Bram arrived at the hearing alone and sat where he could see both doors.
Eli noticed before the clerk called his name. The chair Bram chose faced the entrance, but its angle also gave him a view of the side passage used by the panel. He set a folder on his knee and kept his phone in his coat. His hands rested on the folder without fidgeting.
In Eli’s memory, Bram had blocked him from reaching Venn with the manifest, taken his pack and held him while another, unidentified hunter stabbed him. Bram had released him and called for Tessa; falling rock had then separated them. Eli remembered the restraint and the wound more clearly than Bram’s expression afterward.
This room had clean windows and a jug of water on the witness table. Bram was here because the inquiry had asked him to explain a security assignment. Eli pressed his thumb against the edge of his notebook until the present came back into focus. The restraint had mattered; so had Bram’s call for help afterward. Remembering both did not tell him what Bram would say today.
Kellan sat beside him with a timeline assembled from the warehouse contract, the public assignment listing and the rescue records. He had marked the dates in pencil so they could be changed if the testimony justified it. Sera leaned over to see the page.
