Riley Fitzgerald's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The cub would not stop crying. It paced the corner, paws scraping the floor, and let out one sharp wail after another. Riley crouched by the shelves, fingers on a stack of files, but she could not read a word. Every sound the cub made carried. Outside, the guards' voices rose closer. She had the evidence under her hand and no way to study it while a frightened animal screamed for help. "You're going to get us both killed," she whispered. The cub backed against the locked cabinet and growled, then cried again. She needed it quiet. She needed it gone. But it would not leave the room, and she could not leave without the proof. The door handle turned. Riley froze. Then it stopped, and three soft knocks came instead. A whisper slid through the crack. "The code's changing in two minutes. Open up or you're trapped." Riley gripped a file like a club and cracked the door. A tall woman slipped inside, orange curls wild, green eyes quick. She shut the door behind her without a sound. "I've watched you for weeks," she said. "I want this place burned down as much as you do. I'm Sienna." She looked at the crying cub and smiled. "And I know what he wants." Riley did not lower the file. "Why should I trust you?" "Because I'm the only one here not holding a radio." Sienna knelt and dug a small cake from her jacket. Honey dripped down its sides, berries pressed on top. She set it on the floor and slid it toward the cub. "He's not guarding the room. He's hungry." The cub stopped crying. Its blue eyes fixed on the treat. It crept forward, sniffed, and bit. The wailing died into soft chewing. The room went quiet at last. Riley breathed. She pulled the files free and spread them fast. One name repeated across tax forms and shipping logs, the same name she had chased for eight months. Below it, a line she had not expected: the order that had dumped her on this island, signed and dated. Her hands shook. "This is him," she said. "The one who marooned me. It's all here." "Then take it and move," Sienna said. She was already at the far wall, prying up a square panel in the floor. Beneath it, a metal hatch gleamed, hinged and ringed with bolts. "This drops to the tunnels. It's how I get out." Riley shoved the files into her pack. Boots pounded in the hall. A fist hit the door, then a shoulder. The cub finished the cake and licked its paws, calm now, watching them both. Sienna hauled the hatch open. "Now, Riley." Riley dropped through first. The last thing she saw was the cub, sitting alone in the room she had emptied, as the door behind it began to split.