Instead, he calmly closed his binder, stepped off the roadway onto the grass, and gave a brief, satisfied nod.
"Go ahead, Tessa," Mark said softly, his voice clear and icy calm. "That's all I needed."
Chapter III: The Red Beacon
As the front tires of the dump truck reached the first timber planks, a high-pitched alarm resonated from the bridge’s gabled roof.
Mounted above the portal, a heavy-duty, circular emergency red beacon lit up, spinning rapidly with a blinding crimson flash.
Simultaneously, the bridge's automated structural load sensors triggered a continuous digital recording feed directly to state law enforcement and emergency dispatch.
From around the river bend, the wail of high-speed sirens echoed off the mountain cliffs.