"Oh," he said.
Rex immediately turned on him. "No. I hate when you say that."
"I didn't say anything technical yet."
"You said 'oh.' That is worse."
Liam leaned over the console and dragged the schematic aside with two fingers. A second layer unfolded above the panel, showing the turbine, the chasm, and a clean web of civilian distribution lines spreading outward beneath the city.
None of them touched the noble grid.
Not one.
The civilian districts existed on a separate, neglected infrastructure skeleton, the sort of old municipal network nobles pretended did not exist because admitting it did would imply people lived beyond manor walls.
"The far seal is not drawing from the Vanguard," Liam said.
Rex looked sharply at the schematic. "The civilian feed is isolated?"
