Chapter 65 - The Iron Serpent
The locomotive let out a deep, earth-shaking blast of its pneumatic horn. The massive steel wheels spun against the iron rails, throwing arcs of blinding yellow sparks into the gloom as the armored behemoth began to gather momentum. It consisted of the engine, two heavily plated cargo wagons, and a rear observation carriage fitted with barred slit windows.
"We can't let that train reach the coast," I said, slamming the ledger into my coat and grabbing Lily’s hand. "If Cynthia reaches the deep-water harbor, she’ll be on sovereign diplomatic waters. We will never touch her, and Lily will spend the rest of her life running from kill teams."
"How do we board?" Clara asked, running alongside me toward the loading platform. "It’s already hitting twenty miles an hour!"
"The maintenance gantry above the switch switch!"
We sprinted up a rusted iron staircase that clung to the cavern wall, reaching an overhead catwalk that spanned the tracks just thirty yards ahead of the accelerating train. The heat radiating from the locomotive’s twin exhaust stacks washed over us like a blast furnace as the nose of the engine roared beneath our feet.
"Clara, take Lily on your back! Use the emergency harness!" I shouted over the deafening mechanical roar.
Clara secured the straps, locking Lily tightly against her torso. Lily buried her face in Clara’s neck, her small hands gripping Clara's collar.
The roof of the first cargo car passed beneath us—a sheet of corrugated steel slick with condensation and coal dust.
"Jump on three!" I yelled. "One! Two! Three!"
We dropped into the abyss.
My boots hit the curved steel roof with a bone-jarring impact. I slipped, my hands clawing wildly at the wet metal until my fingers caught the recessed lip of an external cargo tie-down. Beside me, Clara landed hard on her knees, crying out in pain as the force of the landing threatened to throw her and Lily over the side into the flashing blur of the railbed.
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I lunged across the slick roof, catching Clara’s wrist with my left hand and anchoring myself to the steel ring with my right. The violent swaying of the train nearly ripped my shoulder from its socket, but I held on, pulling them flush against the center ridge of the car.
The train roared out of the subterranean cavern and burst into the blinding daylight of the northern pass.
