Gu, Sella, and two town masons followed the pipe route above the school while Qinghe collected roof runoff. Red grit settled in the sample jar after a furnace cycle. Noma showed them where children had stopped washing at a basin because the water left a metallic film.
Qinghe compared it with the sealed cistern sample. “These are different. It supports the concern, but it doesn’t tell us how much anyone has been harmed.”
Yan helped Iven move desks from beneath the warmest part of the roof. The schoolteacher asked for the blackboard and the children’s slate tablets first. Yan stacked the tablets in a crate while the children wrote their names on the sides.
A boy named Rell stared at the crate. “Do we have to leave?”
“We’re preparing choices,” Vessa said. “We haven’t decided for everyone.”
Yan put Rell’s slate on top. “It will be easy to find.”
A pressure pulse shook dust from the roof. A stone panel cracked above them. Yan braced the support beam while the masons slid timber beneath it. The beam’s weight pressed into his shoulder. He held it until Iven ushered the children into the cistern hall.
The panel fell and shattered two desks. No one was beneath it. Qinghe checked the children for dust irritation, then examined Yan’s shoulder. The bruise from the beam hurt when he raised his arm.
