Armand drew a line beneath his notes. “And guest communication?”
“No poaching language,” I said. “No breach details. Roads affected by security operations. Activities adjusted as a precaution. Anyone asking for more comes to you or me. No junior staff improvising reassurance.”
Armand nodded again. Reassurance was where holes opened. People wanted to sound kind. Then they said too much.
Pieter cleared his throat through the speaker. “Ms. Wilder’s departure was confirmed. She landed safely.”
A thin current passed through the room and found every nerve I had spent the last twelve hours denying.
“I know,” I said.
The words came out level. Daniel looked at the map. Sarah looked at her laptop. Mbeki became fascinated by the doorframe. Excellent survival instincts all around.
I reached for the radio clipped to my belt. The casing was warm from my body, worn smooth at the edge beneath my thumb.
“Eastern patrol stays doubled until further notice. Daniel, rotate two-hour relief. No one sits that boundary tired. Sarah, contractor review by category. Elias, I want a physical inspection of every service gate before noon. Mbeki, vehicle logs from the past six months. Not the summaries. The handwritten sheets.”
Mbeki nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Sarah, reopen main lodge operations at half intake. Delay incoming bush suite guests. Offer upgrades, refunds, apologies, whatever keeps them out of those rooms until I say otherwise.”
Armand looked up. “That will be expensive.”
“So is explaining why we ignored a hole in our fence.”
He nodded.
The meeting broke in pieces. People moved. Radios crackled. The printer started whining in the corner like it had suffered more than anyone in the room. Someone outside shouted for a jack. The smell of diesel thickened through the window, cut with dry grass and hot dust.
The room emptied around me. On the map, the red mark at the contractor gate sat too close to the guest transfer route. Too close to Juliette’s name on a manifest. My pulse hit once behind my eye.
Then Daniel shut the door.
“You know,” he said, “we do have radios when you sleep.”
I picked up my coffee and found it cold. “That your formal recommendation?”
“No.” He leaned back against the table. “My formal recommendation is that you stop treating rest like desertion.”
“Put it in writing.”
“I did. You ignored it.”
“That your concern?”
“Not even close.”
I looked toward the window. In the yard, Elias was already walking the first vehicle inspection with Mbeki. Sarah crossed behind him, phone to her ear, one hand shading her eyes against the sun. The system moved because it had been built to move.
Daniel followed my line of sight. “Eastern patrol is covered. Contractor gate is covered. Sarah has the access review. She won’t put anyone in the bush suites because she enjoys being alive and employed.”
“Your point?”
“You built the system to work when one man is off-grid.” He pushed off the table. “Don’t insult it by refusing to test it.”
The room held the sentence after he finished. A fly knocked against the window screen. Once. Twice. Persistent little bastard.
I set the mug down. “You asking for command?”
