Coach #404 sat motionless on the heavy steel rails of Track 00.
Thirty feet in front of the bus’s chrome front bumper stood the massive bi-parting steel doors of Heavy Bus-Freight Elevator #00.
The elevator doors were riveted with eight-inch industrial channel iron, sealed by four pneumatic interlocks.
Above the elevator frame, a heavy bronze indicator arm pointed down toward the dark sub-basement levels: [SUBWAY LINE ZERO / MUNICIPAL MORGUE].
Blocking the elevator threshold stood Chief Transit Notary Corbus Vane and four armed red-glove enforcers.
The enforcers had finished setting the heavy steel tripod of their high-pressure clause-ink mortar.
A reinforced stainless-steel braided hose connected the mortar’s breech directly to a pressurized mobile tank of bubbling crimson fluid.
“Aim for the center windshield pane!” the mortar gunner barked, locking the elevation handwheel.
