CHAPTER 207 — FRACTURES IN THE LINE (PART I)
The bridge collapsed slowly.
For something so massive, the destruction felt strangely quiet.
Steel cables snapped one after another with sharp metallic cracks that echoed across the river. The center span of the freight bridge twisted inward like a wounded animal trying to curl into itself. Then gravity took the rest.
The structure folded.
Concrete slabs, steel girders, and entire lanes of roadway plunged into the water below. The river exploded upward in a violent eruption of spray and shattered debris. Freight trucks that had been abandoned during evacuation tipped sideways and disappeared beneath the churning water.
For several seconds the only sound was the roar of the collapsing bridge.
Then silence returned.
High above the river, the Jade Dragon hovered with slow, steady wingbeats.
It watched the destruction with something disturbingly close to indifference.
Not rage.
Not triumph.
Simply observation.
