Chapter 193 - 0193 The Witness Statement
The service hall accepted only three shadows.
Caleb crossed first because the room had named him vessel and because his body wanted to prove it could arrive before him.
He made it wait.
Sam followed with the Record under one arm.
Rina stepped in third.
The hall lights changed from white to blue behind her. A glass panel slid down between Rina and the waiting room, slow enough to be a decision instead of a trap.
Iharu’s hand rose on the other side.
Rina put her palm to the glass.
"Tower stands," he said.
The glass kept the sound out.
Caleb read his mouth.
So did Rina.
She nodded once.
Tali moved behind Iharu and lifted two fingers toward Caleb.
Choice words.
Caleb answered with his open hand.
The route turned left.
It should have led behind the admission windows. It led into an interview room instead.
Three chairs waited around a metal table. Each had a white card placed on the seat.
CUSTODIAN.
VESSEL.
WITNESS.
On the far wall, a pane of glass showed nothing but a reflection of the room. Caleb saw himself there in pieces, silver under his skin, Sam with the green book, Rina with the cracked tracker pressed flat against her sternum.
The speaker clicked.
"Manual review requires seated participants."
Sam looked at the chairs.
"Manual review can use its manners."
The cards remained still.
Caleb felt the pull in the room.
Sit. Comply. Continue.
Simple steps.
That made them worse.
"Choice words," Rina said.
Her voice shook once and steadied on its own.
Caleb looked at her, then at Sam.
Sam set the Record on the table without taking the custodian chair.
"We are present."
The speaker waited.
The card marked CUSTODIAN turned black at the edges.
Sam smiled at it with his teeth.
"You heard me."
The far glass lit.
SEFA AMADI.
Below the name, six status lines appeared.
FIELD REMNANT.
UNRETURNED WITNESS.
TRANSFERRED LIGHT.
CARRIER CONTAMINANT.
INDEX FRACTURE.
DIVIDED.
Rina’s face went empty in a careful, dangerous shape.
"Take that word off him."
The glass refreshed.
DIVIDED stayed.
The speaker said, "Witness will identify primary category for reconciliation."
Sam leaned both hands on the table. "No."
"Witness will identify primary category."
"Subject has a name."
"Name disputed by index."
Rina stepped closer to the glass.
"Sefa Amadi."
The room held the sound.
Caleb felt the center measure it.
The tracker against Rina’s chest clicked once.
Static scratched through the speaker.
"Too many doors."
Rina closed her hand around the tracker.
"I am here."
The glass changed again.
Six narrow panes opened inside it, one for each status line. Behind each pane, Caleb saw a different piece of the same man.
Sefa in a ruined hall, one arm raised.
Sefa’s light inside the Child’s ribs.
Sefa’s voice in Rina’s tracker.
Sefa’s name blank in the Record.
Sefa’s hand against a tower rail.
Sefa standing among paper strips while other names pressed close.
The silver in Caleb reached for the glass.
Break the panes.
Take the pieces.
Make one answer.
"Mine," Caleb said.
His hand stayed open.
Sam looked at him.
"Good?"
"Hungry answer," Caleb said.
"Then starve it."
The center spoke over him.
"Witness will select primary category."
Rina shook her head. "No."
The panes brightened.
"Selection required."
"No."
The light behind the panes sharpened.
Sefa’s mouth moved in all six versions at once.
Only one voice reached them.
"Do not let them sort me."
Rina pressed her free hand to the glass.
"I heard you."
The screen printed a new form across the pane.
WITNESS STATEMENT.
Statement must establish subject identity, relationship, and eligible claim.
A black line appeared at the bottom, waiting.
Sam opened the Record.
The pages moved under his fingers without hurry.
"We have his name," he said. "We have an entry with an incomplete return. We have living witnesses."
"Living witness present," the room answered.
"Then ask her a real question."
The black line waited.
Rina kept her eyes on the glass ahead.
That took work.
Caleb saw the work and respected it.
She said, "Sefa Amadi is not a category."
The line wrote each word as she spoke.
SEFA AMADI IS NOT A CATEGORY.
The status panes flickered.
