Then he stays put. Agreed. Doc started to leave then stopped. Rebecca. Rebecca looked at her.
Doc Riley had a particular way of looking at Rebecca that was different from how anyone else at Iron Ridge looked at him. It was the look of a woman who knew the version of Rebecca that existed before Sophie and before Emily's accident and before the decision to stop, who had been present for the operational history that Iron Ridge only glimpsed in fragments. The look contained something complicated. Pride maybe concerned definitely. You doing okay with this?
Doc said. The question was small. The weight behind it was not. I'm fine. Rebecca said that's not what I asked.
A pause. I'm doing what needs doing, Rebecca said. That's enough. Doc nodded once. He understood the distinction.
He left. 2:53 in the afternoon. Derek's first radio check-in came in at exactly 15 minutes. Operations: This is the South team. We are at the staging point.
All nine personnel accounted for. Loading now. Morris's ankle is worse. He's going to need a carry assist for the return. Requesting confirmation on route.
Rachel looked at Rebecca. Confirm north return route. Rebecca said, "Avoid the creek crossing by the oak stand. Water level has come up. Add 40 m west of your current bearing and you'll have cleaner ground.
Rachel relayed it. Derek's acknowledgement came back clean and immediate. Rebecca put a small mark on the map indicating Derek's position and returned to the power situation. She had been turning it over since she found the wrong component on the work order. The backup generator was effectively non-functional for sustained operation.
The primary system was down due to the lightning strike. The emergency lighting was battery-backed and would run for approximately 6 hours which was adequate, but there were medical equipment needs. Doc's monitoring devices for Anderson primarily that required stable power. There was a third option. The site had a small solar plus battery installation that had been added 2 years earlier as a supplemental power source for the communications equipment.
It was not on the emergency power plan because it had been installed after the emergency documentation was last updated. Rebecca knew about it because she had done the safety compliance check on it 8 months ago. It had a maximum output of 3 kW, enough for communications, medical monitoring, and critical lighting. She walked out the door into the rain. She found the solar installation controller in the communications utility structure, bypassed the automated switching that had been disabled by the main power failure, and brought the battery bank online manually.
It took him 11 minutes. When he came back through the operations room door, his jacket was soaked through. Rachel looked at him. "Power," she said. "Partial enough for what we need. " "How did you? " It was in the compliance documentation from last spring.
It wasn't on the emergency plan. He moved back to the map. It is now 3:16 in the afternoon. Derek's second check-in. Operation South team.
We are mobile and returning. Nine personnel plus R12. One carry assist in progress. Morris is being carried by two volunteers. He's stable.
Current pace is slower than projected estimate. We're looking at 110 to 120 minutes to return, not 90. Terrain is significantly worse than the outbound trip. Rachel relayed the update to Rebecca. She looked at the map at Derek's projected position at the weather timeline.
Tell him to hold current pace. Don't push it. Slow and steady through the wet terrain is better than a fall. Confirmed. Anything else for him?
Rebecca looked at the map for a moment. Tell him he's doing exactly right. Rachel transmitted it. Derek's acknowledgement came back with the particular quality of a man who has received a piece of information he didn't know he needed until it arrived. 3:22 in the afternoon.
The twist came from a direction nobody had anticipated. Frank Dri came through the operations door with an expression that Rebecca had not seen on him in 2 years of working alongside him. not alarmed, not panicked, but the particular expression of a man who has just processed something and needs to deliver it carefully. We have a situation with the east equipment cash, Frank said. Rebecca looked at her. The cash that was tampered with, Frank said.
The one with the evidence of forced entry. What about it? I went to verify the emergency signaling equipment for the inventory. The cash has been opened again. A pause.
The emergency signaling flares are gone. All of them. And the cash contains something that wasn't there before. She held up a waterproof equipment bag. Rebecca crossed to her and took it.