As Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes continue downward around lunchtime, Jahns grows more impressed by the porters and more aware of her own age and fatigue. Passing deeper levels of the silo, Jahns notices how rarely she has come this far and reflects on IT’s unusual status: its servers, labs, and suit-making give it enormous influence because the silo fears the outside but also secretly hopes IT might one day make life there possible again.

On level thirty-four, Jahns stops to visit IT before going farther. Jahns explains to Marnes that she usually wires IT for informal approval of major nominations, but this time chooses to stop in person. Outside IT, they see tight security, including searches even for staff, which reinforces Marnes’s suspicion and Jahns’s sense that IT guards its own territory.

Bernard Holland, head of IT, receives them in a large conference room. After briefly mentioning technical reports from Holston’s recent cleaning, including slight changes in toxin readings, Bernard moves to the real issue: the vacant sheriff’s office. Instead of reviewing Jahns’s folder, Bernard produces his own paperwork and reveals that he has already contacted Peter Billings, who has signed an acceptance contract because Bernard assumed he would get the job.

Jahns and Marnes object because Billings is only their third choice. Bernard dismisses the older candidate Murphy and then attacks their first choice, Juliette, saying IT has had problems with her requisitions from Mechanical and has complained to Deagan Knox about irregularities. Bernard does not make a formal criminal accusation, but he implies that Juliette may have taken materials improperly and used too much power, clearly trying to disqualify her without evidence strong enough to involve the law.

Because Bernard has overreached and offered only vague complaints, Jahns refuses to yield. Jahns folds up Billings’s contract, states that Bernard betrayed a confidential list by contacting Billings, and firmly reminds Bernard that choosing the sheriff is the mayor’s responsibility. Jahns says she will still give Juliette a fair interview in Mechanical, accepts only Bernard’s offer to refill their canteens, and then continues on with Marnes, having exposed a deeper power struggle between elected authority and IT.