The drum cart stopped beyond the captured wagons, and the clicking ceased.
Iven missed it immediately. While it turned, he could hear where the mechanism was and how fast it ran. In the silence that followed, he could see only a rounded metal housing, three narrow vents, and the men walking beside it.
The rider with the gray banner raised one hand. The men halted. A woman stepped down from the cart and removed a folded paper from her coat.
“Another order?” Tavin asked.
“Another person who thinks paper will make us walk into a launcher.”
Cenn had moved the captured attackers into the lower store under guard. The white cloth from the first launcher lay on the road where its owner had dropped it. No one had touched it. The new arrival looked at it as she approached, then at the bolt embedded in the cliff above the station.
“Commander Eren Salk,” she called. “Measure Compact security. I want to speak to the person in charge.”
“You can speak from there,” Cenn replied.
