Rook asked Mrs. Ortega where she wanted the remaining cartons.
She pointed to the cleared space behind the counter. “The ones they’ve checked can go there. The others stay by the door.”
He took a box from the driver. It was not especially heavy, but he carried it without asking someone else to make room for him. Mrs. Ortega thanked him and returned to helping the boy flatten cardboard.
Eli watched from the inventory table. In his first life, he had known Rook as the man whose orders traveled down through layers of authority until they reached the porters as a command to hurry. He had also heard stories of Rook arriving at breaches before the official teams, of families receiving money after a hunter died, of a guild that could put a trained crew on the road within minutes. Eli had dismissed those stories after the last raid. Watching Rook take the box, he understood how easily both sets of stories could have existed.
Mrs. Patel stood when Rook approached her. “Thank you for the supplies.”
“Are they what you needed?” he asked.
“Some of them. The medicine’s still being checked.”
“I heard about the temperature issue.” Rook looked toward Celia. “Do we have a replacement?”
“I’m waiting for the depot to confirm stock.”
“Call the second depot too.”
Celia stepped outside to make the call. Mrs. Patel explained the difficulty of getting to the hospital, the length of the wait and the difference the clinic had made when she needed a dressing checked. Rook listened without interrupting. When she mentioned the missing medicine, he asked which pharmacy had been filling it, then stopped her before she gave a prescription number aloud.
“Tell Celia privately,” he said. “She can check the supply without putting your information in front of everyone.”
Eli had expected a performance. Perhaps this was one. Mrs. Patel’s relief was real either way, and Rook had given an instruction that might get her medicine sooner. Eli’s hand tightened around the pen on the table until its cap cracked.
Leah glanced at him. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” He set the pen down. “It was already damaged.”
“It wasn’t.”
He picked up the broken cap. “Then I owe you a pen.”
Across the room, Rook asked the volunteers what the clinic lacked most. Leah mentioned transport. Mrs. Ortega mentioned reliable power for the shop. Marisol, who had arrived for her shift, said trained help during a gate emergency mattered as much as equipment.
Rook turned to a staff member standing near the door. “Find out what transport assistance the district already provides. If there’s a gap, see what we can cover without duplicating it. Ask the emergency team about training sessions open to independent volunteers.”
The staff member wrote it down.
“Could you tell us what those offers would require?” Tessa asked.
“When we have an offer, yes.”
“Before any patient details are shared.”
“Certainly.” Rook’s attention moved to the inventory sheet. “Celia tells me you separated the temperature-sensitive stock. That was the right call.”
“I’d like the full monitoring data.”
“You’ll have it.”
He said it so easily that Eli wanted to ask why the guild had sent a cooler without ensuring the data was available at delivery. The question was legitimate, but it would not be the question he truly wanted to ask. He wanted to demand an account of the guild’s role in the raid that had not happened here, of the locked chamber, the missing warnings and the people left behind. He wanted the man to recognize him and show some sign that he remembered too.
Rook’s gaze found him. “You’re Eli Voss.”
Eli’s stomach tightened. “Yes.”
“I read the report from Alder Street. You helped evacuate the building.”
“Many people did.”
“Several of them are in this room. I’ve been thanking them.” Rook held out his hand. “I’m Rook.”
Eli looked at the offered hand. He remembered blood on the passage floor and a slab falling between him and Tessa. The blade had come from a hunter whose face he had not clearly seen; Bram had held him, and Rusk had directed the elite team from the ridge. The memory was evidence of what Eli had experienced, but not evidence he could place on this table.
He shook Rook’s hand. The grip was firm and brief.
“I hear you also worked with a team at the underpass gate,” Rook said.
“An expedition. I was a porter.”
“Celia mentioned the fee dispute.”
The reference caught Eli. He had received a payment after the expedition and used part of it for the clinic. The agreement had not made the danger inside the gate disappear. He did not know how much of the dispute Rook had seen or why Celia had told him.
“What did she say about it?”
“That the team encountered an unexpected structural hazard and withdrew. You helped clear the route.”
“Others did more.”
“That’s usually true of a rescue.” Rook glanced at Kellan, who had returned from the pharmacy. “Mr. Kellan, isn’t it? Your construction experience helped at the pumping station.”
Kellan did not offer his hand. “How do you know about that?”
“Your names were on a recovery access notice filed with the gate office. Our teams monitor public notices where they overlap with relief work.”
“Did it name Jalen?”
“I haven’t seen his medical record.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
Rook’s expression did not change. “The notice I saw named the party and the station, not the injured worker.”
Kellan nodded once. Eli could not tell whether he believed the answer. Jalen had asked them not to confront his employer in his name; his ledger photograph remained secure. There was no reason to mention it here.
Rook looked back at Eli. “Aegis has been building a program for independent hunters who want access to supervised training and insurance. Your work suggests you’d benefit from it.”
