High on the North Rim overhead frame of the Quarry pit, the steam had cleared. That left the limestone tiered arena exposed to the cold mountain draft.
Geth Marr stood before the dead housing of the Quarry Anchor cabinet. He wiped his blackened hands on a piece of greasy burlap. The heavy bronze delegate seal and the iron city court key were still seated in their slots, turned ninety degrees to the locked-open position. The thirty-two internal balance levers were twisted and charred, fused into solid lumps of melted rock waste by the huge spark discharge that had vented into the earth when the circuit died.
Anchor Five was permanently disabled. No order from the High judge, no duplicate key, and no emergency bypass could ever re-engage this cabinet. The link between the Quarry Ward and the country sky shield was dead forever.
“Line continuity is zero across all four grounding wooden support posts,” Edda reported. He set her testing galvanometer on a tool bench. Her braced left hand was tucked securely inside her woolen coat. But her sound right hand was steady as she packed away the copper testing leads. “The bedrock heat sink is fully isolated from the country grid. Chancellor Morn can’t dump a single kilowatt into this basin without our permission.”
