The prosecutor wanted the order at the front of the case.
It was easy to understand why. The copied directive carried Rook’s signature, named a district to be denied a rescue unit, and framed the resulting loss as a necessary containment measure. A person could read it without knowing anything about the anchor network or the years of machinery beneath the gates. It made the cruelty visible in one sheet.
Sera had spent the morning wishing the evidence were easier to explain.
Now she wished the dispatch code were right.
She set the order beside a route record recovered from an emergency office. The same code appeared above an operation in another district, on another approach, with a different assigned unit. The dates overlapped closely enough that a careless reader might not notice. A defendant who did notice could make the whole presentation look manufactured.
“Hold this one,” she said.
The prosecutor looked up from the witness list. “Why?”
She showed him the code.
