Learning to Walk at Night

He controlled the supply lines from South Side to the waterfront, had ties to city consultants, and money moving through Helios Guard, the private security company that always seemed to arrive before the police did. Publicly he was a sponsor of neighborhood stability. In practice he moved people, product, and fear through the city in one package. Ethan should have left. Instead, he heard another sound. Not a voice. A soft metallic tapping from the back wall. Somebody was locked in a side room and knocking for help. He crouched, put his ear to the door, and heard the shape of panic in the steel. One person. Weak. About to collapse. Ethan looked at his hands, thought about hospital bills, his mother's medicine, Noah's stolen e-bike.