The first copy left the workshop in a woman’s flour sack.
She had offered the clean sack because the morning rain had begun to run under the door and the rolled specification was too wide for Juno’s document case. There was nothing secret about its destination. The independent reading room had agreed to receive the design, the failed tests, and the invitation to reproduce the calculations. Even so, Eli watched the woman lift the sack as though she were carrying something breakable.
“Keep the date visible,” Juno told her.
“It has three dates visible.”
“The release date.”
The woman showed her the outer label. Juno nodded and let go.
Other copies followed by the channels Sera had checked. They contained no volunteer roster, no defense schedule, and no protected route into a settlement. They contained enough engineering to open the box. The failed collar and the overdraw appeared before the hopeful projection. Every plotted contribution carried an uncertainty range. Eli had helped check those ranges against the instrument records the previous evening. He knew how much care had gone into the numbers.
That knowledge did not save them.
