Chapter 4 - The Dead Man's Face
For several seconds, Dante couldn't speak.
The man standing inside his office had his father's eyes.
His father's nose.
His father's scar beneath the chin.
Even the same habit of holding his left shoulder slightly lower than his right.
But Samuel's warning came back immediately.
Don't believe the first thing he tells you.
Dante remained in the doorway.
"Who are you?"
The man smiled.
"That's disappointing."
"My father would be sixty-eight."
"I am sixty-eight."
"He wouldn't look fifty-five."
The smile disappeared.
Good.
Dante stepped closer.
"Who are you?"
The stranger reached toward his face.
He peeled a thin prosthetic layer from one cheek.
Dante stared.
Beneath it was an older man he recognized.
Not immediately.
Then memory arrived.
"Gabriel Voss."
The father of Elias Voss.
The boy Dante had spared.
Gabriel removed the rest of the disguise.
His natural face was leaner.
Gray-haired.
Marked by age.
Dante's shock became anger.
"Where is Vincent's shooter?"
"Gone."
"Where's Luca?"
"Alive."
"For how long?"
"Depends on you."
Dante crossed the office.
Gabriel didn't move.
"You touched Harper."
"I didn't."
"Your people did."
"They aren't my people."
"Then whose?"
Gabriel sighed.
"Still asking the wrong question."
Dante grabbed his coat.
"You have five seconds."
"Northstar."
Dante's grip tightened.
"Northstar isn't a person."
"Exactly."
Dante released him.
Gabriel adjusted his collar.
"Your father made the same mistake. He spent years looking for a leader."
"Someone gives orders."
"Many people give orders."
"Someone sits at the top."
"Not anymore."
Dante frowned.
Gabriel moved toward the desk.
"Northstar survived because it became decentralized. One branch handles finance. Another enforcement. Another government protection. Another transport. Nobody knows everyone."
"Then why attack Harper?"
"Because she found the ledger linking three branches."
"Where?"
"That's what they want you to lead them to."
Dante stared.
Gabriel continued.
"Harper is good with patterns. Better than anyone expected. She found irregularities your own accountants ignored for years."
"Why do you know so much about her?"
"Because I've been watching your organization."
"That isn't reassuring."
"It wasn't meant to be."
Dante's phone buzzed.
A message from the hospital security chief.
HARPER REED REQUESTING YOU.
He called her immediately.
Her voice came weakly.
"Dante?"
"I'm here."
"Where?"
"Office."
"You found Vincent?"
"Alive."
"Good."
A pause.
"Something happened."
Dante's posture changed.
"What?"
"They brought my phone."
"Who?"
"Police officer."
"What officer?"
"I don't know."
"Do not touch it."
"Too late."
Dante closed his eyes.
"What happened?"
"It turned on by itself."
Gabriel listened.
"What did it show?" Dante asked.
"A calendar entry."
"When?"
"Tomorrow."
"What does it say?"
Harper hesitated.
"Luca Moretti. Pier 19. 6:00 A.M."
Dante looked at the clock.
4:18.
Less than two hours.
"Anything else?"
"Yes."
"What?"
"'Bring the key.'"
Dante looked toward Gabriel.
"Which key?"
"417."
Dante lowered the phone.
Gabriel shook his head.
"It's a trap."
"Obviously."
"Then don't go."
"My brother is there."
"They expect you to say that."
Dante turned away.
Harper's voice came through the phone.
"Dante."
"Yes."
"I remembered something else."
"What?"
"The man who attacked me."
Dante waited.
"He had a tattoo on his wrist."
"What kind?"
"A small black star."
Gabriel's face changed.
Dante saw it.
"You know it."
Gabriel didn't answer.
Dante stepped toward him.
"What does the star mean?"
Gabriel looked away.
"Old Northstar field operatives."
"Old?"
"They haven't used that mark in a decade."
"Someone clearly does."
"No."
Gabriel's expression had gone genuinely frightened.
"That's impossible."
Dante hated that word.
He had heard it too many times tonight.
"Why?"
"Because your father ordered every marked operative killed."
Dante stared.
"My father?"
Gabriel nodded.
"He wasn't only investigating Northstar."
"What was he?"
"For a time?"
Gabriel met his eyes.
"He ran its enforcement division."
Silence.
Dante's father had been many things.
Criminal.
Smuggler.
Violent man.
Terrible husband.
Protective father.
