Chapter 2 - The Black Dot
Adrian closed the ledger before Victor entered.
“What happened?” Victor asked.
“Clara disappeared.”
Victor's eyebrows rose.
“With the child?”
“Yes.”
“That's concerning.”
Adrian studied him.
“Is it?”
Victor met his gaze.
“Why wouldn't it be?”
Adrian had spent years interrogating men.
Victor had taught him half of what he knew.
That made Victor almost impossible to read.
Almost.
“Find Clara,” Adrian said.
Victor nodded.
“And Sophia?”
“What about her?”
“You've been questioning her.”
Adrian's gaze sharpened.
“How do you know?”
Victor paused.
“I saw her leave your office crying.”
Reasonable.
Too reasonable.
“Go home, Victor.”
“Adrian—”
“That's an order.”
Something hardened in Victor's face.
Then it disappeared.
“Call me if you need me.”
After he left, Adrian reopened the ledger.
The entry beside Victor's name contained three words:
BLACK DOT — HALCYON.
Below that:
If anything happens to me, do not trust the man who tells you Halcyon is dead.
Adrian read it twice.
His father had died eleven years ago.
Officially, a heart attack.
Victor had been the one who found him.
Victor had also been the one who told Adrian that Halcyon—an intelligence network that had infiltrated criminal organizations along the East Coast—had collapsed years earlier.
Adrian closed his eyes.
Coincidence was a luxury he had never afforded himself.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Clara and Emma were sitting inside a car.
Alive.
Beneath it:
DON'T SEARCH FOR US.
Then another message arrived.
ASK SOPHIA WHO HER BROTHER IS.
Adrian immediately called the number.
Disconnected.
He returned upstairs.
Sophia was gone.
Her engagement ring lay on his desk.
Beside it was a note.
I am sorry.
That hurt more than Adrian expected.
He called security.
Nobody had seen Sophia leave.
Then he checked the cameras.
At 12:17 a.m., the west corridor camera went black for precisely eighty-three seconds.
When the feed returned, Sophia was gone.
Only three people had unrestricted access to the security system.
Adrian.
His security chief Daniel.
And Victor.
By dawn, Adrian had Daniel sitting across from him.
“Did Victor ask you to disable anything?”
“No.”
“Did you follow the stranger?”
Daniel looked confused.
“What stranger?”
Adrian became very still.
“Last night. Victor said you drove.”
“I went home at eleven.”
The lie Victor had told became suddenly enormous.
“Who did Victor leave with?”
“No one. I saw him near the kitchen around ten.”
Adrian stood.
The silver-haired stranger had supposedly escaped at 9:42.
Victor claimed he had chased him.
But Victor had never left.
“Get me everything from the kitchen cameras.”
Daniel returned twenty minutes later.
“There’s a problem.”
“What?”
“Someone deleted them.”
“When?”
“2:13 this morning.”
“Who accessed the system?”
Daniel looked sick.
“Your credentials.”
Adrian had been in his father's study at 2:13.
Someone had cloned his access.
The black dot was no longer a warning from the past.
It was operating inside his home.
At noon, Adrian received a package.
No return address.
Inside was an old photograph.
His father stood outside a warehouse with four younger men.
One was Victor.
One was Adrian's uncle Dominic, dead for fourteen years.
The third was unfamiliar.
The fourth made Adrian stop breathing.
It was the silver-haired stranger.
Twenty years younger.
Same scar.
On the back:
THE MAN YOU DON'T KNOW IS THE ONE YOUR FATHER DIED PROTECTING.
Adrian turned the photograph toward the light.
There was writing beneath the sentence.
A name.
LUCA BENNETT.
Bennett.
Sophia Bennett.
Adrian reached for his phone.
Before he could dial, Emma's drawing pad caught his attention.
He had brought it from Clara's apartment.
One page was thicker than the others.
Two sheets had been glued together.
Adrian carefully separated them.
Inside was another drawing.
Emma had drawn Victor beside the silver-haired man.
Between them was a table.
Under it, in a child's uneven handwriting, were four words.
MR. VICTOR GAVE HIM MONEY.
Adrian stared.
Emma had not simply seen Sophia holding Luca's hand.
She had seen Victor with him.
His phone rang.
Sophia.
Adrian answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
Her breathing was ragged.
“Don't speak. Just listen.”
“Are you safe?”
“For now.”
“Luca Bennett is your brother.”
Silence.
Then Sophia whispered, “You found the photograph.”
“Why did you tell me he was dead?”
“Because I thought he was.”
“Where are you?”
“Adrian, Victor is not who you think.”
“I know.”
“No. You don't.”
A sound came through the line.
A door opening.
Sophia inhaled sharply.
“What happened?”
“He found me.”
“Who?”
Sophia's voice dropped.
“If Victor discovers Luca survived, he'll finish what he started twenty years ago.”
The connection crackled.
Then Adrian heard a man's voice in the background.
Not Victor.
The silver-haired stranger.
Luca.
“Sophia, hang up.”
“Wait—”
A struggle.
The phone struck something.
Adrian shouted her name.
Then another voice came through.
Victor's.
Perfectly calm.
“Adrian.”
Adrian froze.
“Where is she?”
Victor ignored the question.
“You opened your father's ledger, didn't you?”
Adrian said nothing.
Victor exhaled.
“I was hoping you never would.”
May you like
A gunshot exploded through the phone.
Then the line went dead.
