The young man bolted across the platform, grabbed the heavy lever, and yanked it with all his strength. The mechanism groaned in protest before the signal lights switched from green to furious red. Ethan looked down the track.
The horizon shimmered, the light bending in strange, violent waves. Then he saw it. A silver blur rounding the curve, sunlight flaring off its metal face. The train. His mouth went dry. It was still distant, but moving fast. The rhythmic thunder of its wheels carried through the rails, shaking the ground beneath them.