The phosphorus flare streaked across the gallery like a blinding crimson comet.
The white-hot magnesium core hissed with ear-splitting fury, throwing violent blood-red shadows across the shattered quartz on the gallery floor. Heat radiated off the spinning projectile like the open door of a foundry blast furnace.
It was heading straight for the open mesh door of the ten-thousand-volt plate transformer cage.
Behind that open steel mesh, four tall oil-filled capacitor cans hummed with fifty kilowatts of raw carrier energy.
If the burning metal struck the copper bus-bars, ten thousand volts of electrical energy would jump straight to ground.
The massive surge would blow the Master Plate Breaker to OFF in less than three milliseconds.
And under Rule One, the harbor beacon would forfeit to Emergency Maritime Salvage on the spot.
Julian did not dive for the floor.
