Chapter 2 - THE GRAVEYARD OF EXPERTS

The world seemed to stop spinning for Logan Steel. He stared at the heavy silver ring resting in the grease-stained palm of this eighteen-year-old boy.

"Daniel was wearing that ring the night he died," Logan said, his voice hollow. "The paramedics gave me his watch, his wallet, his cut. They never found the ring."

"Because he didn't have it on him when he crashed," Leo said gently. "He gave it to my dad three days before."

"Why?" Ray demanded, his protective instincts flaring as he stepped between Logan and the boy. "Why would Daniel give his colors ring to Marcus?"

"Because my dad needed a loan," Leo didn't flinch. "I was ten years old. I had severe asthma, and we couldn't afford the hospital bills. My dad went to Daniel for help. Daniel didn't have the cash. So he took off his ring, gave it to my dad, and told him to pawn it. He said a brother’s kid breathing was more important than a piece of silver."

Logan closed his eyes. That was Daniel. Impulsive, fiercely loyal, always giving away pieces of himself.

"My dad never pawned it," Leo continued. "He worked double shifts at the yard to pay the bills. He kept the ring to give back to Daniel. But... Daniel died that week."

Leo knelt back down beside the Iron Beast.

"When my dad drafted the engine block specs for this bike with Daniel," Leo said, pointing to a small, nearly invisible circular indentation near the ignition barrel, "they joked about installing a hidden biometric lock. Something old school. A magnetic deadman's switch."

"The compass," Logan realized, the pieces suddenly slamming together in his mind.

"Exactly," Leo nodded. "The compass wasn't just finding interference. It was finding the magnetic receptor my dad secretly built into the frame when you hired him to weld the chassis."

Logan was stunned. He hadn't just hired Marcus to weld; he had trusted him to finish the frame.

"My dad knew Daniel wanted a master override," Leo said, slipping the heavy silver ring over his own grease-stained thumb. "The ring is solid silver, but Daniel had a custom neodymium magnet embedded in the band. If the computer ever fails, if the bike ever locks you out..."

Leo pressed his thumb, with Daniel’s ring on it, flat against the smooth metal casing right below the ignition slot.

A sharp, metallic CLICK echoed from deep inside the engine block.

The digital dashboard on the handlebars, which had been dead for ten minutes, suddenly blazed to life in bright, aggressive red.

The crowd, seeing the lights turn on from the giant monitors, let out a massive, roaring cheer.

"Sixty seconds," Leo said, breathing heavily. "The computer is bypassed. You have direct manual control of the starter."

Logan stepped up to the bike. His hands were shaking. He gripped the handlebars, swung his leg over the seat, and looked down at the boy who had just handed him his brother's ghost.

"Thank you, Leo," Logan said. He pressed the starter button.

The engine whined, a high-pitched mechanical scream as the starter motor engaged. It cranked. It cranked harder.

And then, with a horrifying CRUNCH of metal on metal, the engine seized completely. Smoke billowed from the exhaust pipes.

"No!" Ray shouted, diving toward the bike.