The smell of raw grain mixed with hot engine oil and cold mountain pine was thick under the high, open rafters of the main freight shed. Outside, the hiss of the idling locomotive's steam release cut through the cold air in steady, rhythmic bursts, but inside the shed, the silence was tense, fragile, and heavy with suspicion.
Dozens of men in heavy wool coats, grease-stained leather aprons, and iron-shod work boots stood gathered around the central weighing platform. These were not corporate clerks or chancellery brokers; they were the regional hauler captains—the men who physically moved the grain, coal, and timber through the mountain passes. They carried heavy iron handspikes, hunting carbines, and the calloused hands of hard labor.
