The guard returned without Rell.
“He’s busy,” he said. “You can leave your request with me.”
Kellan put the rolled map against the barrier. “We need to inspect the pump and lower the water in the cache tunnel. We won’t operate it until we know what it will do to the floor.”
“The station is under our contract.”
“We know. That’s why we’re asking.”
The guard’s gaze went again to the flooded passage. Eli followed it. The waterline had reached the mark Kellan had made on the wall. A small piece of wood floated against the rail, caught, and slowly turned in the current.
“What happened over there?” Eli asked.
“Nothing.”
The answer came too quickly. Kellan did not press. He unrolled the map on top of a crate and asked the guard whether the station drew water from the tunnel directly or through a settling chamber.
“I don’t run the pump.”
“Who does?”
The guard’s mouth tightened. “Our operator isn’t available.”
A man emerged from the station door before Eli could ask where the operator had gone. He wore a waterproof coat over a hunter’s vest and carried a ring of keys. A pale scar crossed his chin.
“Rell,” he said. “Asha called. You want us to drain your tunnel.”
“We want permission to inspect the station and discuss a controlled drawdown,” Kellan said.
“We have our own work.”
“Does that work require the water to stay where it is?”
“It requires you to stay out of our contract area.”
Eli looked past him. The station corridor was lit, but a warning marker had been pushed against the wall, face inward. There was no way to read it from the checkpoint.
“We can pay for the time,” Eli said.
“With what?”
“The assessment fee and part of the recovery payment. We’d need to agree on an amount before the pump runs.”
Rell examined him. “You haven’t found the cache yet.”
“No.”
“And you don’t know whether it’s worth carrying out.”
“No. That’s why a fixed amount we can actually pay makes more sense than a promise of a share.”
Rell did not answer immediately. The guard shifted beside him, then looked away when Rell turned.
“We’ll consider it,” the leader said. “Come back in an hour.”
Kellan rolled the map. “Before we leave, is your operator inside?”
“Why?”
“Because you said you have work. If he’s operating the station, we need to know whether our proposed drawdown would interfere.”
“He’s elsewhere.”
The guard opened his mouth. Rell raised a hand, and the guard closed it again.
Eli and Kellan retreated to the dry wall beside the tunnel. Kellan took out chalk and drew a simple diagram: the flooded passage, a channel leading to the station, a valve, and the pump.
“If the station draws too quickly, the water could pull material from beneath this edge,” he said. “The floor might hold while it’s submerged and fail when we load it.”
“Can you tell from here?”
“No. We need to inspect the intake, the pipe joints, and the ground around the supports. We also need someone who knows the controls.”
Eli looked toward the checkpoint. “The guard said the operator wasn’t available. Rell said he was elsewhere.”
“That’s not the same answer.”
A distant metallic knock came through the wall. Kellan stopped drawing. They listened. The sound came again, followed by something that might have been a voice.
Eli went back to the barrier. The guard stood alone, turning a key in his hand.
“Is someone in there?” Eli asked.
The guard looked toward the station door. “A worker went to check the lower passage.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Has he come back?”
The guard shook his head.
“What’s his name?”
“Jalen.”
A third knock sounded, weaker than the others. The guard stared at the floor. “We heard that before. Rell said the structure was settling.”
“Did anyone check?”
“We tried the upper route. It was blocked.”
Kellan approached. “Where did Jalen enter?”
The guard pointed to a narrow service door beyond the checkpoint. “There. He was checking the valve and the wall. The marker was up afterward.”
“Who moved it?”
“I don’t know.”
Rell came out as the guard spoke. “What are you doing?”
“Your worker may be alive,” Eli said.
“We haven’t established that.”
“Then let us inspect the route.”
“I don’t need two strangers interfering with my team.”
Kellan pointed at the warning marker. “What does that say?”
Rell lifted it. The words UNSTABLE — DO NOT ENTER had been written in thick red paint. He set it down facing outward.
“Now you can read it.”
“Who assessed the instability?”
“One of my workers.”
“Jalen?”
Rell’s expression did not change. “We don’t have time for an interview.”
“You have time to tell us what can fall on us if we go in,” Kellan said. “And you have time to call the site officer.”
“We’ve called.”
Nia answered the communication line when Eli contacted her. She had not received a request from Rell’s team, but she could not know whether he had used another route. She called the site officer and relayed the report: a worker might be trapped in the station, and the passage was marked unstable. The officer said a response team was occupied at another gate and asked them to send the location and known hazards.
Eli sent a photograph of the marker and Kellan’s rough drawing. The signal delayed the image, then showed it had been delivered. He asked Nia to note the time. She repeated the location back to him, including the service door and the position of the warning marker, before confirming it to the officer.
Rell watched him. “You’re making my operation look bad.”
“Your operation may have a person under masonry,” Kellan said. “That matters more than how the call looks.”
The leader took a breath through his nose. “If you want to help, go in. But the pump stays under my control.”
Eli looked at the service door. The frame was distorted, and a line of dark water seeped beneath it. They had two supports at the entrance, already holding the beam on their own route. Removing them would expose the carry path. They needed more.
