Mothbreaker's Arc

Chapter 6 of 9

Storm Grit ran the boat under a low bridge and cut the motor. Mothbreaker sat up on the deck and wrung water from her sleeve. The plant was hers in one sense and gone in another. The council held the building now, and the reserve line she had locked to the underground ran back through junctions on their side of the map. If they traced the route and cut the junctions, the underground went dark before sunrise. She had hours, not days. "We need to hold the line," she said into the channel. "Neon, pull the routing map. Tell me every junction between the plant and the underground feed." Neon Sentinel came back fast. "Six junctions. Four are street cabinets. Two are inside a substation on the north bank. The council owns the substation by morning. The cabinets they can reach in an hour if they know where to look." "They'll know," Jolt Jinx said. "They pulled the permit files. The routing's in the same drawer." A pause. "I can hit three cabinets. Weld the doors, jam the relays. Buys you a night, not more." Mothbreaker pressed the copper strip flat against her knee. Three cabinets was not enough. The substation was the throat. If the council cut there, the welds meant nothing. She looked at Storm Grit at the tiller. "I need someone in the water on the north bank. The substation sits over the channel. There's a service cable that runs under it." Storm Grit did not answer at once. Her hands stayed on the tiller. "I don't swim that far," she said. "Not as me." Then she looked at the sky. Clouds sat low and heavy over the towers. "Storm's coming in an hour. I won't be me then." Mothbreaker held her eyes. "I'm not asking that." A second boat slid out from the pilings. Zira stood at the bow with her hair wet against her shoulders. She had heard the channel, or she had heard the water. Mothbreaker did not ask which. "The cable," Zira said. "Under the substation." "Cut it," Mothbreaker said. "Before the council traces the route. If the substation can't send, they can't kill my feed from there." Zira watched her. "A favor for a favor." "Name it later," Mothbreaker said. Zira nodded once and went over the side without sound. Jolt Jinx hit the cabinets before dawn. Neon Sentinel watched the grid map and called each one green as it locked. The substation went dark at 4:11, cable severed at the channel floor. The underground held. Mothbreaker sat on the deck with the copper strip in her fist and knew she had bought one night and owed a storm-siren a debt she could not price. The council still had the plant. The reserve line still ran through ground she did not own. She had kept the lights on. She had not won the grid.