Mira spread her old reference notes across the bakery’s smallest table because the others were needed for bread.
She had marked some sources with the confidence of a person who expected to return to them. Others were only a phrase and an approach sketch, written while she was running out of time in a different way. Eli recognized the temptation to let the most urgent memory become the most reliable one. She crossed out a location she could no longer defend before he asked.
“Preparations should continue,” she said.
“Which ones?”
“The fittings. The route. Equipment that can stand ready without being used.”
“The guardian has not released the key.”
“I’m aware.”
“If we start moving equipment toward a mechanism we don’t understand, other people may read it as a decision already made.”
