As more than a hundred zipheads are moved out of Hammerfest’s Attic in a single operation, handlers struggle with crowding and agitation. A protocol team turns unruly until an Emergent handler stuns two members, and Bil Phuong arrives, frustrated at the retuning this will require. The transfer continues toward the Invisible Hand.

Meanwhile, the translators—who are not slated to go—have had their doors opened and clog the corridors, loudly demanding to be sent to Arachna. Ezr fights through the confusion, meets Rita Liao, and finds a disoriented Trixia who calls him “Number Four.” He assures her she won’t go on the Hand and coaxes her back to her cell by pointing her to her huds.

Inside, Trixia reenters Focus, resuming near‑live translation work and asserting that General Smith, not the King, will go to Southmost. Rita returns, astonished that calming Trixia settled all translators, noting their keystone control over other zips. Ezr bristles at her dehumanizing language, and Rita apologizes.

Ezr reflects that Nau keeps translators off the Hand to limit witnesses to its true mission and that, once the Spiders are subdued, translators will voice the conqueror. More urgently, he and Pham are finishing sabotage: Qeng Ho localizers already dominate most systems, but the mechanical wireless‑power cutoff at Hammerfest and other backups are being booby‑trapped with layers of grit, including aboard the Invisible Hand. Timed to Nau’s takeover, the last hundred seconds will be risky—one attempt to flip control to the Qeng Ho.