JJ had enough fingers left to work the pump or untie the woman from her coat. She chose the pump and let the trolley drag her backward another foot.
"You're going to take that button off, and then we'll both be annoyed."
The woman's grip loosened. She kept two fingers through the hole, watching the western door over JJ's shoulder. Behind it, someone knocked again and tried the latch.
Vey put a rifleman beside the door. He sent Fenn down the platform to find where the brass rail entered the wall. JJ held her braid away from it while the left pump descended, then touched the right contact. Her thumb folded into her palm. She had stopped trying to straighten it.
An engineer brought a block of dry wood and pushed it beneath the severed plate. The pink lamp remained lit.
"Disconnect whatever it touched before you bring anything through my door," Vey told him.
The engineer looked at JJ's hands. "That connection is already gone. Whatever answered has stayed on the other side."
