Read Chapter 36: — LINES ACROSS THE SAND

Years later Daniel returned to Almar for another project review.

The old desert corridor was no longer new.

That pleased him.

Paint had faded slightly on service buildings. Stations had acquired coffee shops, commuters, lost luggage and children complaining about long journeys. The railway had moved from achievement to ordinary life.

That was what success was supposed to become.

He took a train through the section he had helped build.

At the window sat a boy with his forehead against the glass, watching dunes race beside the track.

“Who built this?” the boy asked his father.

“A lot of people,” the man said.

Daniel smiled.

Correct answer.

Not one brilliant engineer.

Not one nation.

Not one heroic director.

Surveyors, drivers, labourers, designers, cooks, medics, translators, technicians, local supervisors, expatriate workers, frightened graduates who became professionals, stubborn veterans who learned new habits, and families who waited on the other side of video calls.

His phone buzzed.

A family group message.

MAYA: Dad says the retaining wall in your photo looks wrong.

GRAHAM: I said I want a closer picture.

MAGGIE: Graham, leave him alone. Daniel, are you eating?

TOBY: Why am I still in this family group?

MAYA: Administrative error.

Daniel laughed aloud.

The boy at the window looked at him.

Daniel turned back toward the desert.

Once, he had thought engineering meant imposing lines on difficult ground.

Now he understood differently.

A line worked only because it learned the ground it crossed.

People were much the same.

The train ran on, steady and fast, across sand that never truly stopped moving.

THE END