The Road Out of Town

The weekly summary reached Ernest's desk on Monday morning.

Arthur walked into the Helmarte office, waving the paper like a flag. "They like it, Ernest! Over six hundred kilometers without a single engine failure!"

Ernest took the sheet and read the lines carefully.

Hollen looked up from his mug of coffee. "Any broken gears?"

"None," Ernest said. "One flat tire."

"Hardly our fault," Hollen grunted. "Unless you built the nail."

Ernest kept reading, tapping the paper against his desk. "Six hundred and twelve kilometers in six days. Forty-one dispatches."

Arthur smiled. "That's fantastic news."

"It means heavy usage," Ernest said. "Heavy usage exposes weak points faster."

"Can you not celebrate for five minutes?" Arthur asked.

Ernest pointed to a line near the bottom of the notes. "Wallace complained about the cold-start procedure. He says it takes too long during urgent calls."