Chapter 964: Jade Refuses To Drop The Platform

Jade stepped onto Vask’s inspection platform with Nessa’s belt wrapped around her left hand.

The black panels beneath them kept one down while Ravel Two rolled away. Nessa’s caged arm reached for the departing panels before her shoulder turned. Jade shortened the belt each time, giving the arm less room without dragging Nessa off her feet.

Holl brought Ty’s cradle across behind them. Todd crossed last with Parel’s copied strip under the copper clasp.

The panel route closed at his heel.

Darra had tied Pio into the first fixed chair using the spare strap that saved the source bin. The boy held his wooden spoon between both hands. Gray strips passed from wrist to wrist along the benches, each lower edge matched to the cut still visible on its owner.

Parel’s carrier board occupied the rear rail. The blank helm faced Jade, but a freed hand held three loose strips against the chest straps.

"The workers want those records beside the wrapped stake before inspection begins."

"Keep them with the people they describe until the ledger names every source."

Parel tightened the freed hand.

"My heel can hold one edge, but Lenn pays for every inch."

The platform carried two rail systems beneath one deck. A passenger rail ran under the chairs and carrier boards. A heavier track held the central stake wrapped in black cloth, Vask’s sample plate, and a locked metal ledger box.

Four iron teeth joined both rails at a broad yoke.

Jade’s deathward followed each tooth. Pulling the red release would send the entire platform into a route below Ravel Two. Vask’s stake would go with it. So would everyone attached to the chairs.

The easiest opening had people fastened across it.

Nessa crouched near the sample plate. Her right hand turned palm down ahead of the elbow. She trapped the cage beneath one knee until the copied pull stopped dragging her toward the stake.

"The quote, sample, and source ledger share that heavy rail."

"Then we separate it after the applicants leave the yoke."

A platform worker moved between them with a hooked bar.

"The wrapped stake carries three fixed districts through their sleep turns. If this platform stops it, their beds, water, and ceiling hooks choose different floors."

"Your load priority removed the source line from every wrist here."

The worker looked toward Darra rather than Jade.

Darra held up her matched strip.

"My son keeps his chair, and the strip stays where I can read it."

The worker left without taking either. Two others stayed near the benches. One passed an edge hook through the matched source strips to keep them from flying. The other clipped his waist rope around the wrapped stake. Their uniforms matched; their loads no longer did.

Above the platform, Ravel Two’s low ledge carried House Twelve past with one lamp restored. Holl’s emergency wheel and four black plates still held its floor line.

The father at the broken window pulled a red fall lever, and the death roads around Jade’s damaged eye changed before the wedge launched.

"Brace the passenger rail because Ravel Two is cutting this crossing."

A red iron wedge came off House Twelve on a guide cord. It struck the black panel behind the platform and split the transfer path through its middle.

The source route opened beneath the dropping deck. Fixed chairs held their passengers while three workers went over the edge. Two caught ropes. The third struck the cloth around the central stake and lost the hooked bar into the gap.

Parel trapped the loose source strips beneath the freed wrist. Darra caught Pio before reaching for the spoon between his chair slats.

Jade’s right arm closed late around the passenger release lever.

A platform worker seized the opposite handle.

"Passenger release clears the stake rail before the second defense strike."

"It also clears every chair into the route below us."

"The stake carries three districts, while this deck carries thirty two contracts."

Jade drove her cold forearm through the lever guard. The hand missed its grip, but the wrist blocked the handle from moving.

The worker leaned into it. Pain traveled from Jade’s elbow into the shoulder after the load had already arrived.

Nessa reached the yoke on her left hand. The caged arm kept pressing toward Vask’s stake beneath her knee.

"The shared red release drops Vask’s stake, sample, ledger, this passenger deck, and every route copy inside the yoke before his convoy can split."

"Then the shared release stays where it is."

"I counted the passengers. I am telling you what the opening costs."

Another guide cord snapped above them.

The platform rolled. Parel’s heel nail struck the carrier frame, and a cry came through the black source line from Lenn. Parel raised the leg before the next impact.

"Drop the stake after you separate our chairs, or leave the release alone."

Ty’s cradle hit the passenger rail. His present right hand caught the yoke while Holl kept the wrapped left arm below the shoulder bar.

"Tell me which rail lives, and I will lose the other one."

Jade looked through the damaged eye.

The heavy rail offered a road toward Vask, the sample, and the moving stake. White deaths covered it too, but most remained distant and unformed.

The passenger rail ended in Pio’s chair, Parel’s heel, thirty matched strips, and two workers hanging by one hand.

"Take the passenger rail, and let the wrapped stake leave us."

Ty looped an unmarked jaw chain link around the passenger beam. His four fingers closed over the hook. Holl shifted the cradle brake until the chain load entered the wall side instead of Ty’s reset shoulder.

The heavy rail began pulling away.

Todd drove his copper Cross Link edge into the first yoke tooth.

"My edge can open three teeth before the platform finishes falling."

"The fourth tooth sits under Pio’s chair, and I can reach it."

Darra passed the source strips to Parel and crawled beneath the fixed seat. She used Pio’s spoon handle to push the retaining wire out of the fourth tooth. Wood bent against iron.

Pio held the chair strap around his mother’s ankle.

Todd opened the first tooth. The Cross Link crack widened through the copper and cut his thumb. Flour packed into the split.

The second tooth released under his shoulder. A platform worker kicked the third toward him, choosing the passenger deck after the stake crew had left her hanging.

Jade kept her forearm inside the passenger lever. The worker across from her saw the heavy rail gain distance and released his handle to catch a bench rope.

Nessa’s cage slammed against the deck. The copied pull tried to take her right arm with Vask’s sample plate.

She bit the molar control until one cage needle drove through the plate shaped pressure cup under her thumb. Her arm stopped at the elbow. The sample carried its copied pulse away without the rest of her body.

Todd broke the third tooth as Darra pushed again. The spoon handle split lengthwise.

"The other half is thicker, and you can use that one."

Pio held his mother’s ankle strap while she turned the remaining wood and drove the retaining wire clear. The fourth tooth opened beneath his chair.

Ty took the passenger beam through his chain. Holl’s brake screamed against the load, but the cradle remained on Ravel Two’s side of the break.

The passenger deck swung into House Twelve’s outer ring. Chairs struck one another. Parel’s board turned onto its side without loading the heel. Workers hauled the two hanging crew members over the edge before the deck settled against the ring.

Vask’s heavy rail continued across the broken panels.

The sample plate, ledger box, and black cloth stake moved beyond Ty’s chain. Nessa’s cage turned after them. Jade kept the belt short until Nessa’s shoulder chose the deck again.

No voice came from Vask’s plate.

The moving stake entered a narrow black road above Ravel Two and took the remaining inspection panels with it.

Todd pulled his Cross Link edge from the broken yoke. The copper ignored the escaping stake.

One long pull crossed his cut thumb. Six shorter cuts followed through the flour filled crack.

The edge turned through the saved passenger deck and pointed into a gap no local downstake marked.

"That is Cava’s brand route, and Griswald’s recovery crew reached it before I did."