The morning of June 26, 2007, did not begin with a fire. It began with the shrill, persistent scream of a safety alarm.
Xavier was already at the factory office with Mei-Mei, chewing on a piece of toasted bread, when the sound tore through the morning air. It was a high-frequency wail that made the birds in the factory scatter and the coffee in Arthur's cup ripple.
Arthur's head snapped toward the window. "This... that's Line B"
He didn't finish his coffee. He was out the door in seconds, his slippers slapping against the pavement as he ran toward the production line. Clara followed him to the office door, her face pale with a worry she couldn't quite name.
Xavier stayed in his chair. He looked at the clock on the wall. 7:15 AM.
*Three hours early* he thought.
*Good*
He slid off the chair and walked toward the small office table. He grabbed two more pieces of bread, a small bottle of water, and one of the jars of peanut butter. He stuffed them into his school bag, hiding them beneath his notebooks.
He also looked at Mei-Mei and whispered "Syobe, you stay here and keep eating. Don't go out. Okay?"
Mei-Mei just nodded as she ate her bread. She was busy coloring her princess notebook.
With her sister settled, Xavier called out as he slipped his shoes on.
"Ma, I'll go to a friend"
"Xavi, just don't go to the production line" Clara shouted, but she was already distracted by the sight of the factory workers clustering towards Line B.
Xavier didn't go to the main floor. He went through the back mezzanine, the same way he had entered the night before. He found Aris in the breakroom, sitting on the edge of the old sofa. The older boy looked like he hadn't slept a wink, his eyes rimmed with red and his hands clutching.
"Here" Xavier said, thrusting the bread and water at him. "Eat fast. My Pa and the foreman are down there. They're going to be busy for a while."
Aris took the bread, his eyes darting toward the window. "They're angry, Xavi. I heard the foreman shouting."
"Let them be angry" Xavier said, his voice calm.
"Better they're angry at a broken sensor than crying over a funeral."
He looked down at the factory floor. Below them, Arthur and Mang Bert, the head mechanic, were hunched over the hydraulic housing of Line B. The massive machine was silent, its power cut. Mang Bert was holding a flashlight, his face covered in soot.
"I don't get it, Boss" Bert's voice echoed. "The pressure sensor is bent. It looks like a bolt got wedged in there. But that bolt shouldn't even be in this housing"
Arthur was rubbing his temples, the stress of the bridge bid and the machine failure clearly taking their toll. "Just fix it, Bert. We're losing money while this line is down."
"Wait, Boss" Bert said, his voice suddenly dropping into a low, breathless rasp. "Look at the axle. Behind the housing"
Xavier leaned forward, his small hands gripping the mezzanine railing.
On the factory floor, Arthur leaned in. The flashlight beam hit the main drive shaft of the ten-ton press. Bert reached out with a gloved hand and wiped away a layer of black, burnt-smelling grease.
"My God" Arthur whispered.
Even from the mezzanine, Xavier could see it. Without the fresh lubrication, a jagged fracture ran across the diameter of the axle. It was a wound in the heart of the machine, held together by nothing but luck and the fact that Xavier had jammed the sensor.
"If we had flipped the high-pressure switch..." Bert said, his voice trembling.
"The torque would have snapped this like a toothpick. The arm would have flown off. The hydraulic fluid would have hit the heating elements..."
Arthur didn't say anything. He just stared at the fracture. He reached out and touched the cold, dead metal, his fingers shaking. He looked at the bent sensor pin. The fault that had saved them.
"Who was in here last night, Bert?" Arthur asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"Nobody, Boss. Domeng says the gates were locked."
Arthur looked around the factory, his gaze eventually drifting up toward the mezzanine. Xavier stepped back into the shadows, his heart thumping.
"Bert" Arthur said, his voice regaining its strength. "Check every other line. Now. I want a full maintenance report by noon. And call the supplier, tell them we need a new tempered axle, and we need it as soon as possible"
"Yes, Boss"
Xavier turned back to Aris. The older boy was staring at him, the half-eaten bread forgotten in his hand.
"You knew" Aris whispered. "You really knew."
"Information is the only thing that matters, Aris," Xavier said. He reached out and tapped Aris' shoulder.
He then added "By the way, your father works at Marco's father, right?"
"Yes" Aris awkwardly replied.
"Great. I'll ask Marco later for help. For now, you finish your food and let's go out"
---------------
School that morning felt like a dream.
Xavier sat in his Grade 2 classroom, listening to the drone of the teacher talking about history. But his mind was elsewhere. He was analyzing the data Abyss was projecting on the back of his eyelids: the Northern Luzon bridge bid.
