing oversight.

Michael valued their understanding of the task and their execution. The only time Cole approached him in those three days was to ask a structural question about the turret platform placements, which led to a blueprint adjustment that improved the placement.

Damon’s group collaborated with them, and both groups established a functional rhythm.

While not exactly friendship, their relationship was a productive coexistence of individuals who respected each other’s skills and shared a common goal that overshadowed their initial differences.

Every morning, Gareth conducted external route assessments with two of his men, returning with clear and useful reports on Rotter movement patterns in nearby blocks and key supply locations worth attacking.

Michael took these reports, used the information, and never mentioned that Gareth was spending a lot of time looking southeast from the watchtower in the evenings, even when he thought he was unseen.

Everyone observed the southeast and knew something was coming. No one dared to speak it aloud because words didn’t matter, but actions did.

---

On Day Two of the push, the turrets were installed. Four automated units were placed—one at each corner of the perimeter wall on the corner platforms.

These systems tracked movement within their range and could be operated automatically or manually via the control panel Michael set up in the lobby.

Each turret’s coverage spanned ninety degrees of the exterior perimeter, with a thirty-meter overlap at the corners, ensuring the entire wall was protected with redundant coverage at the junctions.

He stood in the lobby, examining the control panel, while contemplating eleven entities in a park eight blocks away that could think, coordinate, and acted faster than Stalkers.

He also felt slightly better about the wall than he had before the turrets were installed although marginally.

Maya approached and stood next to him, observing the control panel and then glancing at the blueprint overlay in his view.

Although she couldn’t see it herself, she had learned to interpret it from the way he looked at the empty air.

" It’s automated," she said.

"With manual override," he said.

She looked at the panel and said, "Who handles manual if it comes to that?"

He looked at her.

She looked back and said, "I’m not trying to be difficult, but someone needs to know the answer before it becomes important."

He evaluated the panel to identify who in the building had the spatial awareness and calmness required for manual turret operation during active contact situations.

"You," he said.

She blinked. "Me?"

"You process spatial layouts faster than anyone else here," he said. "You’ve been managing the pulse relay tracking on the squad system more effectively than many who have used it longer. Manual operation is simply applying spatial awareness quickly." He paused and looked at her. "And that’s what you do."

She paused for a moment, gazing at the panel as her eyes scanned the controls. "Okay," she said, not with false confidence but with the calm acceptance of someone who understood the weight of her responsibility and was determined to handle it properly.

"I’ll show you the system tonight," he said.

She nodded and kept looking at the panel and he left her there and went back to the build.

[Bond Event — She Gets The Job: Maya. +1 Bond Point. Current BP: 6 — Maya.]

---

The clinic expansion was completed by the afternoon of Day Two, and Dr. Kang toured the new space, meticulously examining each surface, cabinet, and piece of equipment in silence for an extended period.

Michael stood in the doorway and watched her do the walk and waited.

She stopped at the surgical table and put her hands flat on the surface and looked at the overhead light above it that was angled and bright and exactly what a proper surgical setup needed and she stood like that for a moment with her back to him.

"This is enough to do real work," she said quietly. Not to him exactly, just out loud.

"That’s the point," he said.

She turned around and looked at him and her eyes were very direct and very clear and had something in them that she controlled back down before it fully developed but he saw it.

"Thank you," she said. Simple and direct the way she said everything.

"Thank Anya," he said. "Her supply calculations freed up the SP that built this."

Dr. Kang looked at him for a moment. "I’ll thank Anya," she said. "I’m thanking you."

He held her gaze and nodded and she went back to her walk through and he went back to the build queue.

[Bond Event — The Clinic: Dr. Kang. +1 Bond Point. Current BP: 5 — Dr. Kang.]

---

Shin found something on Day Two that nobody had planned for.

She came to Michael in the late afternoon with her arms crossed and her eyes focused and the particular look she wore when she had something to say that she’d been thinking about for a while and had decided the time was right.

"The floors below," she said.

"What about them," he said.

"Three and four are cleared but they’re empty," she said. "Five is cleared and empty. We’re using six and putting people in the lobby level for gate control but everything between ground and six is just cleared space." She paused. "If something gets through the wall and through the gate those floors are just corridors it walks through to get to us."

He looked at her. "What are you suggesting."

"Barriers," she said. "Not system built, just physical. Furniture, debris, materials from the cleared apartments stacked in the stairwell access points and the corridor junctions on each floor. Slow anything coming up. Give us warning and time." She paused. "I’ve been walking the floors this morning working out the best positions."

He looked at her for a long moment.

She’d been walking the floors working out defensive barrier positions on her own initiative while everyone else was on the main build and she’d come to him with a specific proposal and specific positions and the quiet certainty of someone who had thought it through properly.

"Show me," he said.

She showed him.

The positions were good. Better than good, she’d found the natural choke points in each floor’s layout with the instinct of someone whose mind worked spatially in a different way to Maya’s architecture but was equally useful, and the barrier plan would turn each floor between ground and six into a significant delay for anything trying to come up.

"Start tomorrow," he said. "Take whoever you need."

She nodded and looked at the floor plan she’d sketched on a piece of paper she’d found somewhere and then at him. "Rei wants to help," she said.

He looked at her.

"She came and found me this morning while I was walking the floors," Shin said. "She didn’t say much—just walked with me, looked at the same things I was looking at, and nodded when I explained my thoughts." She paused. "She’s been searching for something to do beyond just existing here."

Michael considered Dr. Kang’s remark that people are not mere resources, then watched Rei walk the floors with Shin in the morning, searching for something to be involved in.

"Take her," he said.

Shin nodded, folded the floor plan, and pocketed it before returning to the barracks. Michael stood in the cleared corridor, realising that the building was doing something unplanned: the people inside were beginning to build it alongside him without instruction.

[Bond Event — She Saw The Gap: Shin. +1 Bond Point. Current BP: 6 — Shin.]

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