Chapter 58 - The Iron Courier
"I told you to stay with the children," I yelled up through the settling dust, clutching my bruised ribs as I scrambled to my feet.
"And let you take a bullet to the chest? Not on my watch, Julian," she called down, already descending the iron ladder with Mia strapped tightly to her back in the canvas sling, while Lily held firmly to her tactical harness.
We had no time to celebrate. Outside the mill, the low, rhythmic thumping of heavy rotor blades tore through the morning sky. The frigate hadn't waited for its ground team to report back; they had launched an attack transport.
"The main road is closed off," I said, stripping the ammunition belts and tactical gear from the fallen team leader. "They’ll have vehicle checkpoints at every bridge across the Loire within an hour."
"Then we don't take the road," Clara said, pointing toward the rear of the processing hall.
Beyond the towering rows of salt silos, half-buried under decades of weeds and collapsed roof trusses, sat an ancient spur line: an industrial rail siding that connected the salt mills directly to the abandoned naval dry docks five miles upriver. Resting on the rusted tracks was an old, diesel-electric yard shunter—a heavy, armored switch engine used during the Cold War to move munitions cars.
"Does it even run?" she asked, skepticism cutting through her exhaustion.
"These old heavy-block diesels don't care about rust," I said, running toward the iron cab. "They have mechanical fuel injectors and pneumatic starters. No computer chips. No electronics for their drones to jam."
I hauled the heavy iron cab door open, lifting Mia and Lily inside. The air in the cab was thick with the scent of old grease and dry rot, but the control levers were heavy, forged brass, completely immune to the electromagnetic countermeasures the Arch was deploying along the coast.
I found the manual decompression valve and cranked the emergency air accumulator. With a violent, spitting hiss, high-pressure air slammed into the primary cylinders.
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The giant locomotive shuddered. A cloud of black soot erupted from the exhaust stack on the roof, rattling the windows of the cab. Slowly, grudgingly, the massive pistons began to turn: *chug... chug... chug-chug-chug.*
The engine roared to life with an earth-shaking rumble.
