The abandoned rooms still sounded occupied.
A shutter tapped against a frame. Water moved somewhere inside a wall. In one doorway, a strip of cloth breathed inward and outward with the draught, making the patient little movement of someone considering whether to come out.
Iven stopped beside it.
Kesh went past him and lifted the cloth with the end of her walking stick. Beyond it stood an empty bed, a shelf and the pale rectangle where a cupboard had covered the wall. Someone had swept before leaving.
“First morning group,” she said. “Guide checked them out yesterday.”
He nodded. The household mark remained beside the door, crossed with the departure stroke. Not missing people. People who had actually gone.
They continued down the narrow passage.
Kesh had asked him to walk the outer organ approach with her while there was daylight at the inspection slits. The main route still served the clinical survey crew. This lower passage offered another way to carry small parts to the prepared support position without mixing them into the civilian approaches. It needed a real inspection before anyone promised it to a loaded worker.
