Chapter 10
The open air of the rail yard hit them like a physical blow, sharp and biting against their skin. Towering cranes loomed overhead like skeletal giants against the grey, starless sky, while rows of freight containers stretched into the darkness like iron canyons. Jax motioned for Elena and Vance to stay low behind a rusted coal hopper while he scanned the perimeter with his tactical flashlight, sweeping the beam across the shadowed gaps between the boxcars.
"Coast is clear," Jax whispered, lowering the light. "The southbound freight is idling on track four. Move now, before the yard shift changes."
They moved out from the shadow of the tunnel, their boots crunching quietly over the gravel ballast. Goliath led the way, his powerful nose twitching as he tested the air for unfamiliar scents. The immense mastiff moved with renewed vigor, the clearing of the neural malware restoring his natural instincts and physical strength. As they reached the side of a massive black locomotive hissing softly as it vented steam into the freezing air, Jax opened the heavy metal door of the railcar's utility compartment with a firm, practiced twist.
"Get inside," Jax told Vance, hoisting the doctor up into the cramped, dark interior. Elena climbed up next, pulling Goliath in behind her with reassuring pats. Jax slipped in last, pulling the heavy steel door shut and throwing the locking bolt into place.
The interior of the compartment was pitch black, lit only by the faint amber glow of the locomotive's dashboard instruments filtering through a wire-mesh partition. The air smelled of grease, hot engine oil, and old iron. Elena sank down onto a wooden crate in the corner, finally allowing herself to exhale a long, shuddering breath. The adrenaline that had sustained her through the underground firefight was beginning to fade, leaving behind a profound, aching fatigue in every muscle of her body.
Goliath settled heavily at her feet, resting his massive head across her shoes, his warm body providing a comforting anchor in the dark.
"We're on board," Vance muttered, clutching his hard drives like precious cargo as he sat cross-legged on the floor. "Now what? How do we access the marine radio repeater from inside a moving locomotive?"
Jax pulled a small, ruggedized military laptop from his tactical vest, setting it down on a metal workbench bolted to the wall of the compartment. He flipped open the screen, revealing a green command-line interface that flickered to life in the dark.
"We don't need to access it from outside," Jax said, plugging the solid-state drives Vance had brought into the laptop's USB ports. "This locomotive’s onboard telemetry system is hardwired into the regional railway dispatch network. The railway network shares a dedicated copper line with the coastal marine radio towers."
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Elena watched the rolling green text cascade down the screen. "You're going to piggyback the encryption files onto the train's automated signaling beacon?"
"It’s the only unmonitored analog pipeline left in the region," Jax replied, his fingers flying across the mechanical keyboard with precise, rhythmic speed. "When the engineer hits the switch for the Donner Pass tunnel three miles down the line, the signal will broadcast across every emergency radio frequency from here to the Mexican border."
