diff --git a/verification/HARNESS.sha256 b/verification/HARNESS.sha256
index 7535be0..ad5e5c2 100644
--- a/verification/HARNESS.sha256
+++ b/verification/HARNESS.sha256
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ f14fd3c7ec25e96776c29a3899fe815c8899f70f00e8b820f1985d4ff784647c  inventory-allo
 8e2950712ce39ace9cffd3bb58a13984832ff7f3f43ba7b68aa2b1eaa2bc2116  inventory-allowlist.txt
 3ebc8027f14c9e037f36322ef4119183c33214658efcc1a7bc985a98a9c32e4e  inventory_gate.sh
 736ea4be712e1b5bcda10ecb466f0dec7008a2a36eabdfd77563976299c43cce  lean-guard
-2b78361105984aa8e859758849a0886b5b768766fe9bb39dd04aa8ee24d38b6c  lift-guard.sh
+cad0ae17ce506e1defeab3b9799993b3a2251c055247695832ecae2c2617772f  lift-guard.sh
 1942177f13d6ae229d87a3b0b33f7fbb4b2ae20fe1059cc83010e73f6a156427  model-correspondence.py
 1757e9c7d43aacc6d5930af62f6450ac336f7e881350ef0e5af35015442358dd  MODEL-CORRESPONDENCE.txt
 79a001107928713a22e679e4c4028549df76d0733455bb9937a4f438a0c315c8  Proofs/Audit.lean
diff --git a/verification/lift-guard.sh b/verification/lift-guard.sh
index 0ef0a9c..c670242 100755
--- a/verification/lift-guard.sh
+++ b/verification/lift-guard.sh
@@ -90,7 +90,13 @@ reads = set(re.findall(r'\$\{?([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)', payload))
 # check.sh's Phase 1b. Not lifted today, which made it latent, not absent.
 for expr in (re.findall(r'\$\(\((.*?)\)\)', payload, re.S)
              + re.findall(r'(?<!\$)\(\((.*?)\)\)', payload, re.S)):
-    for tok in re.findall(r'[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*', expr):
+    # NOT PRECEDED BY A DIGIT OR WORD CHARACTER. Round-9 review (Claude, N1):
+    # `$((0x1F))` was read as a variable `x1F`, and `$((1e3))` as `e3`, because
+    # the pattern happily starts matching at the letter-bearing tail of a
+    # numeric literal. Two false alarms introduced by the round-8 fix for a
+    # false NEGATIVE — the guard was made to see more and started seeing things
+    # that are not there, which is the failure mode that gets a guard deleted.
+    for tok in re.findall(r'(?<![0-9A-Za-z_])[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*', expr):
         reads.add(tok)
 
 # What the DRIVER defines, in every form these scripts actually use.
@@ -108,6 +114,23 @@ assigns |= set(re.findall(
     r'\b(?:mapfile|readarray)\b(?:\s+-[A-Za-z]\s*\S*)*\s+([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)',
     driver))
 assigns |= set(re.findall(r'\bprintf\b[^\n]*?\s-v\s+([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)', driver))
+# SEVEN MORE BINDING FORMS — round-9 review (Claude, N1). Each was a false
+# alarm: the driver binds the name and the guard demanded it anyway. Listed in
+# the order reported, so the next reader can check the list against that report.
+assigns |= set(re.findall(r'\blet\s+([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)\s*=', driver))
+assigns |= set(re.findall(r'\bselect\s+([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)\s+in\b', driver))
+assigns |= set(re.findall(r'\bgetopts\b\s+\S+\s+([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)', driver))
+assigns |= set(re.findall(r'(?:^|;|&&|\|\||\)|!|\bthen\b|\bdo\b|\belse\b|\{)\s*'
+                          r'([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)\+=', driver, re.M))      # BAR+=b
+assigns |= set(re.findall(r'(?:^|;|&&|\|\||\)|!|\bthen\b|\bdo\b|\belse\b|\{)\s*'
+                          r'([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)\[[^]]*\]=', driver, re.M))  # FOO[0]=x
+# Arithmetic CONTEXTS BIND TOO — `(( FOO = 1 ))`, `(( i++ ))`, and the C-style
+# `for (( i=0; i<3; i++ ))`. The reads-extraction above adds every identifier it
+# finds inside `(( ))`, so without this the guard demands the very names those
+# expressions assign.
+for expr in (re.findall(r'\$\(\((.*?)\)\)', driver, re.S)
+             + re.findall(r'(?<!\$)\(\((.*?)\)\)', driver, re.S)):
+    assigns |= set(re.findall(r'(?<![0-9A-Za-z_])([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)\s*(?:=[^=]|\+\+|--)', expr))
 assigns |= set(re.findall(r'\b(?:export|declare|local|readonly)\s+(?:-\w+\s+)*'
                           r'([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)', driver))
 assigns |= set(re.findall(r'\bfor\s+([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)\s+in\b', driver))
@@ -131,7 +154,19 @@ ENV = {'PWD', 'HOME', 'PATH', 'IFS', 'PIPESTATUS', 'BASH_SOURCE', 'FUNCNAME',
 # silent. `n=Q; echo "${!n}"` reads Q, and no amount of pattern-matching
 # recovers that from the source. The guard's contract is that it does not miss
 # a dependency; where it cannot honour that it must refuse, not shrug.
-if re.search(r'\$\{!', payload):
+# `${!...}` HAS THREE MEANINGS IN BASH and only one of them is indirection:
+#     ${!name}            indirect expansion   — genuinely unanalysable
+#     ${!arr[@]} ${!arr[*]}  array KEY expansion  — ordinary, and LIVE at
+#                            ltl-accumulator check.sh:274, `for cert in
+#                            "${!CONES[@]}"`
+#     ${!prefix*} ${!prefix@} variable-NAME listing — ordinary
+# Round-9 review (Claude, N1). The round-8 refusal tested for `${!` and could
+# not tell them apart, so a legitimate construct would have hard-failed a lift
+# with a diagnostic naming a feature it does not use. A refusal is the most
+# expensive verdict this tool has; it must be reserved for the case it is
+# actually about.
+INDIRECT = re.compile(r'\$\{!\s*[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*\s*\}')
+if INDIRECT.search(payload):
     print('INDIRECT-EXPANSION')
 else:
     print(' '.join(sorted(n for n in reads - assigns - ENV if not n.isdigit())))