"About three hours at current cycles. If you want to speed it up, increase coolant flow to the outer housing by eight percent for the first two hours of operation."
"That works," Caitlin confirmed, cross-referencing her tablet. "The math supports it."
Wells nodded. Slowly. His eyes on Barry through the whole thing.
"Barry," he said, his voice staying perfectly conversational. "Your battery technology. The theoretical jump from current lithium specifications to what you achieved is substantial. Walk me through the foundational basis."
The question landed smoothly. Reasonable. Professional. The kind of thing one scientist asks another.
Barry heard everything underneath it.
"The real limitation in battery research isn't the anode or cathode chemistry," Barry said, meeting the question directly.
"It's the ionic conductivity at the electrolyte interface. Most researchers treat that as a constant. I treated it as a variable. Change the interface geometry at the molecular level and the energy density ceiling moves significantly."
"Molecular level geometry requires either very sophisticated modeling tools or an intuitive feel for material behavior that goes beyond standard research approaches."
"Both. I built custom modeling software and I spent time with the physical materials before trusting the models."
"What kind of modeling software?"
"Proprietary. I wrote it myself."
"Language?"
"Started in Python. Rewrote the core in C++ when the performance wasn't fast enough."
Wells looked at him for exactly one beat longer than the conversation required. Then he moved cleanly to the next agenda item. No indication that anything significant had passed between them.
Cisco caught Barry's eye from across the console and mouthed the word "nerds" with the affectionate mockery that was his default response to any exchange he couldn't follow technically.
The meeting ran another ninety minutes. Systems reviews. Timeline updates. Equipment procurement. All the practical weight of building something enormous.
Wells kept doing it throughout. Questions embedded inside larger questions. Each one testing Barry from a slightly different angle. None of them individually alarming. All of them adding up to something deliberate and patient.
'He's building a map,' Barry thought, during a moment when Cisco was explaining a mechanical issue and Wells's focus was divided. 'Trying to find the edges of what I know.'
Sophisticated approach. The kind that could run for months before the subject realized what was happening.
Barry let him keep going. Because the alternative was a confrontation neither of them was ready for.
When the meeting ended and Barry was heading toward the exit, Caitlin caught up with him in the corridor.
"Those biometric projections," she said. "Can I email them over?"
"Send them. I'll look tonight."
"Thank you." She paused. A decision being made. "Does Dr. Wells seem different to you lately?"
Barry looked at her. This was the Caitlin Snow who noticed things. Who asked the question other people left sitting in the air.
"Different how?" Barry said.
"More urgent. Like something is pressing on him beyond the accelerator timeline."
"Deadline pressure changes how people move."
"Maybe." She didn't look satisfied. "Or something else is pressing on him." She shook her head. "I'm probably reading too much into it."
"You're observant," Barry said. "That's not the same thing."
She looked at him for a moment. "That's not a reassuring answer."
"No," Barry agreed. "It's not."
He left her standing in the corridor looking thoughtful in a way that told him Caitlin Snow was going to keep pulling at that thread. Which was both a problem and, in its own way, useful.
Perceptive people asked questions that less perceptive people missed entirely. Sometimes that created complications. And sometimes it created opportunities.
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