The Aegis leader put a simulated casualty across the withdrawal line before anyone had finished agreeing where the line belonged.
A folded coat represented the injured person. A red marker represented Juno’s structural warning. The return deadline sat on the exercise board, close enough that moving the coat to a safer place would consume the planned margin.
“The medic says treatment now,” he said. “The structure says leave. Who decides?”
Tessa looked at the coat and then at the route sketch. “What treatment, and where can the person be moved?”
“You’re asking for more information.”
“Yes.”
“We may not have it.”
“Then the answer includes that uncertainty. My authority to halt a procedure involving a patient doesn’t make the roof stay up.”
