Water in Shaft 37

Lin stepped in and opened the temperature graph on his phone. “You flattened the peak. You built the blackout sequence. You knew the heat dome would pin the city, so you treated the outer districts like a buffer.” Harper did not deny it. “You used to work in climate office,” he said. “You know models are never prophecy. They only show what happens if nothing changes. We made a choice. You just don’t like the choice.” “I made one too,” Lin said. “I signed the softened version. I blamed process. You blamed procedure. Now the system is killing people.” For the first time, Harper looked away. Then every monitor on the far wall flashed red at once. East Bridge cable viaduct on fire. The room went still.