The lead docket of the Mutiny Transcript Leviathan struck like a guillotine.
Julian Vance ducked, the razor-sharp edge shearing the top button off his oilskin coat.
“Look out, Jules!” Mac bellowed from the gatepost. “The damn thing is circling back for your eyes!”
The sheet whipped around in a tight circle, spraying white slurry across the granite abutment: Docket Number Nineteen Twenty-Four Dash Zero Zero Zero One, signed by Captain Barnaby Vane.
Around the rusted turnstile gatepost, the white coils tightened with brutal hydraulic force.
“Julian!” Lin Mei screamed, her boots kicking uselessly over the dark void of the shoals. “The anchor bolts are pulling out of the stone! The foundation is cracking under the strain!”
“Hold your breath, Mei!” Mac roared, his face dark purple under the red emergency lights. His brass prosthetic forearm was jammed under the turnstile frame, metal shrieking against stone as he fought to keep the post from snapping. “Kid.
I can’t hold this gate together for more than ten seconds. Do something with that red marker.”
