Sentinel of the Iron Coast
When a remote Pacific lighthouse is damaged ahead of a seasonal gale, clockmaker Nora Vance arrives to restore the optical gears. But as subtle mechanical anomalies turn into deliberate sabotage, Nora must confront the trauma of her past as a federal inspector to avert a catastrophe.
Fictional story. Contains scenes of maritime peril, technical sabotage, and emotional themes of past tragedy.Chapter 1: The Glass and the Brass
The steam tender Crestline pulled away from the stone landing at Sentinel Reach, leaving Nora Vance standing alone against the damp sea wind of Cape Sorrow. At thirty-one, she looked less like a seasoned technician and more like an itinerant clerk. Her dark wool coat was neatly brushed, though worn thin at the cuffs, and she carried a single brass-bound oak chest that rattled softly with micro-files, jeweler's loupes, calibration levels, and vials of jeweler's rouge.
High above the landing, perched atop a hundred-foot crag of black basalt, stood the Sentinel Reach Light Station. Its iron-framed lantern house caught the gray November sky like a cut diamond. For three weeks, regional shipping notices had warned of erratic rotation in the station's giant four-ton Fresnel optic. The coastal lighthouse board had summoned three separate contractors, all of whom reported that the heavy clockwork mechanism was simply aging beyond repair. Nora had answered the final public tender quietly, asking for half the standard fee and no crew of assistants.