Calder raised his voice from the loading yard. “I manage the warehouse. That contract belongs in the company’s file.”
“Then give me your full name and sign for it,” Eli said. “I’ll record what leaves the room.”
“You know who I am.”
“I know what you told us at the barrier. If you’re taking Garin’s assignment copy, sign for it.”
Calder looked up at the platform rising toward the window. “I don’t have time for your paperwork.”
Tessa tightened the dressing at Garin’s side. “Then we don’t have time to hand it over. Move away from the window.”
Kellan’s voice came through the radio. “Platform arriving. Who’s next?”
Tessa checked Garin’s breathing and then Nessa’s injured arm. Tomas had reached the treatment point. Nessa could still stand, though she was growing unsteady. Garin needed more care than Tessa could provide upstairs, and every minute made the descent harder.
“Garin,” she said. “I’ll accompany him.”
Kellan did not answer immediately. Eli looked out. The platform carried the narrow stretcher but had limited space beside it. Kellan checked the load plate, the rigging, and the distance between the rail and the frame.
“I can lower the stretcher and one person,” he said. “Not two patients with it.”
Calder called up again. “Put Nessa beside them. We don’t know how many trips we have.”
“And I won’t find out by overloading the cable,” Kellan replied. “One stretcher, one medic. Eli and Nessa wait for the next trip.”
Tessa prepared Garin for the move. Eli held the bag while Nessa helped clear the route. Garin’s eyes opened briefly when Tessa spoke his name. He could not answer her question in more than a few words.
“Rowan,” he said.
“We have the information,” Eli told him. “I’ll speak to her.”
They lifted him onto the stretcher. The room shifted beneath their feet, a slow movement followed by a crack from the far wall. Nessa caught the edge of a table before it slid across the path. Eli checked the rope around the column; the knot held, but dust fell from the masonry above the window.
“Platform is level,” Kellan called. “Move when ready.”
Tessa went through first and turned to receive the stretcher. Eli and Nessa guided the frame toward her. Garin’s bag stayed with Eli until the frame was secured; then he passed it to Tessa, who fastened it to the platform rail.
Calder called up about the bag as Tessa secured it. Kellan told him to stay clear of the loading area while the stretcher was moved.
“Are you signing for it?” she asked.
“No. It’s ours.”
“Then it stays with the patient.”
Calder stepped back. Kellan lowered the platform. Tessa crouched beside Garin, keeping one hand on the stretcher as the cable unwound. Sera watched the loading controls from behind the barrier. Ina stood farther along the protected wall with her pole, ready to draw the source away again if it moved toward the crane.
The platform descended past the lower windows. Eli could see Tessa’s mouth moving, but not hear what she said to Garin. She checked him again as the platform neared the ground.
A scrape sounded beneath the stairs. Sera raised her hand.
“Movement toward the crane,” she called.
Ina struck the barrier twice. Something struck the inside wall in answer. Kellan kept his eyes on the cable and the platform. The load reached the pavement. Marisol and a responder moved the stretcher to the treatment point while Kellan secured the platform for the next ascent.
Eli heard Tessa call for the responder’s kit. The sounds below overlapped: a vehicle arriving beyond the barrier, the metallic knock from inside the warehouse, and Marisol giving a location to the responder. Nessa stood beside him, her injured arm held close.
“Can you make the window?” he asked.
“I can walk.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
She looked at the gap between the floor and the platform. “With help.”
Kellan raised the empty platform. Halfway up, it swayed when the wind caught the side rail. He stopped it, waited for the movement to settle, then continued. Eli checked the knot around the interior column and clipped a second line to Nessa’s harness.
“I should go first,” she said.
“You’re injured.”
“I can still hold the window. If you go first, who helps me through? Once I’m on the platform I can steady you from there.”
He accepted the point. When the platform reached the opening, he guided her across. She placed her good foot on the platform and held the rail. Eli followed, keeping the rope between them and the window frame. The platform dipped slightly under their combined weight.
Kellan checked the load against the limit. “Stay where you are. Don’t lean over the same side.”
Calder remained on the ground. He stared at the bag beside the treatment point, then called up about the scattered papers.
“You haven’t inventoried the rest,” he said.
“The room is unstable,” Eli replied. “Tell the responders where the papers are. We took Garin’s bag and the assignment copy.”
Kellan began the descent. The platform moved smoothly for the first few feet. Then a piece of masonry broke from the window frame and struck the outer rail.
Nessa cried out. The platform swung away from the wall.
“Stop!” Eli shouted.
The motor cut off. The platform continued to move for a moment, the cable twisting slightly above them. Eli held the rail with both hands. Nessa crouched without releasing her safety line.
“Are you secure?” Kellan called.
“Yes. Nessa’s line is attached. The outer rail took the impact.”
“Can you see damage?”
“A dent. I can’t inspect the underside.”
Kellan and Ina took the guide line from below. They pulled gently, bringing the platform toward the clear side of the yard without letting it strike the wall. Sera warned that the source had moved toward the noise. Ina struck the barrier again, then returned to the line when Sera said the movement had turned away.
“Don’t pull hard,” Kellan told her. “Let the swing die.”