"ABYSS: ANALYSIS OF GOVERNMENT BRIDGE BID 09-124"
"COMPETITOR 1: AGUILA CONSTRUCTION. BID RANGE: PHP 45M - 48M"
"COMPETITOR 2: METRO-STEEL INC. BID RANGE: PHP 42M - 44M"
"GUAN-TECH PROJECTED COST: PHP 38M. RECOMMENDED BID: PHP 41.5M."
Xavier knew this bid. In the old timeline, Guan-Tech had lost it by less than five hundred thousand pesos. They had been too conservative, too afraid of steel fluctuations.
During recess, Xavier found Marco and his group near the Zagu stall.
"Marco," Xavier said, his voice quiet but commanding.
Marco turned, a smile already forming. "Hey, Xavi! Are we getting the shakes?"
"In a minute," Xavier said. He leaned in closer, his expression cooling. "I have a new rule, Marco. Aris Mendoza is my assistant. Help him out today, bring him along to your house"
Marco's smile faltered. "My house? Why? I--"
"He ran away from home" Xavier interrupted. "Try to get your Dad to warn Aris' Stepfather. He's been beating him"
"But..." Marco was very hesitant
"If you do it, I'll give you 10 rare Yu-Gi-Oh cards and one of my Transformers"
Marco swallowed. He looked at the other boys, then back at Xavier. He could feel the shift in the air.
"Yeah... yeah, sure, Xavi. I'll help out"
"And Marco" Xavier added "The Grade 6 boys. If any of them so much as says Aris's name, you tell me. And you tell them that if they touch him, I'll make sure they pay the price. Understand?"
Marco nodded frantically. He was already planning how to play with his new toys.
---------------
After school, Xavier didn't go to the internet café. He was picked up early by one of the factory workers. They went straight to the factory office.
The air was different. The tension was still there, but it was a productive tension. Mang Bert was barking orders at a group of junior mechanics. Arthur was at his desk, but he wasn't looking at the bridge bid. He was looking at the bent sensor pin.
"Pa," Xavier said, stepping into the office.
Arthur looked up. His eyes were red-rimmed, but for the first time in days, he didn't look exhausted. He looked *awake*.
"Xavi" Arthur said. He stood up and walked over to his son. He knelt down, his hands resting on Xavier's shoulders. "You told me about Line B yesterday. And the day before"
Xavier looked at him with the best wide-eyed innocence he could muster. "I just heard the screaming cat, Pa. I didn't want the factory to be sad."
Arthur let out a ragged laugh, pulling Xavier into a tight hug. "The factory isn't sad, *A-Ba*. It's lucky. We're very, very lucky."
He pulled back, his gaze searching Xavier's face. There was a question in his eyes. A flicker of suspicion, of wonder. He was an engineer; he knew that a bolt doesn't just "wedge itself" into a sensor housing by accident. But he also looked at his seven-year-old son and saw a child who barely reached his waist.
"Pa" Xavier said, reaching out to touch the bridge bid documents on the desk.
"I saw a show on the TV. It said that when you want to win a race, you don't have to be the fastest. You just have to know how much the other people are willing to lose"
Arthur blinked. "What?"
"The bridge, Pa," Xavier said, pointing at the numbers. "The big companies... they have too much money. The TV said they are very greedy, and don't like to take risks. Won't we know their plan if we think like them?"
Arthur looked at the bid, then back at Xavier. He reached out and picked up his calculator.
"Forty-one point five," Xavier whispered, so softly it could have been the wind.
Arthur's fingers froze over the buttons. He looked at the projected cost he had calculated: thirty-eight million. He had been planning to bid forty-two million and five-hundred thousand to play it safe.
"Forty-one point five" Arthur repeated. He tapped the numbers into the calculator. The profit margin was slim, but the probability of winning against was... great.
"How did you..." Arthur started, but he stopped himself. He looked at his son. The boy who had warned him previously, but he disregarded it.
"Go wash up for dinner, Xavi," Arthur said, his voice thick with emotion. "I have some work to do. I think... I think we're going to win this one."
Xavier turned and walked out of the office.
"ABYSS: PRIMARY TARGET INFLUENCED. BID STRATEGY ADJUSTED. PROBABILITY OF CONTRACT WIN: 96%"
Xavier smiled. The ripple was spreading. The fire had been averted, the underling had been secured, and a major contract was within reach.
He walked toward the house, his light-up shoes flashing in the twilight. He was seven years old, and he was already rewriting the history of the Guan family.
"One step at a time" he whispered to the night.