Eli wanted a vote before he changed his mind and ran for the door.
The group gathered behind the loading-yard barrier. Nessa’s lamp flashed from the upper window; the steel rack rattled once as something struck the weakened side door. Tessa had a treatment point ready on the public pavement. Marisol was on her way. Kellan held the crane manual open against the wind while Sera watched the building.
“We can wait for the response team,” Eli said, “or inspect the crane and try to reach the window. Garin may not survive the wait.”
“We haven’t inspected the cable,” Kellan said. “I vote for inspection first. No one rides until we know what it can carry.”
“Tessa?” Eli asked.
“I have a place to receive a patient, but I can’t treat someone suspended outside the window. If we lift a stretcher, it needs to reach the platform without being tipped. I vote to inspect and prepare, then decide whether we can lift.”
Sera kept her eyes on the door. “I can warn you when the source moves toward the crane controls, if it stays distinct. I can’t identify it. I vote to inspect, and I want a clear path back through the barrier.”
Eli looked at the rope in his hands. “I vote to inspect.”
Kellan did not move immediately. “Who can call a stop?”
“Any of us,” Sera said.
“What happens when someone does?”
“We stop the lift,” Eli said. “We say what we saw. We don’t start again until everyone on the attempt agrees.”
“And if the person upstairs needs help?”
“We still stop.” The words hurt. Eli made himself say them without adding an exception. “A failed lift could kill them and the person helping them.”
Calder stood just outside the circle. “I haven’t authorized the crane’s use.”
“We’re inspecting it,” Kellan said. “The note you signed allows that.”
The manager looked toward the upper window. Nessa’s brother had moved beside Sal, his phone in his hand. Sal was watching the ambulance lane. A delivery worker stood behind them, holding a folded blanket for the first patient. None of them had an answer for the sound coming from inside the building.
“Inspect it,” Calder said. “Tell me before you operate it.”
Kellan and Eli went through the barrier together. Sera stood where she could see the east door and the crane controls, her back against a concrete wall. The wall offered some protection but gave her a narrow view. She placed Sal’s lamp on the ground beside her and kept the reader in her hand.
“Signal check,” she said.
Tessa answered from the treatment point. Static broke the first reply. Sera moved two steps toward the public pavement, beyond the concrete pillar they had marked earlier. The second reply came clearly.
“That’s my line,” she said, placing a strip of tape on the ground. “If I have to move behind the pillar, I’ll shout.”
The crane platform lay folded beside its base. Kellan checked the pins that held the rails and the attachment points for the safety line. Eli held each rail while he tested it. One pin was missing a retaining clip. Kellan found a replacement in the loading cage and fitted it, then pulled against the rail until he was satisfied it would not open accidentally.
“Is it rated for a person?” Eli asked.
“The plate says the platform is rated for the weight. The manual calls for an additional safety line and a verified cable. We haven’t checked either.”
He showed Eli the connection points. The plate gave a maximum load for the platform; Kellan calculated the weight of an adult, the board, the kit and the person assisting. It fell within the stated limit, but the number assumed sound equipment. A clean label did not repair a frayed cable.
Tessa brought the stretcher as far as the barrier. She and Sal’s coworker had secured the replacement strap. The folded board would fit on the platform, but once opened it extended beyond one rail.
“Could you bring it up folded?” Kellan asked.
“Yes, if someone at the window can help open it. I need room to assess the patient before we move them.”
“Could you lower one person without it?”
“If they’re able to sit and hold the rail, perhaps. I won’t know until I see them.”
Nessa opened the window again. Eli held up the folded board. “We have this! Is there room beside you?”
She leaned out and pointed inside. “Some. Tomas can’t stand.”
“Is Garin breathing?” Tessa called.
“Yes. He’s not answering.”
“Keep him on his side if you can do it without twisting him. Tell us if his breathing changes.”
Nessa nodded, then disappeared. Her brother moved toward the barrier and stopped when Sal caught his arm. This time he let her hold him.
Kellan checked the platform’s locking mechanism. It caught on the first attempt but not the second. He found grit in the slot, cleaned it with a small brush from his tool bag and tested again. The lock held through three attempts.
Eli used Weak-Point Sight on the boom. Lines appeared where the frame carried its own weight. A brighter thread ran toward the cable guide. He pointed it out.
“Can you see the cable itself from there?” Kellan asked.
“Only a section. Something changes near the guide.”
“Then we inspect that section.”
Calder brought a short ladder from the loading cage. Kellan placed it on level ground and asked Eli to steady it. He climbed only high enough to examine the guide without placing himself beneath the boom. From the treatment point Tessa watched the window and the yard. Sera remained at her marked position.
“Source moving,” she called.
Kellan stopped climbing. “Toward us?”
“Toward the controls, I think. It’s mixing with the machinery signal.”
Eli tightened his grip on the ladder. The east door scraped against the rack. Something struck it from the other side. Kellan climbed down before the next blow.
“Back to the barrier,” he said.
They withdrew, taking the ladder with them. A narrow gray limb pushed through the gap at the bottom of the door, then disappeared. The rack shifted against its straps. Calder called the workers away from the yard and checked that the ambulance lane remained clear.
Sera felt the current move along the interior wall. “It’s going toward the stairs again.”
“Can it reach the crane controls from inside?” Tessa asked.
