Characters
Dr. Adrian Falk
Panel assessor who accepts only what has been measured
Dr. Adrian Falk is an external assessor on the European panel made up of operators and assessors. He is in his mid-fifties, with short gray hair, and says he has spent 30 years evaluating facilities; before that, he worked for a long time in risk assessment at Meridian, most recently in a senior role. When Lena Voss, an oceanographer at the ICRU in Hamburg, requests access to an eleven-year-old inspection file on the Dorn power plant, he writes the invitation himself. He speaks quietly and slowly, with a pause before every sentence, and never raises his voice. He accepts a warning only once a measurement confirms it. For him, the most dangerous thing in his profession is not overlooking something but overstating it.
First encounter
- First noticed: on video, in front of a bare wall; a face that has spent a lot of time outdoors and a voice that never has. On the crest of the dam, Lena overlooks him at first because he doesn’t move
- Speaks: quietly and slowly, his voice dropping at the end of each sentence so that nothing sounds like a question; “A perception is not a measurement.”
- Object: a pencil his hand lays parallel to the edge of the table
Connected to
- Lena VossOceanographer at the ICRU in Hamburg, following a falling line
- HagenPolitical coordinator at the ICRU, guardian of the Meridian contract
- Tilda ImhofShift supervisor inside the mountain, hears what no screen shows
- The Plant ManagerDorn power plant manager, clutching his sheet of paper
- Kai SörensenFS Nordmark captain, eight years without a word to Lena
- Dorn Reservoir (Dam and Power Plant)Reservoir, dam, and a power plant deep in the mountain
- ICRU HamburgLena’s institute in Hamburg, looking out over the Elbe
- Meridian Risk SystemsHamburg sensor maker in Bahrenfeld, supplies data to the ICRU
Spoiler-free. This describes the starting point of the book named, without its major twists or resolutions.