The last stretcher cleared the damaged junction before the coordinator allowed anyone to call the lift.
Della, the outside rescue coordinator, checked the assembly list against the reports from triage. The maintenance worker who had been unaccounted for was now with a responder at an upper station. The remaining reachable injured contestants had been transferred to medical teams or escorted toward the assembly area. The list still could not prove that every person in the site was accounted for.
“We’ve moved the people we can reach on the confirmed routes,” she told Tessa over the field telephone. “I can authorize a limited inspection of the lower service level. If you find workers, report before attempting a complicated extraction.”
Bess held Martin Reeve’s key card beside the service lift. The injured operations worker had asked to help with the emergency control, but his medic had not yet cleared him to travel. Tessa had handed over his care and the card’s custody record. The first descent team would not include him. Tessa checked that the distinction appeared on the response roster. Della repeated the condition to the responder assigned to watch Reeve, who wrote it on the handoff card and promised to call the medic if his pain increased.
