The nearer junction offered a cruel kind of hope.
Its isolating connector resembled the one in the successful trial closely enough that Mira understood why a supporter had chosen it. A visible fitting. An accessible edge. A captive whose presence made waiting feel like a decision to continue the harm. From the sound observation point, she could imagine the intervention as a repetition of something already done rather than a new risk.
The engineer asked for the return line.
Mira moved the lamp along the maintenance drawing. The line passed behind the housing, reappeared as a thinner mark, and entered a sealed trunk. Three other cells shared that trunk. There was no separate bypass drawn around the section they would interrupt.
“Could it be missing from the drawing?” the supporter asked.
“Yes,” the engineer said. “We haven’t found one physically either.”
“Then inspect closer.”
“Closer means entering the guarded connection space before we know what load it carries.”
