The first approach took most of a day to cross three kilometers.
Iven did not consider that a failure of his legs. The direct road was watched. The quarry cuts that looked empty from First Vent held rifle positions, and the lower maintenance path passed through air that the station’s own current log marked unsafe after noon.
They moved by the upper route, with Cenn’s scouts checking each exposed turn before the carrying party followed.
Odan came only to the place he had agreed.
From a narrow shelf behind an abandoned inspection hut, he pointed toward East Spindle’s lower wall. Two doors stood beneath the occupied platform. The left was blocked from inside. The right opened into a return passage where workers could reach the old service court if someone held the guard room.
“That one,” he said. “Not the big gate. They want you looking at the big gate.”
Iven studied the line.
The main entrance was broad enough for an armored man to stand behind a heavy shield while rifles covered his sides. The lower door offered a smaller opening and a difficult approach, but it led toward the people they had come to bring out.
