Chapter 29

Flashback establishes how Jack equipped George with a novelty “sigul,” empowering him to enforce Youngblood’s authority with foremen. On the journey’s second night, George dons the badge and confronts Jack’s judgment; around the fire, Jack admits Hestin let him assume the boxes were explosives due to “echoes” between worlds. Ry confirms the boxes themselves are alive and waking. The tet debates Hestin’s motives, the risk of delay, and whether Jack should remain dinh. Despite unease, all—including Ry—vote for Jack to lead.

At dawn, Jory scouts ahead. Soon, his alarm sounds; the tet finds his Binny overturned at a suspension bridge on the River None. Across the span, three redheads taunt them with Jory’s severed parts. Jack prevents the group from using a missile that would drop the bridge, then calmly crosses into a lethal focus and shoots all three redheads at extreme pistol range. They push Jory’s wreck into the river and reconfigure roles: Alice mans heavy weapons on Larry’s gunwagon; George tops Ry’s; Mary drives with Richard.

The convoy crosses the first bridge and regroups at a turnout, confirming clean headshots and rising hum from the boxes. Pressing into harsher terrain of switchbacks and cliffs, Jack feels oppressive “echoes” of Sorcerer and The Wages of Fear as the river’s roar returns. They reach a second, decaying bridge nearly at water level. Larry and Mary make it across with difficulty; Richard sprints to Mary.

Ry turns his truck to face the bridge on Jack’s orders, preparing a Takuro Heavy winch. Jack’s heavier truck breaks through the slats and hangs by its bumper as the bridge begins to fail. Rejecting Alice’s plea to abandon it, Jack crawls into knee-deep current, hooks the winch to the frame, and gets pinned by a slat. Alice frees his hand—costing Jack his pinky—and signals Ry to rev the winch.

With the bridge collapsing, Jack and Alice fight the current, staggering clear as Ry’s winch hauls the truck onto solid ground. The far anchors finally rip free and the bridge drops into the river. Alice resets Jack’s dislocated ring finger and tosses the severed pinky away. Shaken but intact, the tet retains both boxes and pushes on, the entities within pulsing louder.