Chapter 18 · First Bet in the Cage

The gym boss shoved Chen through the side door at ten past nine. No warning. No prep time.

"You fight tonight," he said. "Cage is already up."

Chen's palm still burned from the map. He could feel the copper awake inside him, humming under his ribs like a second heartbeat.

The basement smelled like cigarette smoke and old blood. Chen had mopped this floor a hundred times but never seen the cage assembled. It sat in the center of the room, ten feet across, chain-link walls bolted to a metal frame. Bare bulb hanging overhead. Crowd pressed against the fence, maybe forty people, all of them louder than the gym ever got during daylight hours.

Old Xu was already there, leaning against the far wall. He caught Chen's eye and nodded once. His face said *don't lose control*.

Chen's opponent was waiting inside the cage. Big guy, maybe thirty, with a shaved head and knuckles wrapped in torn cloth. He rolled his shoulders and grinned.

"This the mop boy?" he called out. "Heard you got some new tricks."

Chen didn't answer. He stepped through the cage door and the crowd noise doubled. Someone locked the door behind him.