Thomas Avery’s hands were calloused from years of twisting wires, tightening bolts, and coaxing reluctant machines back to life. At twenty-six, he was known around the industrial district of Manchester as the technician who never gave up on broken things. To most, he was just another man in oil-stained overalls. But in Thomas’s mind, every broken circuit whispered possibility, every failed engine suggested a challenge. He didn’t see decay—he saw the blueprint of what could be.