THE RED WEIGHT — CHARACTERS
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FUAD AL-MASRY
The player. Authority geologist working the northern reach of Bab al-
Hadid, fourteen months into a long rotation that has stopped feeling
temporary. Doctorate in areological stratigraphy from Alexandria.
Carries a field scanner the way some men carry a rosary. Asked one
night to look at a body that should not be there.


UMM WALID
Owner and proprietor of the only bar in the lower ring. Knows who
drinks what and why, and to the dirham exactly how much each man
still owes her. Pours her private reserve to the people she has
decided are worthy.

PETROV
Authority Security. Broad Kazakhstani in a grey uniform, three years
into a contract he didn't read closely. Operates somewhere between
professionally neutral and quietly furious, with no observable states
in between. He is in over his head.

AMARA
Dr. Amara Seydou. The Authority's program director for geology in
the northern reach. Malian, the particular posture of a woman who 
has spent too many years making herself heard in rooms that 
hadn't expected her.
