Builder rage is a distinct psychological phenomenon.
It doesn’t stem from ideological hatred, political rivalry, or battlefield bloodlust.
It occurs when an experienced builder witnesses total, total, criminal incompetence on an active construction site.
Giles Croft rounded the concrete corner of Access Vault 7-B. He held a heavy forged-steel pipe wrench in his right hand and an electric check lantern in his left.
Before him stood the main overload steam riser of the eastern district. A massive, sixteen-inch forged alloy pipe wrapped in stone wool. It carried earth-heat fluid at three thousand pounds of pressure and seven hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
Gathered around the base of the riser were six men clad in hooded charcoal-gray cloaks bearing the discreet onyx sigil of the Grand Aether-Coal Trade ring.
They weren’t merely trespassing.
They had driven two carbon-steel stonework chisels directly between the pipe rim bolts, hammered heavy iron grounding spikes into the padded spark feeder tray, and were in the process of wiring six heavy bronze “Dragon-Shatter Seismic Casks” directly to the bare metal of the high-pressure steam casing.
