Rook felt the release go light just before the platform fell.
The change did not mean the brace had taken his place. The mechanism had broken beneath its own load. For a final moment the corridor’s last human count remained in his mind more clearly than anything on the partial display: civilians through the immediate manual route, defenders withdrawing, staff coming by the hatch. Other people were still in danger elsewhere. He no longer had a command that could reach them.
The sound plate was gone. The line lay out of reach beyond the broken rail. He had held long enough for the corridor’s withdrawal, and holding had not made a path appear beneath his own feet.
The central support came down.
Rook died with the mechanism’s release still beneath his hand.
Outside the wall, Eli waited until the rescue lead had checked the first accessible edge before moving toward the wreckage.
Dust hid most of the central area. Fragments settled with small sounds that made people flinch after the larger collapse. A soldier was calling from a service recess the failure had exposed. Another voice answered from behind a fallen screen. These were places they could reach without pretending the center was stable. The rescue lead gave Eli an ordinary task and a boundary: help clear the narrow edge by hand, keep beyond the marked crack, stop if the overhead section moved.
