Chapter 4 - Four Minutes
“Call the bomb team.”
Mateo was already moving.
Luca grabbed the radio.
“No signal underground.”
Mateo looked at the timer.
03:47.
Valentina stared at the monitor.
“Where is the device?”
Sofia clicked through camera feeds.
Nothing.
Training floor.
Locker rooms.
Office corridor.
Storage.
Empty.
Raffaele laughed from the floor where one of Mateo’s men had forced him onto his knees.
“You won’t find it.”
Mateo turned.
“Where?”
Raffaele smiled.
Mateo crossed the room.
Valentina grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Raffaele’s smile widened.
“She thinks she controls you already.”
Mateo ignored him.
Valentina looked at Raffaele.
“You wanted Mateo at the gym at ten fifteen.”
“Yes.”
“The first device would have killed him.”
“Correct.”
“But when it failed, this timer started.”
Raffaele’s face remained calm.
Valentina glanced at the monitor.
03:20.
“What changed?”
No answer.
She looked at the camera grid.
Then understood.
“The bomb isn’t for Mateo.”
Raffaele’s expression shifted.
Mateo looked at her.
“What?”
“The gym is evacuated.”
“Yes.”
“So killing an empty building accomplishes nothing.”
Valentina looked at Raffaele.
“You’re destroying records.”
Sofia stared at the screen.
“The gym servers.”
Mateo’s jaw tightened.
“Financial archive is in the basement server room.”
Valentina nodded.
“That’s what he wants.”
Mateo grabbed Raffaele by the jacket.
“Location.”
Raffaele laughed.
“You’re wasting time.”
03:01.
Mateo released him.
“Luca, take the women upstairs.”
“No,” Valentina said.
Mateo looked at her.
“I’m going back.”
“No.”
“My backup drive is in the server room.”
“Forget the drive.”
“It contains every payment I traced.”
“Then we lose it.”
“It could convict him.”
Mateo’s expression became furious.
“No evidence is worth you entering a building with a bomb.”
Valentina stepped closer.
“No. But if Raffaele walks because every record disappears, Sofia spent seventeen months dead for nothing.”
Sofia whispered, “Vale.”
Valentina looked at her sister.
“You gave up your life for this.”
“I gave it up so you would have one.”
Mateo glanced at the timer.
02:34.
Decision.
He hated it.
“Luca, call the gym. Tell the bomb team server basement.”
Luca ran upstairs.
Mateo took Valentina’s face between his hands.
She froze.
“You are not going there.”
“Mateo—”
“No.”
His voice was not commanding now.
It was afraid.
That changed everything.
Valentina looked into his eyes.
He had faced guns without blinking.
The idea of her walking into the gym frightened him.
“Why?” she whispered.
Mateo stared at her.
No time.
Wrong place.
But lies had already cost them too much.
“Because somewhere between your first argument about quarterly taxes and this morning, you became the person I look for when I walk into a room.”
Valentina forgot the timer.
Forgot Raffaele.
Forgot everything for one dangerous second.
Mateo continued.
“And I am not watching you disappear.”
02:09.
Valentina whispered, “Then come with me.”
Mateo almost cursed.
Instead he smiled once.
“That was manipulative.”
“I learned from management.”
They ran.
Police had reached the first floor.
Detective Daniel Cross shouted questions.
Mateo ignored him.
Luca had signal again.
“Bomb team says they found something in the server level.”
“Status?”
“Can’t disarm remotely.”
Time.
01:42.
The gym was twelve minutes away by car.
Impossible.
Valentina stopped.
“Remote access.”
Mateo turned.
“What?”
“The server room doors are electronic.”
“Yes.”
“I can access them from your office system.”
“The office is damaged.”
“Backup control.”
Sofia understood.
“The social club terminal.”
They ran back downstairs.
Raffaele’s hidden room contained an old administrative computer connected to Fontana’s private network.
Valentina sat.
01:19.
“Password.”
Mateo typed.
Rejected.
“Again.”
Rejected.
Raffaele laughed.
“I changed it.”
Valentina looked at him.
“You’re logged into the camera system.”
“Different network.”
“No.”
She studied the screen.
“You’re tunneling through Mateo’s server.”
Raffaele’s smile faded.
Valentina opened command settings.
Mateo watched.
“You can do this?”
“I spent six years cleaning up your company.”
“That was accounting.”
“I got bored.”
00:51.
Valentina found the device list.
Basement security.
Doors.
Server cooling.
Emergency suppression.
One unknown relay.
“There.”
Mateo leaned closer.
“What?”
“The second device is connected to a maintenance controller.”
“Can you kill power?”
