Rasha Saad did not let the hospital call her sister a regrettable delay.
She stood beside Dalia's covered body and made the emergency feed keep the room number visible.
"Nineteen minutes," she said. "The wall offered six seconds. Who chose the other eighteen minutes and fifty-four seconds?"
The charge nurse answered first.
"I rejected facility authority for the boundary."
"Did you know Dalia would die?"
"No. I knew delay could kill a patient."
"Which patient did you expect?"
"I did not have a name."
Rasha looked toward Mercy's feed.
Elara remained in her raised bed. The one-breath valve sat near her left hand. Her right shoulder had slipped again during the hospital closures, and Kikaru was waiting for permission to reset the pad.
"You wrote the slow method," Rasha said.
"I helped write it."
"Would the wall have saved Dalia?"
Elara took an assisted breath before answering.
