“That language will alarm people.”
“Good,” I said. “The people responsible for fixing it should be alarmed.”
Sarah’s phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen. “First transfer just cleared the south checkpoint.”
My pen stopped halfway across the injury report.
Juliette was past the last controlled point before the airstrip road.
The room continued around me. Daniel asking about Mbeki’s statement. Armand breathing too loudly. The video feed returning with a burst of static.
I finished the line on the report.
“Confirm when they reach the strip,” I said.
Sarah’s eyes flicked to me, then down. “Will do.”
Sarah held out another page. “Ms. Wilder left this for the room,” she said. “Operational. Before you make that face worse.”
For a half second, my hand did not move.
Then I took it.
It wasn't personal.
Of course it wasn’t.
Juliette had left a precise, brutal list in neat handwriting. Suggested language for delays that did not lie. Compensation exposure broken into categories. Family contact protocol. Staff meal rotation in bold at the bottom.
Feed rangers before exhaustion becomes liability.
I stared at the line.
Sarah said, “She also told the kitchen to feed the rangers before anyone fainted into a compensation lawsuit.”
My mouth moved despite itself. Barely. “Sounds like her.”
“She told me you would object to the word liability.”
“She was wrong.”
Sarah’s eyebrow lifted.
“I object to the word fainted.”
Daniel made a sound into his coffee that he tried to turn into a cough.
I set Juliette’s page beside the incident file.
She had left the room and still managed to make it run better.
At 0730, Mbeki called me from his cabin.
I answered on speaker while signing the updated patrol roster. “No.”
A pause.
“I have not asked anything yet,” he said.