“If I kill everything, maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“It may have battery backup.”
00:31.
Sofia shouted, “Do it.”
Valentina clicked.
SYSTEM WARNING.
FULL SHUTDOWN WILL DISABLE FIRE SUPPRESSION AND ARCHIVE POWER.
Mateo said, “Do it.”
00:19.
Valentina hesitated.
If the device had a battery—
Mateo placed his hand over hers.
“Together.”
She clicked.
The screens went black.
Silence.
Then emergency power came on.
The camera feed returned.
Timer.
00:07.
00:06.
Valentina stopped breathing.
00:05.
00:04.
Mateo pulled her away from the desk.
00:03.
00:02.
00:01.
The timer froze.
No explosion.
Nobody moved.
Sofia started laughing.
Valentina laughed too.
Mateo closed his eyes for one second.
Then the timer reset.
00:30.
Valentina’s laughter died.
Raffaele smiled.
“Battery.”
Mateo looked at her.
“Can you stop it?”
Valentina stared at the screen.
An emergency access prompt appeared.
MANUAL AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
LOCATION: ATHLETIC CLUB BASEMENT.
No remote option.
Mateo grabbed the radio.
“Bomb team?”
Static.
Then a voice.
“We’re at the device.”
“How long?”
“Need thirty seconds.”
Mateo looked at the timer.
Twenty-three.
“Make it twenty.”
Silence.
Valentina gripped Mateo’s hand.
The radio crackled.
“Cutting primary.”
“Secondary trigger.”
Valentina shut her eyes.
The screen turned black.
A distant rumble came through the phone line.
Then nothing.
Mateo grabbed the radio.
“Report.”
Static.
“Report!”
Finally—
“Device safe.”
Valentina’s knees gave out.
Mateo caught her.
For several seconds she stayed against him.
No pride.
No argument.
Just relief.
Then Detective Cross entered the room.
He took one look at Raffaele.
“Well.”
Raffaele smiled.
“Detective.”
Cross looked at Mateo.
“Tell me this isn’t what it looks like.”
Mateo glanced around at hostages, guns, hidden servers, and his uncle on the floor.
“What does it look like?”
“Like paperwork.”
Mateo almost laughed.
Cross handcuffed Raffaele.
“You are under arrest for kidnapping, conspiracy, attempted murder, and several other things I’m going to enjoy explaining slowly.”
Raffaele looked at Valentina.
“You think this ends because I’m arrested?”
She said nothing.
He smiled.
“You still don’t know who sent your warning.”
Valentina froze.
Sofia stared at him.
“You sent it.”
“No.”
“You knew about ten fifteen.”
“I scheduled ten fifteen.”
Raffaele’s eyes settled on Valentina.
“But someone else warned her.”
Mateo stepped closer.
Raffaele continued.
“Someone who knew about Sofia.”
Luca entered behind Cross.
Dust covered his jacket.
Raffaele looked at him and laughed.
“You should ask your loyal dog where he was the night Antonio Fontana died.”
Mateo’s expression changed.
Luca stopped.
Cross frowned.
“What is he talking about?”
Raffaele smiled.
Mateo looked directly at Luca.
“My father died at home.”
Luca said nothing.
“Heart attack.”
Still nothing.
Mateo’s voice lowered.
“Luca.”
Luca looked older suddenly.
“I was there.”
Mateo went still.
“You told me you arrived afterward.”
“I lied.”
Elena Fontana whispered his name.
“Luca.”
Mateo stared at the man who had practically raised him.
“What happened that night?”
Raffaele laughed softly.
“Tell him.”
Luca looked at Mateo.
“I found Antonio with someone.”
“Who?”
“I never saw the face.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“They left through the garden.”
“What happened to my father?”
Luca swallowed.
“He was alive when I arrived.”
Mateo’s eyes hardened.
“And?”
“He gave me something.”
Luca reached slowly into his jacket.
Security reacted.
“Easy,” he said.
He removed a small sealed envelope.
Old.
Yellowed.
Mateo stared.
“You’ve had that for three years?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Antonio told me not to give it to you unless someone reopened room seventeen.”
Mateo looked at the envelope.
Valentina felt something cold crawl through her.
Raffaele’s smile disappeared.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Mateo noticed.
He opened the envelope.
Inside was one photograph.
Valentina saw Mateo’s face drain of color.
“What?” she asked.
He turned it around.
The photograph showed Antonio Fontana standing beside a young woman.
The woman was holding a newborn baby.
On the back, Antonio had written one sentence.
Mateo read it twice.
Then he slowly looked at Valentina.
Her heart stopped.
May you like
The sentence said:
THE CHILD IS AN ESPOSITO.
