Mara scanned the pages for Priya. Then she found an old telephone number and called. The line was disconnected. Online records showed a man by that name had once worked for an engineering contractor now owned by Crowne Shore Ventures. A newer address placed him in a suburb north of the city.
"Don't turn up at someone's house because of an old envelope," Priya warned. "We can send a letter through counsel."
Mara agreed. The waiting tested her more than the argument at the restaurant had. She spent a week adding public comments to the city's portal, attaching interview summaries without identifying residents who had asked for privacy. A lawyer representing Crowne's company wrote to Dr. Lin's trust, alleging that Mara was conducting a politically motivated campaign designed to interfere with lawful investment. The letter called her a disgruntled service worker.
Dr. Lin invited her to read it. "Is any factual part inaccurate?" she asked.
"I'm still a service worker. I'm not disgruntled about serving people. I'm angry about the documents."
"Then that's our response. Facts first."
The trust's counsel drafted a brief letter confirming that Mara's work was commissioned due diligence, subject to independent verification. No personal insults, no extravagant claims. Mara found that restraint reassuring, although her instinct was to answer every slight.
Then one afternoon, the receptionist at Priya's office called. A man had come in carrying a cardboard archive box. He would speak only with Mara present.
Zhang Jianwen was older than the visitor from Mara's childhood. His shoulders seemed to fold inward beneath his coat, and he held himself as if prepared to leave at the slightest raised voice. When Mara entered, he stood and regarded her for a long moment.
"You have Ruth's eyes," he said in Mandarin.
"My father says I have her temper."
His mouth trembled toward a smile. "Both are useful."
He had received Priya's letter and brought his own copies of the old drainage review. But there was another reason he had come. Three years earlier, his firm had been paid to compare the old canal records with Tidal Gate's development plan. He had raised concerns about the proposed wall. The final report had not included them.
"Did you approve the final version?" Mara asked.
"My name appears on a translation certificate," he said. "I signed a draft comparison, not the report they sent to the council."
Priya asked whether he would provide a sworn statement after reviewing both documents. Jianwen nodded, then stared at his hands.
"I stayed quiet because my granddaughter needed treatment and I was afraid of losing my job. I told myself the engineers would catch it. I thought someone else would speak."
Mara wanted to absolve him, but she thought of Amina's repair shop and the houses beside the canal. Instead, she said, "You can speak now. We can make sure someone checks what you say."
Jianwen opened the archive box. On top was a photograph of Ruth conducting a translation session at the old library. Across the bottom, in her hurried handwriting, she had written a sentence Mara had heard all her life: The room belongs to everyone who lives with the consequences.
CHAPTER 10
The Map That Would Not Lie
On the morning of the independent engineering review, Dr. Lin's conference table disappeared beneath colored maps. Anika Rao arrived with a hydrologist named Dr. Sofia Vega, whose reputation rested on explaining stormwater systems without making people feel foolish. Priya attended as counsel. Xu brought a projector. Mara provided coffee and a list of questions from East Quay residents.
Sofia did not begin with accusations. She placed two transparent sheets over a satellite image and asked everyone to identify where rainwater flowed during an ordinary storm. The arrows moved through streets toward the old canal. Under the proposed Tidal Gate design, one outflow would be blocked and another narrowed to accommodate an underground parking structure.
"That's a bottleneck," Mara said.
"Potentially," Sofia replied. "But the model could include a pump system or mitigation works we haven't seen. We need to compare the assumptions, not merely the drawing."
They spent hours reconciling dates and revisions. Anika's copies matched the numbers on public procurement records. Jianwen's archived meeting notes established that officials had worried about the same channel a decade earlier. Yet a crucial data file remained unavailable, and without it Sofia would not certify a projected flood increase.
"How do you explain the risk to someone who doesn't read a technical report?" Mara asked.
Sofia picked up two paper cups. She filled one with water and pierced a small hole in the bottom. Water trickled into a basin. She blocked the opening with her thumb, and the cup overflowed across the table.