Ash closed the duckbills with a clean, even squeeze and let the jaws do manners. The spike sheared flush against the hatch skin without peeling paint. The tiny point hopped into his palm; he slid it into a small pouch and wrote SPIKE TIP—HATCH SKIN (NEAR COLLAR), time, position, and flush so later no one could pretend the cut had bragged.
[SYSTEM PROMPT] Countermeasure: spike shear (flush) with duckbill pliers. Difficulty: mid. +50 Mechanic XP / +100 Basic Mechanical Repair XP.
He thumbed the witness lines on hinge heads and strap shackle; still one line. The dye under the collar stayed blue where it should and white where it should. The stop-strap wore no scar.
"Backer," Hale said, voice the shape of gravity.
Ash pulled a magnet-backed doubler—postcard steel with sunk magnets—and a thin urethane pad from the bag. He slid the pad between plate and skin, lifted the doubler into place under the puncture, and let the magnets take. He added two witness ticks—plate corner to skin, pad ear to skin—and tapped; the new sandwich absorbed the note nails like to write.
[SYSTEM PROMPT] Reinforcement: magnet-backed doubler + urethane pad under puncture zone; witness ticks applied. Difficulty: mid. +50 Mechanic XP / +100 Basic Mechanical Repair XP.
Below, the judge didn't ask what; she watched whether numbers changed. The City-Admin clerk angled his camera, wrote DOUBLER (MAGNET) + PAD—WITNESS, and let ink do its job. Admin raised his radio.
"Roof Two, status."
"On the hatch line," came back, gray and competent. "Two Nightshade grays at east parapet. No tools visible. We've got bags ready. Your hatch looks quiet topside."
"Move them off my hatch line," the judge said. "If you see tools, bag them. View-only for everything else."
"Copy," Facilities answered, and tar scuffed above them with the sound of men becoming smaller.
Nono's head shifted toward the collar; the dye bloomed darker at a hairline, as if patience had found a path. Ash pinched the sock with duckbills, traded it for a fresh coil, refreshed indicator dye until blue stood ready to testify, and drew a second pipette into a vial: SOLVENT TRACE—COLLAR #2. The old sock left a clean ghost on steel that would photograph well.
[SYSTEM PROMPT] Countermeasure: absorbent sock swap + dye refresh; sample #2 taken. Difficulty: simple (higher-tier item). +10 Mechanic XP / +15 Basic Mechanical Repair XP.
"Roof Two," the radio said. "Nightshade grays moved. We bagged a bead string and a file at parapet. They object; we smile. Remaining view-only."
"Logged," the clerk said, already writing TOOLS BAGGED (ROOF): BEAD STRING + FILE and boxing it for emphasis.
The City-Admin clerk ran the RF wand along rope, crate, hatch: negative again. He called the co-seal numbers into the mic—blue and violet unchanged—and drew a tidy constellation of boxes around the third RF negative as if the page liked company.
The clock took the last step to 14:00. The clerk lifted his mic. "Reconvene," he said. "Venue with watchers exterior; one only. Cart and drone removed to street. View-only inventory. Co-seal (plain). Bench snapshot-sealed. City-Admin present. Nightshade present. Admin present. Proceed."
"Emergency medical," the Nightshade clerk said at once. A trooper in gray had taught himself a stagger; he reached his brow and let weight drift toward the rope like gravity owed him a favor. The other clerk held a red medical kit with a white cross and a handle built like a lever.
"No entry," the judge said, eyes on the handle. "Medical remains outside the rope. If he is faint, he may faint there."
Hale slid one pace to put mass where the kit wanted to go. The kit stopped. The trooper's hand continued down to the rope, palm flattening. Nono pinged sharp: between two fingers, a clear zip-cinch loop waited, tail tucked against the palm, ratchet cage aimed for the knot where blue and violet met.
"Record attempt," Admin said softly. The clerk's pen found ZIP-CINCH—ATTEMPT AT KNOT before the tail could feed.
Ash moved like the room had been practicing with him. He took the angle that put his wrist under the rope and his knuckles over the trooper's fingers without striking. He slid his index finger through the loop into the knot's shadow before the tail could find the cage; the side of his thumb pinned the ratchet to the rope so it could neither advance nor retreat. His other hand rested on the trooper's wrist and held—not squeezing; occupying.
"Remove your hand," the judge said. Her tone didn't push; the room did.
The trooper tried a wobble instead. The floor declined to help. Hale borrowed the trooper's momentum and returned it to vertical without drama.
Ash let friction remember its job. The loop didn't tighten. The tail didn't feed. He lifted his finger backwards out of the loop so it could not cinch by accident, and slid the loop and tail together into an evidence pouch that had been waiting for this kind of afternoon. Label: ZIP-CINCH—KNOT INTERDICTED (NO FEED).
[SYSTEM PROMPT] Probe intercept: zip-cinch at rope knot—captured before feed. Difficulty: mid. +50 Mechanic XP / +100 Basic Mechanical Repair XP.
"Sanction," the judge said. "The trooper is removed from this room. Nightshade's interior watcher is reduced to zero until sixteen-hundred. Liaison and clerk may remain."
The liaison's smile looked for a place to stand and found none. "We object to—"
"—overruled," the judge said. "RF."
"Negative," the City-Admin clerk said, wand steady. He touched pen to blue, to violet, to crate wafer, to say with ink what everyone could see: unchanged.
The Nightshade clerk regrouped with an object that looked like permission: a narrow inspection mirror on a telescoping rod. "Visual documentation of the knot," he said. "No contact. From the line."
"From there," the judge agreed. "Hold for inspection."
Ash took the mirror at the joint and rolled the rim into the light. The glass was fine; the rim was not. A clear microgel bead clung to the rim's underside at twelve o'clock, small as a raindrop, tacky enough to carry a fleck of dust or a micro-tag into any surface it touched.
"Gel," Ash said. He angled the bead for the judge's eye. The City-Admin clerk wrote MIRROR—GEL BEAD—REJECTED without waiting for the liaison to find a synonym for innocent.
"Remove the gel," the judge said. The Nightshade clerk pinched for show, performing compliance. The bead smeared along the rim, split, and clung more stubbornly—the way such gels do when they are designed to become someone else's problem.
"Logged," the clerk said, adding FAIL REMOVE to the line.
"Plain mirror from City-Admin," the judge ordered. The clerk produced a clean one from a bag that had become a favorite character today. He clipped it to the crate, not the rope, and angled it so the camera could see the knot without touching it.
The liaison's hand twitched, a small flinch that belonged to men whose tools had just been replaced by someone else's tools. That twitch was enough. The microgel bead that had smeared thin along Nightshade's rim decided to let go. It slid, fattened, reached the edge, gathered its courage, and dropped in a clear, round fall toward the blue number on the rope.
Nono pinged, higher. The bead's path was a straight line between gravity and a perjury charge. Ash had already peeled a square of evidence tape from the pad on the crate. He moved into the bead's fall cone, palm up, tape ready, angle set so the adhesive would meet the bead without brushing blue or violet.
[SYSTEM PROMPT] Probe intercept: microgel fall toward rope knot—capture with evidence tape recommended. Difficulty: mid. +50 Mechanic XP / +100 Basic Mechanical Repair XP.