The warning from the lower gallery reached Cenn before the first cargo boat left on day 1107.
A keeper had seen armed people carrying survey cases through a passage reserved for the return’s maintenance crew. Their paper named a service inspection. It did not name the local keeper who was supposed to accept the visit, and the men had refused to wait while he asked the station.
Then they had put a guard across the door.
Cenn brought the report to Iven at the bank’s yard. He did not bring a conclusion about which whole faction must have broken the ceasefire. The passage lay five kilometers down the lower working road, outside the named western withdrawal posts. Whoever held it had weapons, a paper and no accepted handover.
Iven put his lunch back on the shelf.
“How many people inside?”
“Six seen. One at the door. The keeper got out through the water stair.”
“Who knows the air?”
