Chapter 5 - The Man Her Mother Feared
The man inside the closet raised both hands.
"Don't shoot."
Lucian already had a weapon aimed at him.
Evelyn stared.
The stranger was perhaps sixty, thin, gray-haired, bleeding from one side.
Her mother's badge hung from his fingers.
"Who are you?"
His eyes filled with something painful.
"My name is Thomas Hart."
Evelyn stopped breathing.
"Hart?"
"I'm your uncle."
"No."
"Your father's brother."
"My father had no brother."
"That's what Diane told you."
Lucian stepped forward.
"Why were you hiding in her closet?"
"Because the men outside weren't the only ones following Sofia."
Thomas slowly handed Evelyn the badge.
"Diane gave me this the night she died."
Evelyn's throat closed.
"My mother died from an aneurysm."
Thomas looked at her.
"No."
One word.
Everything Evelyn believed shifted.
"What happened?"
"Diane was murdered."
Evelyn sat down.
She didn't choose to.
Her knees simply stopped holding her.
Lucian moved beside her.
Not touching.
Just there.
Thomas continued.
"Your mother spent years hiding the archive. After Alessandro died, she thought the network would collapse. Instead, Dominic expanded it."
"Did Dominic kill her?"
"No."
Lucian's attention sharpened.
"Then who?"
Thomas looked toward the two memory cards.
"The person above Dominic."
"There is someone above him?"
"Always was."
Thomas's eyes moved to Lucian.
"Your father knew."
"Name."
"I don't know."
Lucian stepped closer.
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I spent eighteen years trying to learn it."
Evelyn held the nursing badge tightly.
"Why didn't you come to me?"
"Because Diane made me promise."
"She was dead."
"And the people who killed her weren't."
That ended the argument.
Thomas pointed toward the memory cards.
"Those are encrypted separately. Together they'll reveal most of the network."
"Most?" Lucian asked.
"The command identity isn't stored digitally."
"Why?"
"Because Alessandro knew whoever ran the network could access anything electronic."
Evelyn whispered, "Then where is it?"
Thomas looked at her.
"Diane had the name."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Lucian's phone rang.
Marcus.
"Sofia's been taken."
Lucian's face hardened.
"How?"
"Cameras show two men forcing her into a service van behind the building."
"Plate?"
"Stolen."
"Dominic?"
"Still missing."
Lucian looked at Thomas.
"Where would they take her?"
Thomas shook his head.
"I don't know."
Evelyn stood.
"The archive."
Lucian looked at her.
"If they wanted Sofia dead, they could have killed her upstairs."
Thomas nodded.
"They need something from her."
"Her half was already here," Evelyn said.
Lucian looked at the card.
"So they don't know she left it."
Evelyn's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A text.
BRING BOTH CARDS TO PIER 19.
COME WITH LUCIAN.
NO POLICE.
OR SOFIA DIES.
A photograph followed.
Sofia tied to a chair.
Alive.
Lucian read the message.
"We're going."
Thomas grabbed his arm.
"That's exactly what they want."
Lucian looked at him.
"They have my wife."
"Former wife?"
Lucian's gaze turned murderous.
Thomas corrected himself immediately.
"They have Sofia."
Evelyn watched Lucian.
There was no question.
Whatever had happened between him and Sofia, he would go.
And Evelyn understood something unexpected.
The emotion she felt wasn't jealousy.
It was respect.
Lucian could be furious with Sofia and still refuse to abandon her.
"Copy the cards," Evelyn said.
Thomas shook his head.
"Encryption detects duplication."
"Then fake them."
"Impossible."
Lucian removed them from the laptop.
"We take the real ones."
Evelyn stared.
"You can't."
"I can."
"Those cards could expose the people who killed your father and my mother."
"And they're currently bargaining with Sofia's life."
Evelyn looked at him.
Then nodded.
"Fine."
Lucian frowned.
"Fine?"
"People first."
Something passed between them.
He understood.
Pier 19 was dark when they arrived shortly before four.
Lucian had ignored the no-security instruction, but his men stayed several blocks away.
Evelyn went with him.
He had argued.
She had won by refusing to leave the car.
A warehouse door stood open.
Inside, Sofia sat beneath a hanging lamp.
Dominic stood beside her.
No smile now.
"Lucian."
"Release her."
"Cards first."
Lucian held them up.
Dominic's eyes fixed on them.
Evelyn watched Sofia.
Sofia's gaze flicked toward a catwalk above them.
Warning.
Evelyn followed it.
A sniper.
She quietly touched Lucian's arm.
He understood.
Dominic extended his hand.
"Throw them."
Lucian did.
The cards slid across the concrete.
Dominic picked them up.
"Three years," Lucian said. "You helped them hide Sofia."
Dominic examined the cards.
"I helped her disappear."
"Why?"
"Because the network wanted her dead."
"You worked for them."
"I still do."
"Then why save her?"
Dominic looked tired.
"Because not everything is simple."
"Make it simple."
Dominic sighed.
"Your father discovered the person controlling the network was someone he loved."
Lucian's expression changed.
"Who?"
Dominic looked at Evelyn.
"Diane knew."
"So you killed her."
"No."
"Who did?"
Before Dominic could answer, a shot cracked.
Dominic staggered.
Blood spread across his shirt.
The sniper had fired.
Chaos erupted.
Lucian pulled Evelyn behind a crate.
A second shot shattered the light.
Darkness.
Sofia screamed.
Lucian's security stormed the warehouse.
Gunfire erupted above.
Evelyn crawled toward Sofia.
"Get down!"
She cut the rope around Sofia's wrists with a piece of broken metal.
Lucian dragged Dominic behind cover.
"You don't get to die yet."
Dominic coughed.
"Never thought... you'd say that."
"Who runs the network?"
Dominic laughed weakly.
"You still don't see."
"Tell me."
Dominic looked at Evelyn.
"Ask her uncle."
Lucian turned.
Thomas had followed them.
He stood in the warehouse entrance.
His face looked devastated.
Dominic whispered, "Thomas knows exactly who's above me."
Evelyn stared at her uncle.
Thomas raised his hands.
"He's lying."
Dominic shook his head.
"No."
Another shot struck nearby.
Dominic gasped.
"Thomas Hart isn't Evelyn's uncle."
Evelyn felt the world tilt.
"What?"
Dominic looked directly at her.
"His real name..."
Blood filled his mouth.
Lucian grabbed his jacket.
"Say it."
Dominic struggled for breath.
"Thomas Vale."
Lucian went completely still.
Evelyn stared at Thomas.
Thomas's face changed.
Not surprise.
Acceptance.
Dominic whispered one final sentence.
"He's Alessandro's brother."
Then the warehouse lights came back on.
May you like
Thomas was gone.
And so were both memory cards.
