**TO:** Author / Production Lead
**FROM:** Cora, Continuity & Accuracy Editor
**PROJECT:** Cypress Bend (Ch-19)

### 1. STRENGTHS TO PRESERVE
*   **Voice Signature Consistency:** 
    *   **Marcus:** Maintains tech-metaphor dependency ("Diagnostic," "Lactic acid saturation," "reverting to a previous save"). His observation that "The iron is across. The handshake with the North is sealed" perfectly bridges his old corporate lexicon with his new physical reality.
    *   **Helen Vance:** Her line, "A man can spend his whole life tryin’ to outrun a digital ghost, but the cypress don’t care about your data," is a direct echo of the established Voice Signature in the RAG database ("...they only care if your shadow is heavy enough to sink into the muck"). 
    *   **Sarah:** Uses the "Error 404" verbal tic appropriately and maintains her focus on Leo as her North Star.
    *   **David:** His "West-by-Northwest" directional tic is present and consistent with his character sheet.
*   **Tactile Continuity:** The repetition of the four-beat tap on Marcus's thigh and Sarah clicking her pen are vital, established grounding behaviors that remain consistent with Ch-01 through Ch-18.
*   **Atmospheric "Great Dark":** The environmental state of electromagnetic interference/atmospheric wash is correctly used as the justification for why the group is currently "unindexed" by Avery-Quinn.

**VOICE DIFFERENTIATION CHECK:** 
*   **Marcus:** YES (Diagnostic/Systemic focus)
*   **David:** YES (Directional tics/Rugged pragmatism)
*   **Sarah:** YES (Status codes/Human triage)
*   **Helen:** YES (Matriarchal/Ecological grounding)
*   **Elena:** YES (Mechanical/Structural focus)

### 2. MUST-FIX — CONTINUITY
*   **FLAG:** **The Sarah Jenkins Paradox.**  
    *   **Contradiction:** In the current chapter text, Sarah is physically present at the Big Oak ("Sarah was there, kneeling by a low, heavy table..."). She interacts with Marcus, touches his arm, and eats with the group.
    *   **Source:** The **[character-state]** and **[voice-sig-sarah]** from the RAG database explicitly state Sarah is "Deceased-equivalent/Displaced," a "ghost in Marcus’s machine," and located at "Avery-Quinn Logistics Hub, Dallas." Ch-01 through Ch-18 establish her as a source of *unresolved guilt* and a memory Marcus carries, not a physical member of the Florida fugitive group. 
    *   **Correction:** Sarah cannot be physically present. Her dialogue and actions in this chapter must be reassigned to a physical survivor (perhaps a new NPC or an expanded role for Elena) or transitioned into a hallucination/memory sequence for Marcus. As written, this breaks the fundamental premise of Marcus’s isolation and his "unpaid debt" to the *absent* Sarah.
*   **FLAG:** **Arthur Silas Vance’s Death Timeline.**
    *   **Contradiction:** Helen says, "Arthur always said the Long Wait requires a full stomach." The text implies a level of preparation by the group that ignores the timeline of his passing.
    *   **Source:** [voice-sig-arthur] establishes he died "after ensuring the 'dead-zone' logic was intact." 
    *   **Correction:** Minor adjustment needed to ensure the characters acknowledge they are eating his *stockpile*, not food he prepared for them. (This is mostly handled, but Helen's dialogue should emphasize his absence more clearly to avoid the feeling that he just stepped out of the room).

### 3. MUST-FIX — CLARITY
*   **The Track Hoe Weight:** 
    *   **Passage:** "It was a three-ton anchor of rusted steel..." 
    *   **Correction:** A standard "track hoe" (excavator) typically weighs between 10 to 25 tons. A 3-ton machine is a "mini-excavator." If they are using it to reinforce a bridge and act as a "structural anchor" for a community, calling it "three tons" misses the scale of the engineering feat described. Update to "twenty-ton anchor" to match the gravity Marcus describes later.

### 4. OPTIONAL SUGGESTIONS
*   **Technical Log Continuity:** In the [voice-sig-marcus], it mentions he is carrying the "Alpha-7 back-end log" in a Pelican case. While the case is mentioned in this chapter, a brief moment of Marcus physically checking the seal or the weight of that specific case before sitting to eat would reinforce his "Active Obligation" to Leo's future.
*   **Elena’s Secret:** The [character-state] notes Elena knows the "manual axe-throw" is the only physical failsafe. A subtle glance from her toward an axe or the power line during her "structural proof" comment would be a high-value continuity Easter egg.

### 5. FORBIDDEN CHANGES / NON-GOALS
*   **Do NOT remove Marcus’s third-person diagnostic narrations** (e.g., "Diagnostic: Heart rate 88 bpm"). This is a core imperfection signature from his character sheet.
*   **Do NOT "fix" David’s dropped 'G's** (e.g., "haulin'," "waitin'"). This is his established regression pattern.
*   **Do NOT remove the rhythmic clicking/tapping.** These are essential character tics that define the "Crimson Leaf" style of character grounding.

### 6. VERDICT
**REVISE**
The physical presence of Sarah Jenkins is a **Major Flag** contradiction with the established world state (where she is a ghost/memory in Dallas). This must be resolved before the chapter can be indexed.