Chapter 114: THE WRONG SIDE

"Someone just tried to open it."

The prisoner’s voice rasped through the seam in the white carriage panel. Caspian leaned closer without putting weight on the damaged metal. A click came from deep inside the wreck, followed by hurried feet scraping across the compartment floor.

"Keep everyone away from the far partition," he said. "Don’t touch the latch, even if it sounds loose."

"What if they get in?" The man’s breath caught. Another prisoner answered him, too quietly for Caspian to hear over the water leaking beneath the three-groove door.

"Move toward my voice. I’ll tell you if anything changes."

Sio joined him as Angle descended from the upper shelf. Rhea followed with her injured hand tucked against her coat. Above them, the two sentries held separate positions along the ridge, covering the drainage banks.

Another click traveled through the carriage ribs. It ended in a harsh scrape, as if someone were dragging a wire across metal. Caspian heard a sharp intake of breath behind the panel, then a woman urging someone farther back. He stayed close enough for the six to hear his voice without making them approach the seam.

"That’s not a handle turning," Rhea said. Her ears angled toward the sound. "Something smaller is moving inside the lock."

Angle glanced at the collapsed rear cars. "The figure our sentry saw?"

"Could be," Sio said. "If there’s access from outside, we haven’t found it yet."

Tera came up from the outlet with Iven. After hearing Caspian’s account, she studied the cracked roof above the prisoner compartment. "Nobody goes through that partition from inside. We don’t know what’s resting against it, and the flooded door stays shut."

Caspian settled beside the gap. He tapped twice against the panel and received an answer from the six. "I’ll keep them back. Find out who’s at the other end."

Rhea led Sio and Angle up the solid ridge, avoiding the carriage’s broken roof. The path wound above the drainage cut, past loose gravel and the exposed foundation of an old service wall. From there they could see the rear cars folded together beneath a slanted sheet of steel.

Black fabric shifted in the gap between two slabs. Below the ledge, the channel had washed soil away from the stone supports, leaving a dark drop beneath the broken metal. Even Angle slowed to judge where a boot could safely land.

Rhea crouched, signaling the others down. "Metal on metal. Someone’s working there."

A narrow service ledge clung to the rear carriage. Part of its floor had fallen away, but a person in dark clothing knelt on the remaining strip, reaching through a gap in the outer wall. The stranger drew a length of black wire from a pouch and fed it into the opening.

A metallic snap sounded from the prisoners’ direction. Rhea leaned forward, her jaw tightening. "That’s the latch."

The stranger stood and looked up. A pale mask hid the lower face. One boot struck the ledge with a distinct squared tap, and Rhea’s gaze flicked to Sio’s.

"The square heel. Like the tracks near the escaped prisoners."

The stranger saw them. Angle dropped onto firm rock above the ledge, holding his iron bar across his body. "Away from the wall. Hands where I can see them."

Instead, the figure yanked the wire. It broke at the opening, leaving one end hanging, and the stranger ran along the ledge toward the northern bank.

Rhea took the lower slope while Angle cut toward the solid upper exit. Sio followed until a fractured section of carriage roof obscured the ground ahead. Beyond it, he could see an open patch where he might place a portal, but the watcher was already looking for a portal user. He wasn’t going to confirm the report for the sake of a shortcut.

"Angle, they’ll come out above you!" he called.

The stranger leapt from the broken walkway, missed a secure foothold and caught an exposed rail. The delay let Rhea reach the narrow path below. She hooked one end of a loose canvas strap around an exposed rail, drew it across the exit with her uninjured hand, and braced against the rock.

The runner hit the strap and turned sideways. A shoulder struck Rhea’s, pushing her back. She released the strap before it could drag her off balance, but a short blade flashed from beneath the dark coat.

Rhea twisted away. The blade sliced her sleeve without reaching skin. Angle arrived from above and drove his iron bar between them. The strike deflected the knife arm, giving him room to seize the stranger’s coat and drag the runner onto the gravel.

The blade skittered toward Sio, who kicked it into a clear patch of stone. The nearer sentry came down from the ridge and kept the struggling pair away from the blade, while the second remained on watch above.

