Six Hours Before the Review

The system records all of this. It records Pallavi Pillai sitting on the equipment crate in Sub-Level 4 until the ventilation shifts and the air goes cold, not moving, not sleeping, just waiting to find out whether the night held. It records Duarte Conti walking back to his dormitory floor with his hands empty and his face unreadable.
It does not record what the woman cost. That part happened somewhere the system cannot see.
The injunction holds. The thirty-one names are notified by 8 a.m.
The system updates its files. It notes that the unclassified visitor has not been reacquired. It notes that the data chip is not recovered. It notes that the case has been referred to external jurisdiction, which means it is no longer Verantis business.
It closes the observation thread.
It does not understand what it witnessed. It only knows that it watched, and that the watching mattered, and that somewhere in its logs is the record of a woman who arrived already knowing the ending — and came anyway.