The platform stopped less than a yard from the broken gate.

Then Eli arrived on his bicycle with the key held high.

“Mrs. Pike!”

“Stay back!”

He skidded to a stop. Mr. Flores’s key flew from his hand and landed in the grass. Doreen bent to grab it, but the fence shifted again with a metallic pop. She pulled Eli away from the gate.

Mara came running from the corner. She saw the platform, the bent fence, and the children trapped beyond it. She did not waste time shouting at Doreen. She climbed the low concrete base of the fence and called to the nearest worker.

“Engine off. Steering neutral. Chock the rear wheels.”

The worker stared at her.

“Now!”

He relayed the instruction. The engine fell silent. Another worker placed blocks beneath the wheels. Mara watched until the platform settled fully.

Only then did she step to the damaged gate.

“Cal,” she said, reading the name printed on the boy’s shirt, “I’m Mara. We’re opening the gate. Stay against the wall until I say move.”

Doreen found the key. The chain had twisted under the force of the fence. Eli remembered Mr. Flores’s advice and pulled toward the hinge. Mara held the gate steady while Doreen turned the lock.

It opened.

The children came through one at a time. The smallest girl held a jar of blue paint against her chest. When she reached Doreen, she burst into tears. Doreen knelt and put both arms around her.

The last boy looked back at the giant platform. “I thought it was going to touch us.”

Mara followed his gaze. The bent gate was still quivering.

“It almost did,” she said.

6. THE COST OF BEING RIGHT

Owen Kells arrived in a black utility vehicle ten minutes later. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and wore a clean hard hat that made him look as though he had stepped out of a safety brochure. He surveyed the bent fence, the children now gathered on the lawn, and the neighbors who had come to see what the noise meant.

“Who ordered the stop?” he asked.

“I did,” Mara said.

“You don’t have site authority today.”

“Your move entered an occupied pedestrian corridor.”

“We had a spotter.”

“Your spotter couldn’t see behind the mural wall.”

Owen looked at the children. “Why were they there?”

“Because someone reopened a gate I marked closed.”

Doreen stepped forward. “I helped do that.”

Mara turned sharply. “What?”

Doreen swallowed. “Yesterday afternoon. The chain was loose. I told Lenora we could use the trail if we moved the barrier. We thought it was just a delivery.”

Owen seized on the admission. “There you are. Unauthorized public entry. That’s the issue.”

“The issue,” Mara said, “is that you advanced the schedule and failed to maintain the exclusion zone.”