He leans in and tests it himself, pressing the release with a firm, controlled motion, and I watch the exact moment he feels it. His jaw tightens, just a fraction.
“That’s not normal wear,” he mutters.
“No.”
“You catch the rope?” I ask.
He nods once. “Yeah. That slip wasn’t clean. Something’s off in the wrap.”
Wade exhales slowly, like he’s already working himself toward a conclusion he doesn’t want to say out loud. “So we’ve got a bad latch and a compromised rope on the same ride.”
“On the same eight seconds,” I correct.
That lands heavier.
Brooks steps up. “Tell me again about this,” Brooks says.
I give it to him straight. “Latch delays the release. Rope slips under pressure. Rider starts behind before he ever finds center.”
Brooks watches the handler cycle the gate again, his gaze narrowing slightly when it catches. “How long has it been doing that?” he asks.
The handler hesitates. “Didn’t notice it before.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
The man shifts, uncomfortable now. “Could’ve been recent.”
Brooks nods once, filing that away. “Who signed off on this chute?”
“Crew lead.”
“Name.”
He gives it this time.
Wade looks at him. “You’re seeing the same thing I am.”
“I am,” Luke says, calm and steady. “I’m also seeing that we don’t have enough to prove it yet.”
Wade huffs out a breath, frustration sitting just under the surface. “A guy almost got wrecked.”
“And he didn’t,” Brooks says, not looking up from his phone. “Which means we’ve got a window to get ahead of it instead of reacting after the fact.”
That pulls Wade back just enough to listen.
I shift my stance, leaning slightly closer to the chute again, watching the crew reset like nothing’s changed, even though everything just did. “If this is sabotage,” I say, keeping my voice low, “it’s not sloppy. That latch doesn’t stop the gate. It delays it. The rope doesn’t snap. It slips.”
Luke nods, picking up the thread. “Which means whoever did it knows exactly how far to push it without making it obvious.”
“Controlled damage,” Brooks adds, finally looking up. “Enough to cause a problem. Not enough to shut things down.”
Wade’s eyes go hard. “That’s not an accident.”
“No,” I say. “It’s not.”
For a second, the four of us stand there, all looking at the same thing. All coming to the same conclusion without needing to say it outright.
This wasn’t random.
