diff --git a/scripts/r49-corpus/leak_gate.py b/scripts/r49-corpus/leak_gate.py
index 6de00c9..621e80e 100644
--- a/scripts/r49-corpus/leak_gate.py
+++ b/scripts/r49-corpus/leak_gate.py
@@ -63,27 +63,39 @@ def split_scan(source: dict[str, str], copies: dict[str, str], surfaces: list[st
     src_tokens = Counter()
     for t in source.values():
         src_tokens.update(TOKEN.findall(t))
+    # ⚠ ONE ALTERNATION PASS PER TEXT, not one per name -- the same reason `scan()` does it.
+    # Per-surface scanning is O(surfaces x copies x corpus) and it is not a theoretical cost:
+    # lv-mccarthy (108 surfaces, 36 copies) finished in 8 s and lv-hemingway (881 surfaces,
+    # 10 copies) was still running at 5 minutes and had to be killed. A gate too slow to run
+    # is not a gate.
+    cands = [s for s in surfaces if len(s) >= 4 and TOKEN.fullmatch(s)]
+    if not cands:
+        return {}
+    cands.sort(key=len, reverse=True)
+    by_stripped = {}
+    for s in cands:
+        by_stripped.setdefault(s, s)      # exact form maps to itself
+    pat = re.compile(r"(?<![A-Za-z])(" +
+                     "|".join((SPLIT_SEP + "?").join(re.escape(c) for c in s) for s in cands) +
+                     r")(?![A-Za-z])")
+    strip = re.compile(SPLIT_SEP)
     out: dict[str, dict] = {}
-    for s in surfaces:
-        if len(s) < 4 or not TOKEN.fullmatch(s):
-            continue
-        body = (SPLIT_SEP + "?").join(re.escape(c) for c in s)
-        pat = re.compile(r"(?<![A-Za-z])(" + body + r")(?![A-Za-z])")
-        forms: Counter = Counter()
-        seen_copies = set()
-        for name, text in copies.items():
-            for m in pat.finditer(text):
-                form = m.group(1)
-                if form == s or form in allow:
-                    continue
-                frags = TOKEN.findall(form)
-                # A genuine split leaves a fragment that is not a word of this corpus.
-                if len(frags) < 2 or all(src_tokens[f] > frag_max for f in frags):
-                    continue
-                forms[form] += 1
-                seen_copies.add(name)
-        if forms:
-            out[s] = {"forms": dict(forms), "copies": len(seen_copies)}
+    forms: dict[str, Counter] = defaultdict(Counter)
+    seen: dict[str, set] = defaultdict(set)
+    for name, text in copies.items():
+        for m in pat.finditer(text):
+            form = m.group(1)
+            surf = by_stripped.get(strip.sub("", form))
+            if surf is None or form == surf or form in allow:
+                continue
+            frags = TOKEN.findall(form)
+            # A genuine split leaves a fragment that is not a word of this corpus.
+            if len(frags) < 2 or all(src_tokens[f] > frag_max for f in frags):
+                continue
+            forms[surf][form] += 1
+            seen[surf].add(name)
+    for surf, f in forms.items():
+        out[surf] = {"forms": dict(f), "copies": len(seen[surf])}
     return out