Caleb hit the freight-tunnel ceiling with Cutter One still inside his chest.
Concrete split above the drainage channel. Fara Doss threw the last child across the local release line and covered him with her body.
The ceiling dropped six centimeters.
Caleb caught it on his right forearm.
His left side continued falling. Sela's cutter rail bent under forty-two tons of silver trying to occupy the tunnel below. The blade chewed sideways through Caleb's sternum and threw white metal across Hall One.
"Hold your cut!" Elara called.
Sela kept both hands on the feed. Her power keeper, Mako Pell, pulled voltage down before the warped rail could drag the blade into Caleb's retained side.
Bram had not begun the lower cut.
His blade now stood two meters above its marked line.
"I lost the hip target," he said.
"Your target moved with him," Kestrel answered. "Wait for a current mark."
