The thrum of the compressor filling was a pleasant background noise to what was, for the moment, an oddly quiet workshop. It was warm in the shop, but not hot; that wouldn’t come for another month or two. July and August would be the worst—hot summer days when he lost kilos by the handful, each one sweated out underneath heavy coveralls and into clunky work boots. Summer was also prime construction season, which meant no matter how hot the days got, or how bad the sweat was streaming into his eyes, the equipment would keep breaking down and would continue to need to be fixed by yesterday, at the latest.
Now, though, things were just getting going for both industry and the weather. The morning had started out in single digits on the Celsius scale, but forecasters were promising double digi
