Bai’s clerk spread the barrier records on a table beneath an awning outside the city wall. The papers stayed in the shade, out of the wind. Councillor Iven arrived with two engineers and the same warden who had carried the blue-lamp slate into the city.
“The originals remain with our council,” Iven said.
“These are copies,” the clerk replied. “The source of each copy is written here.”
He showed the engineer a page whose ink looked darker than the rest. The engineer lifted it by the edge and compared it with the copy list.
“This is newer than the maintenance book,” he said. “It may not belong in the same set.”
“It was copied from a loose page in the clinic archive,” Qinghe said. “We marked its source and the date it was recovered.”
The engineer looked at her. “You did not remove it?”
“No. I brought it because it names three workers. Its date may be wrong; that is why the copy sheet says the original needs to be checked.”
