The Man the City Swallowed

"If your shoes stay wet any longer, you're going to lose a foot," Harold, the senior mechanic on his crew, said as he passed by and tossed him a glance. "You should probably avoid the hospital. Your mom's bills would triple." It was a cruel line. In Grayhaven, a lot of cruel lines were also true. At 1:27 a.m., the north ring line reported a fault in sector B-9. Track vibration out of range, signal failure, train stopped beneath an elevated bridge near the transfer station. By the time Ethan and two coworkers got there, it had been raining for two hours, the kind of rain that made the whole city look like it was wringing out a dirty rag. "Get down there and check the conduit," the dispatcher crackled into his earpiece. "We smell burning. Move."