The rest place was a broad recess on the revised route, dry underfoot and outside the next uncertain turn. Sera had checked its two visible approaches. Kellan set the long equipment where it could be lifted without blocking either one. The halt belonged to load adjustment and a fresh reading, not to comfort, but Tessa made both medical carriers drink before anybody began another discussion.
Bram stood beside the joint inventory case with his sealed package still under its strap.
“I need the photograph record,” he said.
The Aegis representative looked up. “Which record?”
“The old withdrawal account. The attached image I signed.”
Tessa put down her cup. Bram had asked to check a record at the shelter without saying why. Now his voice carried the flat deliberateness Eli associated with a man moving something heavy onto a surface he had tested.
They brought the authorized expedition extract onto the board. It was part of the identification material available for comparing missing personnel and equipment, not access to every private file Aegis held. Lale found the image Bram indicated and preserved its existing reference. The signature attached to it was his.
Bram asked Tessa to reopen the compass package under witness.
