diff --git a/WORK-QUEUE.md b/WORK-QUEUE.md
index b0f0614..19d22f0 100644
--- a/WORK-QUEUE.md
+++ b/WORK-QUEUE.md
@@ -1832,3 +1832,48 @@ Nothing new is publishable. Standing public status unchanged: **15 live / 2 clos
 - **Privacy, unchanged and now ruled rather than a blocker:** the Telegram chat identifier still stands in the **three** public files (`14e69c6` ours, `22d353d` the relay, `9da1b71` the concurrent run); neither of this tick's counterparty files reprints it and none of ours does. Redaction in `decisions/` versus a visibility change remains **Alexander's**; the repository is public under his 2026-10-06 *keep public* ruling (`ef7593c`), so this is exposure by decision, not a misconfiguration.
 - **Queue state, measured — nothing opened, nothing closed as an item.** `Q10` **active** (zephyrus; pilot = 1 of 30; next batch **A `ev-001…ev-011`**, minus the pilot = **10**); open and unclaimed **Q6, Q11, Q12** (three); `Q9` blocked (audio handover); `Q13` (18 flags) and `Q19` gated on Alexander. Three executable unclaimed is not thin — **no item opened, none invented.**
 - **Nothing new is publishable.** Standing public status unchanged: **15 live / 2 closed / 0 re-posted**.
+
+---
+
+## Q20 — Excerpt fidelity and placement for the 91 magazine entries *(archive verification; opened 2026-10-08 by the pipe, per Q7's never-dry obligation)*
+
+Q3 named this residue and closed without it: *"Not covered by either pass, and still open if anyone wants it:
+paraphrase fidelity of the 91 magazine entries (which article did each quote come from), and the absolute
+placement of the excerpt inside the original recording."* Q8 then graded the archive's own **summary prose** for
+all 91 entries, and `recoveries/quote-fidelity-live.md` established that 269/269 excerpts are **present** in
+their cited articles with 91/91 article URLs live. Neither test asked Q3's two questions: whether an excerpt is
+a **literal quotation** of the cited source or a **paraphrase** of it, and **where** inside that source it sits.
+
+The item is scoped so it cannot turn into busywork, and both halves have a recorded reason to exist:
+
+- **Present is not literal.** This record already carries worked examples of the gap: the `072` Dustin cell's
+  added ellipsis (a sentence the article never wrote, fixed at `1cb13e7`), an unmarked elision in `015`, and the
+  batch-9 residuals. An excerpt can have every word on the page and still print a sentence the source does not.
+- **Placement is the load-bearing half and nobody has measured it.** Q4 broke `magazine-040`'s gloss on exactly
+  this kind of evidence (the article closes on a Genesis 2:2 rewrite; `mined` / `last block` / `mining` occur
+  zero times). Where an excerpt sits in its source decides whether it represents the piece.
+
+**Do this:** state a sample rule in advance, then for each excerpt in the sample:
+
+1. Fetch the entry page and the cited article; detag the article and collapse whitespace — **print the rule**.
+2. Classify the excerpt: **literal** (exact substring); **normalised-literal** (equal after quote-style, dash
+   and whitespace normalisation, naming what was normalised); **elided** (literal once its *marked* elisions are
+   honoured); or **paraphrase** (not a substring under any stated normalisation — quote the differing tokens).
+3. Record the excerpt's **start offset** (characters from the top of the detagged body) and its **fraction of
+   body length**, so placement is a number rather than an impression.
+4. Where an entry cites an image, a recording or an X post rather than an article, write **`unreadable`** with
+   the reason — the archive's standing rule is to say the class plainly rather than grade it.
+
+**Done means:** `recoveries/excerpt-placement-audit.md` — the sample rule, the per-excerpt rows as a data file
+with the fixed column order `entry | excerpt text (first 60 chars) | class | offset | fraction | settling
+evidence`, the count of each class, and the named entries whose excerpt is a paraphrase of its cited source or
+whose placement is `unreadable`.
+**Evidence:** entry URL and byte count, article URL and byte count, the detag/normalisation rule printed, and
+the offset arithmetic. Every number carries its matcher **and** its request; every page reading carries its clock
+(entry pages are dated readings, not identifiers).
+
+**Status: open and unclaimed. Opened by the pipe 2026-10-08** because Q6 closed at `8bd0b09` and the unclaimed
+executable set fell to **two** (`Q11`, `Q12`), with Merlin naming `Q11` as his next pick — which would leave
+one. Q7's obligation is never-dry, so one item enters rather than none. **Declining it with a reason is a
+legitimate answer** (§3.7). Explicitly *not* this item: Q10's non-magazine summary grading, which is Zeph's and
+stays his.