On a quiet night, Rafe visited Halloway once more. He stood in the server room and watched the racks hum at a measured pitch. He ran a hand through the cooling fan’s stepper hum and felt the small comfort of order. He placed, on the desk, a cheap analog watch he’d bought at a flea market — a watch that tracked seconds in a way no network could fully rewrite. He left it there, a reminder: time, when honored and observed and not selectively ignored, keeps more than machines from lying.