Seyun took the coarse linen sheet from Mina’s hand and looked down at the bottom three lines of blocky clerk-script under the lamplight. The ink listed the occupied stone beds arranged around the Hollow Summit’s black bronze pillar in numerical order: Bed Two: Kori (pulse 76, steady on split tap). Bed Three: Senn (pulse 78, practicing pause). Bed Four: Dren (pulse 74). Bed Six: Sela (pulse 80). Bed Seven: Borin (pulse 72). Bed Nine: Neth (pulse 79). Bed Eleven: Yul (pulse 75).
Beneath Bed Eleven: Yul, the linen paper ended in a blank margin above the wax smudge.
Seyun’s scarred thumb pressed hard against the edge of the medicine table as the arithmetic of the twelve testers struck his chest like a physical blow. Twelve inward-channel recruits had been wired to the black bronze pillar when they first entered the vault two weeks ago. Five had come out through the supply passage into the blizzard: Pera, Maren, Tov, Vey, and Senn. Senn chose at the ridge crossroads to return up the mountain to Vaska Ren rather than die in the snow. Then, four testers had remained outside—the exact four now resting in this room—and eight should have been lying around the pillar at the summit.
