Forty-one motorized flatbeds waited in Vault 04’s freight concourse.
Yellow ratchet straps crossed every load. Plastic guards protected the webbing from sharp steel edges. Austin walked the line and pulled on each strap.
TWANG. TWANG. TWANG.
“Loads balanced. Straps tensioned to five hundred pounds. Nothing shifts on a hard turn.” He checked the revised manifest. “Clean.”
The first thirty pallets held one hundred and thirty-five metric tons of armor, beams, bolts, and hydraulic cylinders from the three golems. Three pallets carried the six approved computing blades, sealed against moisture. Two held the decommissioned northern heat exchanger, expansion joints, and valves. One carried fiber-optic cable and spare line. The last five held the damaged security drones and their motors.
Beside every server case sat a copy of the Overseer’s release. Xiaoyao had checked the serial numbers twice.
Pug waited at the head of the convoy in a padded leather draft harness. Austin clipped on the main tow cable.
“Five miles an hour. No sudden starts. Tip a pallet on a blind corner, and dinner is dry kibble.”
Pug barked with all three heads and leaned into the harness.
Austin pressed the control on his belt. Magnetic tracks hummed, and the forty-one flatbeds began to move.
Xiaoyao walked beside the lead pallet. “We planned to take more.”
“We did. Then we learned what the plant needed.” Austin shifted his wrench on his shoulder. “Those six blades still automate the ore sorter and drainage valves. The exchanger gives Floor 3 more reserve. We keep the useful salvage without leaving a broken facility behind us.”
The convoy retraced the four trials.
The Go board rested in low-power mode. In Sector 3, cool air moved through the duct they had repaired. The gravity bridge carried the freight in small groups while Xiaoyao watched the load gauges. Austin did not repeat his first mistake.
At the Mirror Maze, Xiaoyao used his marked calibration axis to guide the carts. The mirrors filled with images of him leading an immortal sect. He kept his eyes on the blue line.
At the cleaning airlock, warm filtered air blasted cave dust from the cargo. Pug’s coat puffed out until he looked like an eight-hundred-pound dandelion.
Before leaving, Austin met the Overseer on the freight monitor.
“Loop B remains stable,” she said. “The reinstalled blades passed their second check. Sunset Peak reports steady reservoir temperature. I have scheduled the cabinet and drone-cable repairs for our maintenance crew.”
“Send me the completion notice,” Austin said. “And hold geothermal export at twenty-five megawatts until Jiang approves the next step.”
“Agreed. Safe journey, Master Builder.”
The doors to the surface stood ready. Outside, the sect camps still covered the canyon.
Austin checked his watch. “Longer than planned. Worth the time.”
Xiaoyao closed the manifest. “We are leaving with a working partner as well as hardware.”
“That’s the part that pays longest.”
Austin gripped the brass release handle.
Before the locks could clear, a surge of solar power erupted in his dantian.