My thoughts are do you know for certain the contractors shares...

My thoughts are do you know for certain the contractors shares are escrowed? I would assume not or they would not have entered the deal. They have real bills to pay, so will need the proceeds from sales to cover debts.
As I explained earlier if the shorts had wanted out they just had to partake the $5m of shares they could have bought in the public offer, then return the shares borrowed from there.
You do realise that the 91m short positions could be covered by $4.55m of new stock at 5c. I have a suspicion you will see most shorts covered tomorrow.