Wei spread Han’s field log beside the border signal manual and the Registry’s printed timeline. The archive room table barely held all three. He moved the teacups to the window ledge and laid a ruler across the open pages.
“If we read the codes in order, we can tell whether the report used the same system,” he said. “If we assume the code means what we want it to mean, we learn nothing.”
Han sat opposite him. She had taken off her gloves but kept them beside the log. “Start with the flags. I’ll confirm where they were raised. If I remember something that isn’t in the page, I’ll say so.”
Gu He pulled the Registry timeline closer. “And I’ll check the written notation. Their report says this warning came after Yan’s group left the junction.”
Yan stood at the end of the table. “Then what matters is whether the flag could have reached us before the fork.”
Wei opened the signal manual to a page marked with cloth. He pointed at a red square followed by a narrow white stripe. “This first sequence means the pass is blocked. The next one asks the furnace crew to hold its setting. The Registry timeline calls the second mark the first warning.”
