The bed wheel crossed Sulo's lamp and rolled back into the dark.
Sulo kept his injured right leg straight. He hooked the broken rail brace around the lamp base and dragged it across the lower landing until the light reached the old surgery rail.
One wheel waited beyond it. A hand held the rim.
Sulo did not call either name on the enamel tag.
"I have a hand and one wheel," he said. "No face. No answer yet."
Eri Vak lay above the two missing steps with his chin against the upper rail. Kiva Ko locked her framed ankle into the wall and kept the damaged spindle from turning. Neither could reach the lower tile.
Kestrel sent three ceramic tabs through Sulo's hand-object slit. One was round, one square, and one drilled through the center. Sulo mixed them inside the marked cup where the dark corridor could not see, then spilled them beside the lamp.
"Bring the person on the bed into continuous view," Kestrel said. "Do not give us a name first."
The hand turned the wheel.