“There is a service opening,” Calder said. “It leads to the loading corridor. The door is closed, but I don’t know what condition it’s in.”
Kellan marked the opening on the plan. The controls sat near it, separated by a low wall. A person at the controls would have some cover but not a guaranteed escape if the opening failed.
“We need someone watching that side,” he said.
“I can,” Sera replied.
“You also need a route out.”
She walked the path from her tape mark to the public gate. A stack of pallets narrowed the turn. Calder had two workers move them while the source remained away from the side door. The path was now wide enough for Sera to run without squeezing between the barrier and the wall.
At the treatment point, Tessa called Leah. “We’re inspecting the crane. No one has ridden it. If we miss the next check-in, tell the dispatcher we’re considering a window extraction and that the east door is damaged.”
“Marisol is five minutes away,” Leah said. “The response team is still coming from the road closure.”
“Thank you.”
Tessa arranged the receiving area for two different problems: a patient able to sit and a patient who could not protect his airway. She set supplies on opposite sides of the clean sheet, leaving the center clear for the stretcher. She asked Sal to hold the ambulance lane and send the vehicle straight to them.
A gust lifted one corner of the sheet. Eli caught it before it blew into the yard. Tessa weighed it down with her closed medical case, then tied the loose end to the cart handle. When the platform came down, they would not have time to chase supplies across the pavement.
Nessa’s brother received a reply to his message. He read it aloud: “Window opens inward. Space by the wall. Garin barely breathing.”
Tessa took the phone and asked him to send a short instruction: Keep airway clear. Tell us if breathing stops. We are preparing the lift. He sent it. Nessa’s reply was a single word: Hurry.
Kellan returned to the ladder when Sera said the current had moved away from the controls. Eli steadied it again. This time Kellan climbed one rung higher and used a hand lamp to inspect the guide. He saw a dark patch on the cable but could not tell whether it was grease or damaged wire.
“Can you look from the other side?” he asked Eli.
Calder took over holding the ladder. Eli moved around the base, staying outside the boom’s fall line. He focused on the cable. Weak-Point Sight sharpened the bright thread he had seen before. Individual strands had separated near the guide, fine wires lifting from the twisted bundle. The damage was small enough to hide in shadow and severe enough to matter when a person’s weight hung from it.
“Stop,” he said.
Kellan froze on the ladder. “What do you see?”
“Frayed strands at the guide. Two inches above your hand.”
Kellan did not reach for them. He shone the lamp along the cable and leaned closer without touching it. “I see them.”
He climbed down. Calder kept the ladder steady until both Kellan’s feet were on the ground.
“Can it lift the platform?” Calder asked.
“Not with a person on it,” Kellan said. “Maybe not even the empty platform safely. We need a sound replacement cable.”
The manager looked toward the loading cage. Two spools sat behind the mesh, labels turned away from the entrance. “Those belong to another contractor.”
“Then call them,” Tessa said. “And bring the specifications.”
“I can’t release them without approval.”
“Record the decision,” Kellan said. “We’ll inspect the spools while you call.”
The window flashed again. Nessa held up the lamp with one hand and braced the other on the frame. Her brother waved both arms, trying to tell her they had found a way. Eli raised the folded board. She nodded, then lowered the lamp and vanished inside.
Calder ended his call without receiving an answer. He looked at the damaged cable and then at the people gathered outside the barrier.
“The contractor wants a supervisor to approve opening the cable compartment,” he said. “The supervisor isn’t answering.”
“Is there another number?” Tessa asked.
“There is, but the contractor may charge us for emergency release.”
Kellan wiped his hands on his trousers. “Write down which spools we inspect and the condition they’re in. We can witness it. The payment dispute can follow.”
Calder stared at the locked compartment. Eli could see him calculating the consequences of a missing spool, a damaged crane and an injured crew above. The decision belonged to him for the moment; Kellan had no key to the inner lock.
From the window came the scrape of something heavy being dragged across the floor. Nessa appeared with a bloodstained sleeve. She lifted the lamp once, then pointed back into the room. Tessa answered with her own light and tried to see whether the blood was Nessa’s. The distance made it impossible.
“Ask her,” Eli said.
Nessa’s brother called out, but a bus passed between them and the building. By the time it cleared, she had gone back inside. He sent the question by phone, then gripped the device in both hands until the screen lit. Not mine, the message said. There was no further explanation.
Tessa set the board back on the clean sheet. She checked the replacement strap once more and laid out what she would need for Garin’s first assessment. Marisol appeared at the far end of the ambulance lane, running with a medical bag. Sal waved her toward the treatment point.
Marisol reached the treatment point out of breath and dropped to one knee beside the board. Tessa gave her the names and the little they knew about the injuries. Marisol checked the straps, then positioned her bag where she could reach it without crossing the ambulance lane.
Sera watched the service opening. “The current is moving again. I can’t hold it separately from the crane’s signal for long.”
“Tell us as soon as you lose it,” Eli said.
She nodded. Kellan approached the spools in their separate locked compartment. Calder followed, telephone at his ear, arguing with someone who wanted an inventory number before authorizing the release.
Eli looked once more at the damaged cable. Above it, Nessa’s lamp flashed against the window. He picked up the manual and held it open for Kellan at the page showing the cable specification.