Vertical Thrust

Danny Coombs once had a law career lined up — top of his class, a future already half-written. Then his best friend died in what everyone called a tragic accident, and Danny never made it past the bar. He took the only other trade he knew and became an elevator mechanic, Local 82, the same union his father had worked for thirty years.

Seven years later, a coworker dies in a freak accident on the job. The official version answers nothing. Why did this happen? How did it happen? And — the question nobody in the room seems to want him asking — was it really an accident at all?

Danny starts pulling threads he cant stop pulling, and they lead somewhere much bigger than a maintenance log: into boardrooms that dont want scrutiny, a justice system that isnt as blind as it claims, police who already know more than theyre saying, and men who make problems disappear for a living.

Vertical Thrust is a thriller about the machinery that keeps the world running — literal and otherwise — and the man who finally has to find out whos really operating it.