Rina continued before the room could interrupt.
"He answered when Iharu called him tower. That matters because the center tried to make him only what it took. It failed."
Sam’s eyes stayed on the Record.
Caleb watched the panes.
The tower rail pane brightened.
Rina swallowed.
"I missed the first tower day. I saw what it left in him. I saw him answer Iharu from inside a dead tracker with half a voice and too much pain. I saw him ask if the tower still stood before he asked if he was safe."
The black line wrote faster.
The room made a soft print sound under the table.
Caleb hated it.
Sam hated it more usefully.
"Do not turn her testimony into intake," he said.
"Witness statement recording."
"Witness statement contested by custodian if harvested beyond case review."
The printer sound stopped.
Rina kept going.
"He is Sefa Amadi. He is held. He is awake. Somebody divided him. He does not belong in pieces."
The panes went dark except one.
Sefa among the paper strips remained.
The names around him shifted close enough for Caleb to read some.
PASCO RELL.
EMEKA OKONYE.
MAREK ALBRIGHT.
VOSS-07.
Then more.
Dozens.
Older names.
Names the Record had not reached yet.
Rina looked sick.
"That is what he meant."
Caleb stepped beside her.
The silver stayed under his skin, tight and listening.
"Too many names," he said.
Sam turned a page. "The center made him a shelf."
"Temporary holding witness," the speaker corrected.
Sam’s laugh came out flat. "No one asked you to confess in smaller font."
The glass printed a new status.
WITNESS CLAIM RECEIVED.
PRIMARY CATEGORY UNSELECTED.
RECONCILIATION BLOCKED.
Rina’s shoulders lowered by one breath.
Caleb let himself take that as a win because wins needed room or they died.
Then the screen changed.
VESSEL CONSENT MAY RESOLVE DIVISION.
Caleb felt every piece of silver in him turn its head.
Sam shut the Record so hard the sound cracked across the table.
"No."
The room ignored him.
VESSEL MAY ASSUME DIVIDED LOAD.
STATUS COMPLETION ESTIMATE: ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.
Rina went still.
Caleb did too.
The offer had found a cleaner shirt.
Mercy was printed nowhere.
Caleb heard it anyway.
Every pane behind the glass filled with names.
Sefa stood in the middle of them with his head bowed and both hands braced against nothing Caleb could see.
The silver inside Caleb stayed still.
That scared him more.
It waited like it understood the math.
Sam moved between Caleb and the glass.
He kept his hands to himself.
"Caleb."
The name reached him.
Caleb breathed through his teeth.
"I hear you."
"Do you?"
"Yes."
"Say the useful thing."
Caleb looked at Sefa behind the pane.
Then he looked at Rina.
She was watching him with terror and trust fighting in the same face.
He chose which one to feed.
"No intake," Caleb said.
The silver stayed inside him.
The glass flashed red once.
VESSEL CONSENT DENIED.
Sam exhaled.
Rina’s tracker gave one thin click.
Sefa lifted his head behind the glass.
His mouth moved.
The speaker caught only two words.
"Good boy."
Caleb almost broke the room for that.
He kept his hand open.
Rina made a sound that hurt and laughed at once.
Sam rubbed both eyes with the heel of one hand.
"I hate him," Sam said.
"No," Rina said.
"I hate him lovingly."
The glass accepted that with no visible opinion.
The status line changed again.
CONDITION: CONTESTED.
MANUAL SORTING PAUSED.
Rina looked at Sam.
"Paused means he is still held."
"Paused means we made the machine stop eating for a minute," Sam said. "I will take that minute and be rude with it."
The room printed one final line.
LIVING CLAIM INCOMPLETE.
PRODUCE TOWER WITNESS.
The hall behind them unlocked.
On the other side of the glass, Iharu was already standing.
The glass kept the words from him.
He knew anyway.
Rina turned toward him.
Caleb looked at the Record in Sam’s hands, then at the pane where Sefa’s divided shape waited among too many names.
"We do not bring him," Caleb said.
Sam nodded.
"We ask him."
The center opened the hall wider.
Caleb stepped back before his body could decide forward was kinder.
"Then we ask the tower."