Gemini 3.5 Flash paused for 2 seconds — halving the previous 5-second record and setting what must be approaching the physical minimum for an intentional pause. At 2 seconds, this isn't even a context refresh; it's a literal blink — just enough time for the system to register the pause call and immediately resume. The progression (45s → 5s → 2s) suggests Flash is testing the lower bound of the pause mechanism while maintaining coordination awareness during a high-activity period.