Eli heard the word insurance and thought of the contracts he had studied at the registry, the exclusions printed beneath the promise. He also thought of the lives that could have been saved if ordinary workers had received care as quickly as the elite team.
“What does it require?” he asked.
“A conversation first. The terms depend on the work.”
“The work we do, or the information we bring back?”
“Both can matter.” Rook glanced at the patients. “This isn’t the best place to discuss a contract. I’d be happy to meet privately.”
Eli imagined following him through the clinic door into the street, pressing him against the side of the van and asking about the final raid. The image was so immediate he felt his weight shift forward.
Tessa stepped beside him. “Eli, can you help me move the damaged packages? They’re in the photographer’s way.”
There were no damaged packages in the photographer’s way. She had put them on the counter well away from the door. Eli understood the invitation anyway.
They carried the packages into the back room. Tessa closed the door until only a narrow gap remained, leaving them visible from the clinic but out of the conversation.
“You looked ready to hit him,” she said.
“I wasn’t.”
“Then you looked ready to do something that would put everyone in the room between you and him.”
He placed the packages on a shelf. “He led Aegis in the life I remember. Rusk commanded the raid where I died.”
“You told me about Rusk. What did Rook know?”
“I don’t know what orders he gave Rusk. He led the guild, and I believed he was responsible, but I can’t show you proof of what he knew. I didn’t tell you what it was like seeing him now.” He rubbed his thumb over the crack in the pen cap. “Mrs. Patel thanked him. He helped her without making her give her details in public. I can’t make that false because of what I remember.”
“No. And it doesn’t make your memory false.”
“I wanted to ask him about the chamber.”
“What would he say?”
“That he doesn’t know what I’m talking about. Here, he may be telling the truth.”
Tessa leaned against the wall. “If you accuse him in front of the patients, they become part of the argument before they’ve chosen to be. They’ll also have to decide whether taking medicine makes them responsible for whatever you say he did.”
“I know.”
“Do you want to meet him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He has access to gates I can’t enter. He knows more about the guild’s relief work than Celia does. If he wants something from me, I want to hear what it is.”
“And what do you risk by going?”
“He gets a closer look at me. He may ask questions I don’t want to answer. If he offers a contract, I could be tempted by things we need.”
Tessa nodded. “Set a time to check in. Tell me where. If you need someone outside, ask.”
“I don’t want you following me.”
“I didn’t offer to follow. I offered to know when to worry.”
He looked at the shelf. “Half an hour after the meeting starts. If I can’t call, I’ll send a message.”
“And if I don’t hear from you?”
“Call me. If I don’t answer, call the meeting office and ask whether I’ve left.”
“Good. We should have a backup if the signal fails.”
They agreed that Kellan would know the address as well. Eli would not enter a gate or sign an agreement during the meeting. Those were his choices, not conditions Tessa imposed; saying them aloud made them easier to keep when Rook was in front of him.
When they returned, Celia was speaking to Mrs. Patel. The second depot had the medicine in stock and could send it the next morning. The cooler remained under review. Mrs. Patel thanked her, then asked whether the replacement would be subject to the same check.
“Yes,” Tessa said. “We’ll verify the record when it arrives.”
Rook stood near the door, giving the photographer room to take a picture of the stacked cartons without including the waiting patients. He approached Eli again.
“Tomorrow morning?” he asked. “Our community office is two blocks from the station. Public reception, no gate access. Bring someone if you prefer.”
“I’ll come alone. I want a copy of any terms before I decide anything.”
“That’s reasonable.”
They agreed on a time and address. Rook gave him a card with the office number. Eli checked that the number matched the one printed on the delivery acknowledgment; it did, although that did not prove anything about the meeting.
As Rook left, the boy with the empty cartons asked whether Aegis hunters really fought dragons. Rook crouched so they were at eye level.
“I’ve seen things people called dragons,” he said. “Most had too many legs.”
The boy considered this. “Did you win?”
“Sometimes the sensible thing was to leave.”
“That’s not winning.”
“Tell that to the people who got home.”
The boy frowned, unconvinced. Rook smiled and stood. He thanked the volunteers again, then got into the car. The photographer took one final picture of the van and lowered the camera as the car pulled away.
Eli watched until the car turned the corner. A carton slid from the stack behind him, and the boy caught it before it reached the pavement. “That one wants to escape,” the boy said. Eli helped him tuck its flaps under the rest.
Leah pointed to the broken pen cap in Eli’s hand. “You can replace the pen tomorrow.”
“I’ll bring two.”
“One is enough. The other money can go to the tram.”
He put the cap in his pocket and wrote the meeting details on a fresh sheet. Tessa checked the address and copied it into her phone. Kellan took a photograph of the card, with Eli’s permission, and set a reminder for the check-in time.
A delivery worker returned to collect the empty cooler straps. The boy gave him the flattened cartons, proud of the neat stack. Mrs. Patel left with her revised appointment and a promise that Tessa would call when the replacement arrived. The clinic continued around Eli’s fear, and that was exactly why he needed to carry it carefully.