The maintenance passage ended at a repair niche. A panel stood half closed across the next doorway, pinching a strip of blue sleeve in its lower edge. Qiao’s voice came from beyond it.
“I’m caught. I can move my hand, but not my arm.”
Yan crouched and looked along the frame. A faded patch covered a repair in the stone. Small initials had been carved beside it. The work was older than the examination, though newer than Gu’s original plan.
“Does this repair look familiar?” Wei asked.
Gu stood behind them with the chalk cord in his hand. “It isn’t mine. The patch is later Registry work.”
“Then the ruin has been altered more recently than they told us,” Yan said.
“Don’t touch the initials yet,” Gu said. “We don’t know whose they are.”
The panel shifted. Qiao’s sleeve pulled tight. He cried out and tried to yank free.