The platform steadied. Eli checked Nessa’s harness and his own attachment. Kellan lowered them a short distance, stopped, and checked the cable. No new fraying was visible from below. He resumed the descent slowly.
At the ground, Eli helped Nessa off the platform. A responder took her to the treatment point. Kellan shut down the crane and marked it out of service until the cable and platform could be inspected after the impact.
Tessa was kneeling beside Garin. The responder checked him once more, then looked at her. She shook her head.
Eli stopped a few steps away. He had carried the bag, watched the platform descend, and believed that reaching the ground would give Tessa a better chance. Now she closed the medical kit and covered Garin’s hand with the edge of the sheet.
Nessa tried to approach. The responder made room for her. She stood beside Garin for a moment, then asked whether Tomas knew. Tessa said she would tell him when the responder finished examining his leg.
Calder crossed the yard. “The assignment copy belongs to the company,” he said. “I need it for the report.”
Nessa turned toward him. “You gave us a lower rating.”
“The posted notice was revised after inspection.”
“When?”
“I’ll check the file.”
“You didn’t tell us.”
“I don’t know what your team leader told you.”
Eli felt the answer catch in his throat. Nessa had described her own briefing; Calder was already placing the uncertainty on the person who might not be here to answer. The responder asked them to move the argument away from the treatment area. Tessa gave Eli Garin’s bag and pointed to a sealed pocket containing Rowan’s contact information.
“Tell her first,” she said. “The documents can wait until the family knows.”
Eli looked at Garin. The request still rang in his memory: the insurance payment, Rowan and Ivo, the blue folder at home. A contract in his hands was evidence, not the payment Garin had asked for. He could not finish the promise by winning an argument beside the stretcher.
He stepped away with the bag. Kellan joined him near the barrier.
“The two who went toward the stairs?” Eli asked.
“The responding team has their names and last known route. Sera’s helping them locate the moving source from outside. They haven’t entered yet.”
“Can we help?”
“They have equipment we don’t. They asked us to keep the loading route clear.”
Eli wanted to stay until everyone was accounted for. He also had a name and a phone number for a family that had not been told. He called the number with Tessa beside him. It rang until a recorded message began. He left his name and a request for Rowan to call him, without telling Ivo’s voice on the recording what had happened.
They waited. The responders moved equipment through the barrier. Sera pointed out where the source had last moved and where her sensing had become uncertain. Ina sat on a crate while Marisol’s colleague checked the cut on her cheek. Tomas was alert, his leg supported, and had agreed to give an account after treatment.
Rowan called back within ten minutes. Eli introduced himself and said he was with Tessa, a medic who had treated Garin. He asked whether they could meet her in person. The silence on the line lengthened.
“Is he alive?” Rowan asked.
“No,” Eli said.
He heard a breath, then a sound he could not identify. He did not try to fill the silence. Rowan asked where Garin was and whether he had been alone. Tessa took the phone when Eli offered it, explaining what she could about the treatment and where his body would be taken. She did not promise that he had felt no pain.
Rowan gave them an address and asked them to come after she had arranged for Ivo to stay with a relative. Tessa confirmed the time and repeated it back. Eli wrote it beside the phone number.
Calder approached once more, stopping at the edge of the treatment area. “I need a copy of the assignment for the incident file.”
“You can request it from Rowan,” Tessa said. “Or provide your own company copy.”
“Her copy won’t establish which revision was issued.”
“Then preserve the records that will.”
Calder looked toward the warehouse. The responder team was preparing to enter by a separate route. He went to speak with the site officer, and Eli kept the bag closed.
Nessa sat beside Tomas while a responder recorded their accounts separately. She told him she had received the lower rating. Tomas said the same, but neither could say when the posted rating changed. Eli heard the distinction and wrote it down. Two accounts could support what the team was told without proving who altered the notice.
Kellan returned from the crane. “The replacement cable may be damaged from the swing. I’ve marked the equipment and told the officer not to use it until it’s inspected.”
“Did the platform hold?”
“Yes. That doesn’t mean the next load should go up.”
Eli looked at the dent in the rail. The rescue had depended on a cable someone had nearly asked them to use without checking, a replacement someone else owned, and a series of stops that felt unbearable while Garin was waiting. Those stops had brought Tomas and Nessa down alive. They had not been enough to save everyone.
Tessa came back from the responders. “We have an hour before Rowan can see us.”
“What do we do with the bag?”
“Keep it sealed. Take it to her. If she wants Nora’s help, we can ask. If she wants time, we give it.”
He nodded. Kellan borrowed Sal’s car with her permission and checked the location before promising a time. Marisol stayed at the treatment point to help direct the responders and update Leah at the clinic. Sera remained with the site officer, describing the movement she had sensed without claiming to know what caused it.
Eli carried Garin’s bag to the vehicle. He placed it on the seat beside him, not in the back with the tools. The assignment copy was inside, folded and marked with dust. It might help Rowan claim the payment. It could also become the center of a dispute she had not yet chosen to enter.
Kellan started the engine. Tessa sat beside Eli and checked the address once more. No one spoke as they pulled away from the warehouse.