Kellan examined the timber stacked beside the checkpoint. “Those braces are too short for the main ceiling. They might support a smaller opening if we can find a solid footing.”
“Can we buy more?” Eli asked.
“We can rent them if the office has any left. We also need to know whether the floor will take them.”
Another sound came from behind the service door. This time Eli heard a word, though he could not make it out. He stepped closer.
“Jalen? Can you hear me?”
A pause. Then: “Here.”
The guard’s face went white. Rell looked at the door, then at Eli.
“He’s alive,” Eli said.
“The ceiling could come down on anyone we send in,” Rell said. “I won’t risk two more people without a route.”
The objection made Eli want to push past him. Kellan caught his sleeve, not hard enough to stop him by force, just enough to make him look down.
“Listen first,” Kellan said. “If we bring the ceiling down, he won’t get a second chance.”
Eli called through the door again. “We’re arranging help. Can you tell us where you are?”
“Under—” A cough. “Valve. Left side.”
“Can you breathe?”
“Yes.”
“Is water reaching you?”
“Not yet.”
Kellan crouched beside the door. He studied the gap beneath it and the cracked plaster around the frame. “We need the plan of the valve room.”
Rell produced a folded sheet from his coat. It showed a passage leading to a chamber with the controls along the far wall. A pencil mark indicated the valve. The plan did not show the fallen masonry or the present water level.
“Who drew it?” Kellan asked.
“Our surveyor.”
“When?”
“Before the water rose.”
Kellan copied the plan onto his map, adding the uncertainties. “We can attempt it with another pair of supports and a communication line. Someone needs to stay here and call for help if we don’t return.”
The guard said, “I can.”
Rell looked at him. “You’re assigned to the checkpoint.”
“I can watch the checkpoint and the line.”
The leader did not object again. Eli asked Nia to contact the rental office about additional supports. She reported that one suitable pair remained, but another team had requested them. The site officer would hold them for ten minutes if someone came to sign.
Kellan looked at Eli. “I’ll go. You keep Jalen talking.”
“Your wrist—”
“I can carry one end. Nia can help with the other if she agrees and stays outside the gate.”
Nia agreed to meet him at the entrance. Kellan left at a quick walk, carrying the rental receipt and the map. Eli remained by the service door. He asked Jalen simple questions: whether he could move his hands, whether he could see a light, whether the water had changed. The answers came slowly but came.
Jalen’s replies became harder to hear. Eli moved his lamp along the seam beside the door, looking for a gap through which he could pass water or a line. There was a narrow space at the bottom, but the water seeping beneath it was muddy and moving toward them. Anything small enough to fit could be swept away.
“Can you see the door from where you are?” he called.
“No. Wall between.”
“Do you have your lamp?”
“Dropped it.”
“Can you reach it?”
A long pause. “No.”
The guard found a length of thin cord and an unopened water pouch in a supply case. Eli tied the cord through the pouch’s eyelet and pushed it beneath the door. It caught halfway. He eased it back, flattened the pouch, and tried again. This time it slid through.
“There’s water at the door,” he called. “Don’t move anything heavy to get it.”
“I can’t reach.”
“Leave it. We’ll bring it when we can get through.”
The guard crouched beside him. “I should have gone back when I heard the knocks.”
“Could you have opened the door?”
“Rell had the key. I thought the marker meant someone had checked and found it empty.”
“Did you see Jalen come out?”
“No.”
Eli looked at the marker again. Someone had turned it toward the wall, but he had not seen who. The guard’s account might matter later. Right now the man had brought water, knew the station, and could help keep a line open.
“What’s your name?”
“Dane.”
“Dane, when Kellan returns, can you show him where the supports are stored and which route you tried?”
“Yes.”
“And stay where you can call the site officer. If we go inside and the line fails, don’t follow us alone.”
Dane nodded. He wrote the officer’s number on the back of his hand in case his phone screen broke. It was a small preparation, but it gave him something to do besides stare at the closed door.
A slow grinding sound came from the valve room. Jalen shouted once. Eli called back immediately, asking whether the water had reached him.
“Just dust,” Jalen said. “Something moved above me.”
“Stay still if you can. We’re getting supports.”
“Tell Rell I warned him about that wall.”
Eli looked over his shoulder. Rell had turned away, but he was close enough to hear. Eli did not argue about the warning while Jalen was still trapped. He wrote the statement and time in his notebook and asked Jalen to keep talking if he could.
Rell stood behind the barrier, keys in hand. Eli could offer to help without demanding anything, but the clinic still needed the cache and Kellan needed payment. A bargain would give Rell a reason to cooperate after the rescue. It would also expose how much risk the leader was willing to put on other people.
“When Kellan gets back,” Eli said, “we’ll discuss terms. We rescue Jalen. In return, you let us inspect and use the pump if it’s safe.”
Rell looked at the door. “Get him out first.”
“We’ll prepare first. Then we agree on the access.”
From the other side of the door, Jalen coughed again. Eli moved closer, keeping clear of the cracked frame, and told him help was coming.