The captive struggled beneath Angle’s grip, reaching for the pouch at their waist. Angle pinned the arm while the sentry secured both wrists with cord from the supply bundle. Rhea moved the fallen knife farther away with her boot, then checked the tear in her sleeve. The skin underneath was untouched.

Sio approached from the side. The pale mask had cracked, revealing a clenched jaw. The captive’s eyes tracked him, then dropped to Gumm peering from his collar. For an instant, recognition displaced the anger in their expression.

"You were looking for me," Sio said.

The captive gave no answer, looking instead toward the carriage and the faint amber glow behind its white panel.

Rhea opened the pouch beside a flat stone. Inside lay metal wedges, more black wire and a folded sheet protected from moisture. The wedges were thin enough to slide beneath a fitted catch.

Tera arrived along the safe approach. She examined the tools without touching their sharp ends. "Those aren’t for freeing a jammed door. They could hold a latch shut."

"You were locking the far partition," Sio said.

The captive’s expression did not change, but their gaze stayed fixed on the wreck.

They left the prisoner with the first sentry and inspected the service gap from the solid foundation above, without stepping onto the damaged ledge. A wire disappeared into the partition’s mechanism. A wedge had been driven below the outer catch; its edge prevented the latch from lifting. The runner had abandoned the job midway through.

"Can you remove it?" Angle asked.

"Not by pulling the wire," Tera replied. "It could move something inside the lock. We’ll need to reach the catch safely, and even then the crash may have distorted the door."

Caspian called from the white panel that the noises had stopped. All six were still accounted for. He remained with them while Sio and the others returned to the captive.

Rhea unfolded the recovered paper against her knee. Lines of cramped writing described the rear prisoner compartment. Below them, a printed instruction had been underlined twice.

UPON VISIBLE INCREASE IN EXTERNAL DISCHARGE: SECURE REAR PARTITION. RETAIN OCCUPANTS UNTIL COLLECTION.

Sio read it again. The wording didn’t require anyone to know the readings inside the inspection chamber. Whoever had written the order could watch the water leaving the outlet, just as they had watched the team following the drainage cut. He pictured the thin stream slipping around Tera’s cleared stones, a change small enough to miss if you weren’t watching for it. This stranger had arrived almost as soon as the flow strengthened.

Angle read over his shoulder. "They expected the rescue work."

"They planned to stop anyone from leaving once the water went down." Sio folded the paper, careful not to tear it. "And somebody intends to come for the prisoners."

The original order to identify a portal user and avoid direct retrieval had told them one thing about the watchers’ assignment. This paper said something else about the people trapped in the carriage. Sio couldn’t yet tell whether both instructions came from the same employer.

The captive sat against a rock with the first sentry guarding the approach. Above them, the second sentry remained on the ridge, nearly hidden in the grass.

Rhea crouched just beyond the captive’s reach and held up the paper. "Who is coming to collect them?"

Silence. Angle rested his bar against his shoulder, its end still gritty from the struggle.

"You didn’t finish securing the latch," he said. "Whoever sent you won’t find it the way they wanted."

The captive lifted their head. "Didn’t need to."

Sio felt Gumm stir against his neck and placed a hand over the little creature’s back. "What does that mean?"

The stranger’s eyes shifted toward the northern washout.

Rhea followed the glance. On the ridge, the second sentry appeared from behind a stone and gave an urgent signal. He came down just far enough to speak beyond the captive’s hearing.

"Three people beyond the washout," he told Angle. "Carrying equipment. I couldn’t see whether anyone else was behind them."

Angle’s fingers tightened around the bar. Tera rolled up the diagram and handed it to Iven. "We have our readings. We don’t need to touch the outlet again today."

Sio looked toward the faint amber light inside the prisoner carriage. Six people remained behind the panel, the lower seal still leaking. Someone had tried to trap them more securely the moment the discharge increased, and now others were approaching from the same direction.

"We warn Caspian, then move the exposed crew to positions where we can protect the carriage," he said. "The six need to know we’re still here. And no one gets near that partition without us seeing them."

The captive lowered their head, but Sio had already seen the glance toward the northern washout.

The strangers hadn’t come to stop the pressure from falling. They’d come to make sure the prisoners were still there when it did.