But Dante had never known this.
"Why did he turn against them?"
"You and Luca."
"Explain."
"Northstar wanted succession. They believed bloodlines made organizations stable."
Dante's jaw clenched.
"They wanted me."
"They wanted both of you."
"And my father refused."
"Eventually."
"Eventually?"
Gabriel looked uncomfortable.
"He originally agreed."
Dante took a step forward.
Gabriel quickly continued.
"Then your mother discovered what Northstar actually did. Trafficking. Political assassinations. Children moved through shipping routes."
Dante felt sick.
"She threatened to expose them."
"My mother died in a car accident."
"No."
The word landed like a gunshot.
Gabriel looked directly at him.
"Your mother's death was Northstar's warning."
Dante said nothing.
"Your father understood too late. He began collecting evidence. He tried to dismantle them. That's why they killed him."
"And Elias?"
"My son was a courier."
"You sent him?"
"No. They recruited him."
Dante remembered Elias at eighteen.
Thin.
Terrified.
Holding an empty messenger bag.
Dante had been expected to execute him.
He hadn't.
"Where is Elias now?"
Gabriel's eyes shifted.
Dante noticed.
"Where?"
"I haven't seen my son in thirteen years."
"Lie."
"I swear."
Dante studied him.
The phone rang again.
Harper.
He answered immediately.
"Dante, someone just delivered flowers."
"Throw them away."
"Already told the nurse."
"But?"
"There was a card."
"Read it."
Harper's voice trembled.
"'You should have stayed a secretary.'"
Dante's expression went empty.
Gabriel whispered something.
Dante looked at him.
"What?"
"They know she's awake."
Dante spoke into the phone.
"Harper, listen to me. Nobody enters your room except Dr. Keane. Nobody. Security stays inside now."
"Dante—"
"I'm coming back."
"What about Luca?"
"I'll handle it."
He disconnected.
Gabriel said, "If you go to Pier 19, you'll expose yourself."
"They already know where I am."
"They want something more."
"The key."
"No."
Gabriel's eyes moved toward Dante's chest.
"The person carrying it."
Dante understood.
"They want me alive."
"For now."
"Why?"
"Because the key only opens the first lock."
Dante lifted it.
"What opens the second?"
Gabriel's answer came quietly.
"Your blood."
At 5:42 A.M., Dante stood in a warehouse overlooking Pier 19.
Vincent, his shoulder bandaged, had refused the hospital.
Samuel Kane had joined them.
Gabriel stood under armed guard.
Nobody trusted anybody.
Which meant, Dante thought, they were finally thinking clearly.
The pier below looked abandoned.
At exactly 5:58, headlights appeared.
A black van stopped.
Two masked men stepped out.
Then Luca.
Hands bound.
Alive.
Dante's younger brother looked furious rather than frightened.
Typical.
One masked man held a phone.
Dante's rang.
"Bring the key," a distorted voice said.
"Release my brother."
"Bring the key."
"You have five minutes before this pier fills with police."
The voice laughed.
"You won't call police."
"Try me."
"You should ask Harper why."
The line disconnected.
Dante frowned.
Samuel said, "What?"
"They mentioned Harper."
Vincent looked at him.
"Why would Harper care about police?"
Dante already knew the answer wasn't simple.
He called her.
No response.
Again.
Nothing.
His security chief answered instead.
"Boss."
"Where's Harper?"
Silence.
Dante's heartbeat changed.
"Where is she?"
"She's gone."
"What?"
"We had two men inside the room."
"And?"
"They're unconscious."
Dante turned slowly.
"How?"
"Someone sedated them."
"Security cameras?"
"Looped."
"Harper can't walk properly."
"We know."
"Then somebody took her."
Another voice came onto the line.
Female.
Weak.
Harper.
"Dante."
He froze.
"Harper?"
"I'm okay."
"Where are you?"
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I remembered where 417 is."
Dante looked down at the key.
"Tell me."
"I couldn't risk saying it at the hospital."
"Harper, where are you?"
Her breathing trembled.
Then she gave him an address.
Dante knew it immediately.
His childhood home.
The townhouse in the photograph.
The building had been abandoned for twelve years.
Harper whispered:
"I'm inside."
A floorboard creaked through the phone.
She stopped breathing.
Dante heard another sound.
A door opening.
Then a man's voice behind her said:
May you like
"Hello, Harper."
The call ended.
