Sarah’s fingers fly over the tablet. “Just adjusting. Keep going.”
There’s a loud chirp that causes me to flinch and duck.
“What the hell wasthat?” I ask in shock, my heart lurching.
“Hold on. That’s me,” Sarah says, already tapping her device. “Seven’s calling.”
I remember that name. I don’t like that woman at all.
Lincoln, who’s had his arms folded stiffly this entire time, watches Sarah as she puts her on speaker.
“Level C to Level B,” Seven’s voice crackles through.
“Go ahead, Seven,” Sarah says.
“Sarah, I need Lincoln down on Level D. Now.”
Lincoln straightens. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve got a unit mid-stress test that glitched hard,” Seven says. “We had to power it down off the server to contain it. Lost the live link completely… so no telemetry, no remote diagnostics.”
Lincoln’s eyes narrow. “I would’ve clocked an error like that on the server feed.”
“Youwould’ve,” Seven replies, “if we hadn’t yanked the power to stop the desync. The actuator loop went haywire under load and started overcorrecting torque. Could’ve torn the frame if we let itrun. It’s isolated now, but we can’t power it back up without on-site sign-off.”
Sarah cuts in smoothly. “Which unit?”
“D-17,” Seven says. “Wired test rig. We need a mod-tech physically there before we bring it back online.”
Lincoln swears quietly.
“Where’s the floor supervisor?” he asks.
“He couldn’t come in today,” Seven says. “Maintenance’s running skeleton crew. This one needs your clearance.”
Silence hangs for a beat.
Sarah turns to Lincoln. “I’ve got this here. Gabby stays on the perimeter. Passive observation only. Kill switch armed.”
He looks at me again. “If this feels off—No, you know what? Pause. Wait for me.”
“I kind of want to get out of here,” I say, fully meaning it.
“Then just go home,” Lincoln says.
“No, she agreed to come here for us to… Jesus Christ Lincoln,” Sarah rolls her eyes, throwing her arms up.
“Don't do that Sarah,” he fixes her with a glare.
“What did Voss say? Huh? We don't have time! We literally don't have time and this is just one of the many different solutions that we're trying.”
“Why did it have to be Gabrielle?”
“Because she works here! And she's one of the only people that's expendable in terms of flexibility with her schedule. Everybody else is actively working, no offense Gabrielle,” Sarah turns to me.
“Sure,” I whisper.
Lincoln's jaw tightens. “I get that but you can wait 10 fucking minutes. Don’t touch the robot,” he points to me.
