Chapter 4: Dock Six

“Show us where it stood,” Rita said, and so they went and looked.

Dock Six was at the far end of the row, past a rank of empty pallets and a battery charging station. The main dispatch doors had fresh yellow paint on the floor and scanner arches that looked recently serviced. Six had a dented dock plate and a strip light that buzzed. It was the kind of door nobody watches because nothing important is supposed to go through it.

Redmond stood on the apron outside and showed them with his hands. “Backed in here. I was coming down from the gatehouse to check the fence line and I saw the tail end of it. Marker light was about there.”

Robert was looking at the door itself, mostly to avoid looking at Redmond. It was a powered sectional door, and on the motor housing at head height there was a maintenance label in a plastic sleeve. Service dates, a technician’s initials, and against each date a five-digit figure. Beside the label, behind a scratched window in the housing, a small mechanical counter showed 18,423.

“What’s this counting?”

“Cycles,” Redmond said. “Every time she goes up and comes down. They change the springs at so many thousand.”

“Does it report to the control room?”