Gu He set the Registry bulletin beside three maintenance ledgers from the furnace station. He had taken care to bring the original books, not a copied table. Their covers were stained with grease, and one had a corner burned away.
“The signal comparison is solid,” Wei said. “The report still could be a copy made by a local clerk who used shorthand.”
“That’s possible,” Gu answered. “I want to know whether the notation could have been used on the night in question at all.”
Ning came in with the clean route map. She set it beside the papers and kept the survivor statements in a closed folder under her arm. “The gathering is in two days. If the code is useful, we can explain it. If it only raises another question, we should leave it out.”
Yan turned a chair toward the table. “Show us what it establishes before we decide what it means.”
Gu opened the oldest ledger. On each page, a short set of strokes marked the time a furnace repair began and the crew assigned to it. The symbols differed from the Registry’s printed bulletin. He placed a second book beside it. That ledger used a newer set, with a small square added before each command.
