The family representative asked for her name to be removed from the public statement while leaving her support in place.
The clerk had already prepared the heading. He looked toward the moderator, then crossed out the identifying line in front of her. Tessa asked whether the woman wanted a chosen contact listed instead. She did not. Her family could be reached through the private route already held by the observers.
“I want the plan to proceed,” she said. “I don’t want strangers asking my children to explain why.”
“That choice stays yours,” Tessa said.
Eli watched the clerk replace the public page. The private authorization remained with its custodian. A name disappearing from one sheet did not mean the family had been excluded from the decision, and a name remaining on another would not authorize strangers to seek it out.
Around the hall, interpreters were reading the unresolved questions before anyone called a vote. Access to some captives remained uncertain. Isolation had been demonstrated under bounded conditions, not across every hidden route in the reservoir. The revised staffing rehearsal supported a smaller opening sequence. It had not shown the network carrying the entire transition. A withdrawal would stop or delay actions for which reserve capacity no longer existed.
