Riley Gage's Arc

Chapter 6 of 6

Riley walks. Not toward the workshop, not toward the auto shop, not anywhere that matters. Just forward, because stopping means the noise gets louder. His phone keeps buzzing in his pocket, but he doesn't check it. The Rats are gone. His brothers won't answer. The message comes through an hour later, when he's sitting against a stack of green and yellow storage crates near the edge of Rats territory. Not a call. A location pin and three words: "Last chance. Come." Riley stares at the screen until it goes dark, then gets up. He follows the orange spray-painted stripe on the ground that marks the route deeper into their turf, past the places he used to feel safe. The stripe ends at a loading zone he's never seen before, empty except for a single figure waiting beside something covered with a tarp. The Rat pulls the tarp back without a word. Underneath sits a device Riley recognizes immediately because he designed half the components himself. Bigger than anything he's built before, wired to detonate on a scale that would take out a city block. The Rat steps back. "GiganCorp's main distribution hub. Tomorrow night. You plant this, we forget the drone thing ever happened." Riley looks at the exposed wires, the blinking red light that seems to pulse in time with his heartbeat. He built things like this before, told himself it didn't matter what happened after they left his hands. But this isn't a detonator tucked in someone's pocket. This is a statement. This is bodies. The Rat crosses his arms, watching. "You help outsiders, you burn us. You want back in, you prove where you stand. No more 'I just make the thing.' You deliver it yourself." Riley's mouth goes dry. He could say yes. Go back to the workshop, to the applause, to feeling like he matters. All he has to do is become the thing Marcus saw when he walked away. Riley stands up. The words come out quiet but clear. "No." The Rat's expression doesn't change, but something shifts in his posture. Riley keeps talking, even though his hands are shaking. "I built a lot of things I shouldn't have. Told myself it wasn't my problem what you did with them. But I can't—I won't do this." The Rat spits on the ground near Riley's feet. "Then you're done. Don't come back to the workshop. Don't use our tags. You're nothing." He covers the device again and walks away without looking back. Riley stays there, alone in the loading zone, waiting for the panic to hit. But instead there's just silence. Not the screaming noise of guilt he's been running from, but actual quiet. He's lost the Rats. Lost his brothers. Lost everything he built his life around. And for the first time since Marcus found his workshop, Riley feels like he can breathe.