Ferra backed the rattling wagon toward the quarry entrance while Hans dragged the cordon out past the broken ore track. Loccy kept the hoist's released guides coiled beside the upper wheel as guards herded the workers behind the gold line.
The five dead bands lay downhill from the socket, their three removed fittings caged inside separate Chain loops.
Loccy stabbed a finger at the cordon and planted her feet, "Nobody carries a cable back across, if it belongs to that hoist, it stays right here with me!"
At the socket, Ferra laid six porcelain probes beside her clamps and checked the older pockets without closing their gaps.
"The alloy's intact around its center, but that doesn't make the space inside it an empty cup, so keep your hand outside the curve," she said, narrowing her stare along a probe's tip.
Hajin loosened only the socket's final loop, leaving the separate loops around the corrupted plates tight and closed.
