Only twenty-seven minutes remained on the public source refresh countdown.
D-03 had stopped at entry version 17-3, while Class B's page still referenced 17-2.
The other field Kushida had handed over stated that an undisclosed page had displayed 17-3 nine seconds later.
Gu Heng removed all three records from the shared page, leaving only the versions and times.
Hirata looked at the now-empty page location column. "Does this still count as verification?"
"If it rules out a simultaneous global refresh, yes."
"It doesn't tell us who saw it first."
"That's why we can't write 'saw it first' as 'wrote it first.'"
Yukimura connected the three terminals to the same read-only window. D-03 showed current, Class B's page showed stale, and the third page showed only a version number, with no page ID.
The public source ID was the same, but the page reference statuses fell into three different categories.
Gu Heng added a line to the cold backup: `A visible source change does not mean the source change was triggered by the same permissions.`
Ichinose sent a message just then.
`Class B can provide a more detailed field, but we will continue to withhold the full page for now.`
Another line was attached beneath it: `Someone has interpreted the withdrawal of permission as Class D hiding evidence.`
Hirata's fingers paused over the terminal. "Who told Class B about this?"
Gu Heng did not look directly at Kushida. He only asked, "Has Class B presented that interpretation as fact?"
`No. We have only confirmed that we received notice of the withdrawal.`
That sentence kept Class B's cooperation from breaking off completely, but it turned Class D's boundary of anonymity into a condition in an external negotiation.
Kushida stood by the window, as though she had known all along that they would