World Zone stopped chasing Tobin in the open.

That did not mean they stopped moving.

Bruno had disappeared from his usual rooms. His main phone went silent, and the two men who normally stood near him stopped visiting known places. Sella Marr expected that. A warned man hid the body first. He could not hide every shadow attached to it.

So World Zone moved around him.

Idris had explained it simply to the team. If a bridge could not be reached, they would break the planks leading to it. A man like Bruno did not survive alone. He needed drivers, small buyers, storage keepers, message carriers, and men who thought they were too minor to matter. Those men were easier to find than Bruno himself.

The first man they found was a driver who had carried jewelry from one storage point to another for Bruno. He did not know Wil or Adam. He only knew Bruno paid well and demanded silence. That was still enough to make him useful.

By morning, the driver was dead in an alley behind a closed repair shop.

The second was a small handler who arranged black-market buyers. He tried to run when he noticed Brant’s men following him. They caught him near a bus depot. By afternoon, the rumor spread that he had been found with two bullets in him.

The third was not killed.

He was taken.

That frightened Bruno more than the dead ones.

Dead men ended a line. Taken men could speak until someone decided the line was empty. Bruno knew that better than anyone because he had used the same method on weaker people before. Now the method had turned toward him.

He sat in a hidden room above an old warehouse, listening to the reports through three different phones. Each report made the room feel smaller. The men around him avoided looking directly at his face.

"Boss," one of them said carefully, "should we leave the city?"

Bruno looked at him.

"And go where? If they found Rafi, they can find roads too."

The man lowered his eyes.

Bruno wanted to curse, but he swallowed it. Wil’s side had warned him. That meant they knew something. But the warning had not stopped World Zone from cutting through his outer men. Protection did not mean a wall around him. It meant he had been told to move before the knife reached his throat.

That was useful.

It was also not enough.

Across the city, Rust Gate was beginning to split.

Tobin Rell was alive, but alive was not the same as present. He was giving orders through phones, changing locations every few hours, and trusting Niko Varr to stand in rooms where Tobin himself could not appear.

For a new leader, that was dangerous.

Men respected a voice when fear was fresh. After two days, they started asking why the voice did not show its face.

Niko tried to keep the rooms together. He repeated Tobin’s words, sent guards to warehouses, and shouted at anyone who questioned the new line. But Niko was still young in their eyes. He had not bled for the chair, and he had not made men rich enough to shut their mouths.

World Zone used that gap.

Harlan Pike was older than Niko and had survived under Maren long enough to know where the old loyalties slept. He was not Maren’s right hand, but he had handled storage yards and weapon movement for years. That made him useful to men who wanted Rust Gate stable without Tobin.

Idris met him in a private room behind a gambling den.

Harlan did not sit until Idris told him to.

"Tobin ran from Maren’s funeral," Idris said.

Harlan’s jaw moved once. "He said he had urgent work."

"He ran because someone warned him. The same people who pushed him into the chair."

Harlan said nothing.

Idris placed a phone on the table. On the screen was a picture of Maren’s convoy after the attack.

"Maren trusted the wrong road. Tobin benefited. Do you want Rust Gate to become a dog under the people who killed its old boss?"

Harlan looked at the picture longer than he needed to.

He had served under Maren long enough to hate him and miss him at the same time. Maren had been cruel, but his cruelty had kept the crew pointed in one direction. Tobin had not earned that weight. He had only taken the empty chair before the blood dried.

"And if I refuse?"

Brant, standing near the door, smiled faintly.

Idris answered instead. "Then you remain a man waiting for Tobin to decide how much power you are allowed to keep."

That was the right wound.

Harlan had not wanted to bow to Tobin. He had only waited because no one strong enough had offered another path.

Now someone had.

Idris did not promise him the whole crew at once. That would have sounded childish. He promised men, money for the first week, and enough outside backing to make doubters think twice before shooting him. In gang politics, that was often more than loyalty.

That night, Harlan’s men moved first. They took one small Rust Gate storage point and declared that Tobin had no right to command from hiding. Niko Varr responded with men of his own. No one called it a civil war yet, but everyone understood what had started.

Rust Gate now had two heads.

One spoke through Niko for Tobin.

The other stood in front of men and called himself the one who would avenge Maren properly.

Bruno received the news before midnight.

For several seconds, he did not speak.

His men watched him carefully.

One of them had a bandage around his left arm. Another kept checking the hallway as if World Zone might walk through the door any second. These were not the confident men who had once followed Bruno to collect money and threaten debtors. They looked like men waiting for their names to be called next.

Bruno looked at the phone again. Three of his outer people were dead or missing. Tobin was alive but losing ground. Rust Gate was splitting exactly where World Zone wanted it to split.

He had wanted the chair above Gonda one day.

Now he was not even sure he could protect the bridge under his own feet.