The hall inside Vault 4 was not a hallway. It was a wind tunnel carved from solid white iron-hard metal.
The moment the outer doors locked open, the air pressure inside the vault equalized with a sound roar that rattled Arthur’s visor. A howling torrent of white, glowing wind surged down the ninety-meter-wide passage, moving with transonic speed.
This was not normal moving air. Every cubic foot of the gale was soaked with tiny, needle-sharp crystals of crystal-hardened Gengjin metal. As the wind struck the walls, it produced a nonstop, screaming shriek. The sound of ten thousand razors scraping across hardened glass.
“Titus! Castle wall Wedge!” Arthur shouted over the ear-splitting scream of the gale.
The great tortoise didn’t hesitate.
Titus surged forward, his massive dark rock legs driving into the white stone floor with earth-shaking force. He dropped his heavy belly shell flat against the flat stone slabs, angling his forward marginal armor scales upward at a thirty-degree angle to create a wind-cutting wedge. His shell plates, heavy by the sulfur-rich minerals he had devoured in the black smoker fields, flared with a blazing bright amber glow.
CLANG-CLANG!
The razor gale slammed into Titus’s shell with the force of nonstop anti-aircraft flak. Millions of razor-thin metal needles shattered against the dark rock armor scales, producing blinding showers of golden sparks that arced over the tortoise’s back like a dome of fireworks.
