The man answered on Kellan’s third call, from the wrong side of the stairwell.
“Here. Don’t come up.”
Kellan stopped with one boot on the bottom step. Beside him, the rescue volunteer lifted her lamp. The light found the underside of a door, a white sleeve and a hand moving very slowly above a heap of broken plaster. Farther up, the stair had separated from the wall. Dust fell from the gap whenever the building shuddered.
“Your partner sent us,” Kellan said. He gave the identifying details Tessa had passed to him, and the man lowered his hand.
“She’s out?”
“She’s getting ready to move. We’re going to get you to her.”
He wanted to say she was safe. The corridor between this building and the waiting transports would not let him say it honestly.
The volunteer crouched beneath the broken door without touching it. “Can you move your feet?”
