The platform slid away from the stairs.
Neris and Mera took the injured workers toward the next stable pocket.
Leran went with them.
Darel stayed.
He pointed at Elvar.
“You’re with me.”
Mera kept walking.
“Good luck.”
Darel ignored her.
The corridor behind Neris narrowed and disappeared.
Elvar checked the Carrier in his pocket.
Darel noticed.
“First rule.
Unknown Carrier stays untouched until someone competent checks it.”
“That rule arrived late.”
“It arrived before your second bad decision.”
Darel started down the platform.
“Second rule.
Dead Routes change exits.
If you leave one, do not assume it will still exist when you come back.”
That one mattered.
“Third?”
Darel glanced at him.
“Why are you interested now?”
“Because the first two sounded expensive.”
Darel stopped beside a service door.
“Salvage belongs to whoever can prove recovery unless there is an existing owner or restricted claim.”
Elvar’s attention sharpened.
“There it is.”
“I regret the order I explained these.”
The door opened onto a maintenance passage.
They went through.
Three exits appeared at the far end.
Passenger gate.
Service ladder.
Locked metal door.
Elvar could feel the difference without touching the Carrier.
The passenger gate felt easy.
The ladder weaker.
The locked door gave him almost nothing.
The feeling still did not have a useful name.
Elvar let his attention move across all three exits twice.
The difference stayed the same.
Darel caught him doing it.
“Which?”
“Passenger gate is easiest.”
“Does that mean safest?”
Elvar almost said yes.
Then remembered the train.
“No.”
Darel nodded and chose the service ladder.
Elvar took the service ladder after Darel.
That was the first lesson Darel had given him that did not require a speech.
The ladder opened above another platform.
A factory worker was trapped below with one leg under a fallen beam.
Three metres away sat a sealed black Routeworks case.
Elvar noticed both.
Darel noticed him noticing both.
“Worker.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
They climbed down.
The platform between them and the worker started folding.
Tiles lifted upright, then sank again in a slow wave.
Darel fired a flare.
White light marked a stable path across the first section.
It ended halfway.
The worker shouted, “It’s getting worse!”
“We see it,” Darel called back.
Elvar reached the end of the flare path.
The worker was still too far away.
He took out the Carrier.
Darel’s voice changed.
“Do not experiment here.”
“I’m not.”
That was not completely true.
Elvar lined the split engraving toward the worker.
Nothing.
He rotated it.
The right branch warmed.
The route ahead changed.
A raised tile stopped before blocking him.
A loose barrier swung out of the way.
The same thing as before.
Only this time Elvar had done it on purpose.
He moved while the metal stayed warm.
One step.
Two.
The route held.
Then the warmth vanished.
Elvar stopped.
Darel reached the edge of the flare behind him.
“What changed?”
“The path stopped helping.”
“That is an observation.”
“It’s the one I have.”
Elvar adjusted the Carrier again.
Too far left.
Cold.
A little right.
Warm.
The easier route returned.
There.
He was not making a path.
He was leaning on one that already existed until it became easier than its neighbours.
Darel watched the Carrier angle in Elvar’s hand.
“You are biasing the choice.”
“That a technical term?”
“A description.
Do not get attached to it.”
Elvar reached the worker.
“Name?”
“Cal.”
“Can you feel your foot?”
“Yes.”
Darel crossed after Elvar when the path steadied.
Together they lifted the beam.
Cal pulled free.
The platform folded again.
Darel got Cal moving first.
Elvar aligned the Carrier toward the return path.
Warm.
“Go.”
Cal crossed.
Darel followed halfway, then stopped.
“Elvar.”
Elvar knew what he had seen.
The sealed case.
Three metres away.
The route to it was weak.
The route back was already getting worse.
Darel did not bother arguing.
“Your claim on the Carrier survives if you leave the case.”
That was a better argument.
Elvar looked at the case once more.
“What kind of claim?”
“Provisional salvage.”
“How provisional?”
The platform lifted under the case.
Darel’s patience ended.
“Move.”
Elvar moved.
Then the black case slid across the tiles and stopped against a broken bench directly beside his route.
Elvar grabbed it without changing direction.
Darel stared at him from the other side.
“That one I’ll allow.”
Elvar crossed before the Branch closed.
“Good system.”
“You did not earn that case.”
“I recovered it.”
“It has a Routeworks mark.”
Elvar looked down.
It did.
“Less good system.”
Cal laughed once, then winced from his leg.
They reached a stable corridor.
Darel scanned Cal’s worker ID and sent his location to the other team.
Then he held out his hand.
“Phone.”
Elvar gave it to him.
Darel opened the emergency recovery page.
“Carrier description?”
“Dark metal.
Split line.”
“Unverified Carrier.
Palm-sized.
Unknown origin.”
“You made it sound worse.”
“I made it accurate.”
Darel entered the location.
The form had no option for a railway station that had appeared inside a factory.
He selected:
TALVEN EAST — INDUSTRIAL ROUTE INCIDENT
Then:
RAIL-ASSOCIATED SALVAGE
The system accepted both.
No warning.
No question.
The accepted entry sat on the screen without any warning.
“That’s all it wants?”
“For now.”
Darel photographed the Carrier and attached the image.
A provisional claim number appeared.
Elvar saved it before Darel handed the phone back.
That number felt almost as useful as the Carrier.
Almost.
Darel pointed at the black case.
“Routeworks property.”
“I saw the mark.”
“Glad you can read.”
He broke the emergency seal.
Inside were two dead flare cartridges, an old recovery badge and a folded route map.
Darel opened the map.
Elvar looked over his shoulder.
A station list ran down one side.
Platform 1.
Platform 2.
Platform 4.
Service.
Elvar’s eyes passed over it and moved to the route lines.
One line ran from Talven’s industrial district into their current station.
Then out toward another connection.
Darel stopped.
“What?”
Darel checked the issue code printed in the corner.
Then the Routeworks mark.
“This map is ours.”
“That sounds normal.”
“The connection isn’t.”
He pointed to the rail line.
“Routeworks has no registered recovery route through this site.”
Elvar looked around them.
The station clearly disagreed.
“So your map says you do.”
Darel folded it.
“My map says somebody did.”
The distinction mattered enough that Elvar did not joke.
A bell rang somewhere above.
The corridor shook.
Darel put the map back in the case.
“We take this to Neris.”
Elvar pocketed his phone.
The provisional salvage claim was still on the screen.
One impossible station.
One Carrier nobody had claimed yet.
And now a Routeworks map showing a connection Routeworks said did not exist.
The first two had already paid him.
He wanted to know what the third was worth.
Darel stopped before the stairs.
One of the blue survey pins beside the service door was lying on the floor.
He picked it up with two fingers.
The metal had been cut through cleanly.
Elvar looked at the corridor behind them.
“Route did that?”
“No.”
Darel turned the pin once.
The cut was narrow and bright.
“Tool did.”
“Who cuts a route marker inside a dead Route?”
Darel put the pin in the evidence sleeve with the impossible map.
“Good question.”
He did not sound pleased to have another one.