Juno Park arrived at the public junction with a recorder in pieces and a small screwdriver behind her ear. Keir accompanied Eli from their assigned group and kept track of the return time.
She set the parts on a cloth well away from the pedestrian route. Tali kept her own device in its case. Sera stood beside the protective cable cover Niles had identified; Kellan had marked a place for bystanders and kept the narrow route to the trial entrance clear.
“You want to know whether the recording was sabotaged,” Juno said.
“I want to know whether the net was late and why,” Tali replied. “The file stops after the debris falls.”
“Those are related questions. They aren’t the same test.”
Eli asked whether she could prove sabotage before the live-gate exercise. Juno looked at the clock on the wall.
“I can tell you what I can examine before the call. I can’t promise a conclusion on your schedule. A signature may show how a recording stopped without naming the person who caused it.”
Tali showed Juno a photograph of the original device’s model label supplied by her teammate. Juno copied the identifier and asked for the interval under dispute. Sera gave her the approximate duration and the clock uncertainty. Juno did not ask to see the original file.
