The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots Read Online Free PDF Page B

smaller to her eyes as the jetty weaved out like a giant centipede. She heard the hum of the conveyor before she saw it. It was moving almost as fast as the bus, pile after pile of iron ore, red and moist, on its black weathered length. Everything else – the road, the steel frames supporting the conveyor – was stained red. Iron ore had got into every nook and cranny.
    This is why I became an engineer.
    For this feeling.
    The thrill reminded her of her first days at university, the newness of the material, the joy of first discovery, that itching to know more. It was a sensation that predated the mess that Kevin had made of her career and her confidence.
    I want to get back to this.
    Just this.
    Lena heard Sharon laugh. It was only then that she realised she had her nose pressed up against the glass.
    ‘Would you like a tissue for your drool?’ Sharon asked.
    Lena blushed and wiped her smudge off the window with her overlong sleeve. ‘I’ve just never seen anything like it. At least not up this close.’
    ‘Don’t worry, it gets me almost every day too.’
    It took them at least ten minutes to get to the end of the wharf. Enough time for Lena to take in the sights, smells and sounds. The road on which the bus travelled was narrow. On their left there was about half a metre between them and a sheer drop straight into the ocean. On the right-hand side was the same gap between them and the moving conveyor. There were no guardrails, so Sharon definitely needed to focus. Lena panicked when she saw a car heading off the wharf, coming straight for them, until the redhead pulled them over into aturning bay. These were little areas where the jetty widened momentarily so that two cars could park on the side of the road while another passed.
    ‘People going off have right of way,’ Sharon explained, ‘though generally whoever is nearest to the bay parks and lets the other pass.’
    Chaos reigned at the end of the wharf. Every available space was packed with men, equipment or amenities. There was barely enough room for five cars to park. The bus turned into the last remaining space.
    ‘I wait here for fifteen minutes,’ Sharon said. ‘After that, you won’t see me for a ride back till next hour.’
    ‘Okay.’ Lena nodded. ‘I think it’ll take me till then anyway.’
    She knew fifteen minutes wouldn’t be long enough to explore. Small as it was, there was too much going on at the end of the jetty.
    A temporary office had been set up next to the cars – another crusty white donga that looked like it had been just dropped there on the roadway. Next to it was a similarly temporary toilet block. Beyond that, the wharf ended. Someone had erected a guardrail along the very end – about time , thought Lena – and there were a bunch of guys standing there looking out over the water at some pretty impressive business.
    Out on the ocean sat a barge about the size of a suburban house block. Only it wasn’t floating on the water. This thing had put down three large steel legs and was currently standing elevated over the waves like something out of War of the Worlds .
    There was a control room on one side of the barge. On the other side, it had a giant clamp which held a long cylindrical pile, so that one end just dipped into the water. A crane situated on the barge deck was placing another cylinder over the pile like an enormous sleeve. Lena saw that this sleeve was supposed to somehow drive the pile into the ocean bed.The challenge the crane driver faced now though was getting the sleeve on the pile – it wasn’t a straight lift and drop because the pile was on an angle.
    The men at the end of the jetty were signalling the men on the three-legged barge with hand signs and radios. Lena was suddenly very conscious of the fact that she had no reason to be there. She hung back trying to remain unnoticed. But this was hard to do considering she was the only woman within a five-kilometre radius.
    ‘Hey there, missy – you