Chapter 3 - The Price of Mercy
"Mom!"
Eli lunged toward the phone.
Gabriel caught him.
Silas laughed softly through the speaker.
"There's my little problem."
Gabriel's voice remained controlled.
"Let her go."
"Still giving orders."
"You wanted me."
"I did. Before you survived."
Gabriel looked toward Dominic.
"Where is she?"
"Safe enough."
"Silas."
"Midnight. Black Hollow Mill."
Gabriel knew the place.
"You bring the boy."
"No."
"Then his mother dies."
Eli stared at Gabriel.
Silas continued.
"Interesting, isn't it? A week ago you would've let a hundred strangers die to protect your empire."
Gabriel said nothing.
"And now you're freezing in an abandoned mine because one child dug you out of the snow."
The call ended.
Eli grabbed Gabriel's coat.
"We have to go."
"No."
"That's my mom!"
"I know."
"You said you'd protect us!"
"I am."
"By leaving her there?"
Gabriel crouched.
"If I bring you, Silas kills both of you."
"You don't know that."
"I know him."
"He's your friend."
"Was."
Eli's eyes filled.
"Then fix it."
Three words.
Simple.
Impossible.
Gabriel had commanded hundreds of men.
He had ordered businesses closed with a phone call.
He had ended wars before breakfast.
Yet this child expected him to fix the world because he had said he would.
Gabriel looked at Dominic.
"Get me a map."
They planned for forty minutes.
Black Hollow Mill had been abandoned for eleven years.
Three entrances.
Two usable.
Silas would expect Gabriel from the south.
So Gabriel would enter from underneath.
Walter insisted on coming.
"No."
"She's my daughter."
"And Eli needs you."
Walter looked toward his grandson.
That ended the argument.
Dominic assembled six loyal men.
Gabriel studied each face.
"Silas betrayed me because someone gave him access."
Nobody spoke.
"He knew my route. My security rotation. The winter house."
Dominic frowned.
"You think someone else is involved."
"I know someone is."
"Who?"
Gabriel looked at his brother.
"That's what we're going to find out."
At 11:42 p.m., they reached the mill.
Snow fell harder.
Gabriel and Dominic entered through a drainage tunnel.
Two guards went down silently.
They reached the main floor.
Eli's mother, Sarah Carter, sat tied to a chair under a hanging industrial light.
Silas stood behind her.
He was alone.
Too alone.
Gabriel stepped into view.
"Where's the boy?" Silas asked.
"Safe."
Silas sighed.
"You always were sentimental in the strangest ways."
"You buried me alive."
"I tried shooting you first."
Gabriel's expression didn't change.
"Sarah goes."
"No."
"Then we have nothing to discuss."
Silas smiled.
"You're missing the point."
Men appeared on the catwalk.
Ten.
Maybe twelve.
Dominic whispered, "Trap."
Gabriel already knew.
Silas stepped around Sarah.
"Do you know why they call you Reaper?"
Gabriel remained silent.
"Because everyone believes death follows you."
Silas smiled.
"But death doesn't follow you, Gabriel."
He raised his gun.
"You bring it."
Gunfire erupted.
Gabriel pulled Sarah's chair behind machinery.
Dominic fired toward the catwalk.
Lights shattered.
Darkness swallowed the mill.
Gabriel cut Sarah's restraints.
"Eli?"
"Safe."
"Where?"
"With his grandfather."
Sarah slapped him.
Hard.
Gabriel stared.
"That's for bringing this into his life."
"Fair."
Then she grabbed his arm.
"And that's for saving him."
They moved.
Dominic's men pushed through the east corridor.
Silas escaped toward the loading floor.
Gabriel pursued him.
They collided beside an old conveyor.
Silas swung first.
Gabriel blocked him.
Both men crashed against the machinery.
"You were supposed to freeze!" Silas shouted.
Gabriel drove him backward.
"Disappointed?"
Silas pulled a knife.
Gabriel caught his wrist.
They struggled.
Then Dominic appeared.
"Drop it!"
Silas laughed.
"You still don't understand."
"Understand what?"
Silas looked directly at Dominic.
"He doesn't know."
Gabriel froze.
Dominic's face changed.
Only slightly.
But Gabriel saw it.
Silas saw it too.
"Ask your brother who approved the hit."
Gabriel turned.
"Dominic?"
Silas moved.
Gabriel struck him before he could escape.
Silas hit the floor.
Dominic raised his gun.
"Don't."
Gabriel looked at him.
"Don't what?"
"Listen to him."
Silas laughed through bloodied lips.
"Tell him."
Dominic's gun shifted.
Not toward Silas.
Toward Gabriel.
For the first time that night, Gabriel looked genuinely shocked.
Sarah saw it.
So did Silas.
Dominic's hand trembled.
"I didn't want you dead."
Gabriel's voice became quiet.
"You gave him my route."
"I thought he'd scare you."
"You gave him my route."
"You wouldn't leave the organization!"
"So you sold me?"
"No!"
Silas laughed again.
"Brothers."
Gabriel's eyes never left Dominic.
"How long?"
Dominic lowered the weapon.
"Three months."
Gabriel looked wounded in a way no beating could have accomplished.
Sarah whispered, "Gabriel."
Then alarms sounded outside.
More vehicles.
Silas smiled.
"Those aren't mine."
Gabriel looked toward the windows.
Red and blue lights appeared through the snow.
Police.
Federal vehicles.
Too many.
Dominic whispered, "Who called them?"
Silas's smile disappeared.
Gabriel understood.
There had always been another player.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
YOU SURVIVED SILAS.
NOW SURVIVE YOUR BROTHER.
Attached was a photograph taken less than a minute earlier.
It showed Walter's cabin.
May you like
Eli stood visible through the window.
And behind him, inside the house, stood a man none of them recognized.
