Heat in the Battery

[SFX: Battery cover open close. Fan shutdown]

NARRATOR: Mateo denied using the sled. Kira showed that its battery retained a heat signature shaped like his heated glove. Vik found cedar resin on the control switch and Pavel's hair inside Mateo's specimen chest.

MATEO RUSK: He attacked me. I pushed him. The fall was an accident.

KIRA SOL: The blood vial, false core, sled route, body concealment, and fuel drain were not accidents.

NARRATOR: Mateo locked himself in communications and began deleting raw data. Eda rerouted storage through the aurora camera, encoding files into image noise while Vik cut power to the delete terminal.

[SFX: Circuit breaker. Electronic lock]

MATEO RUSK: You think truth survives without institutions. It freezes in a notebook nobody funds.

KIRA SOL: Then we build institutions that can survive correction.

NARRATOR: Mateo surrendered, but the drained fuel bladder ruptured. Diesel spread beneath the station, threatening fire and structural collapse.