Chapter 2 - The Man I Called Brother
Adrian did not step away from the door.
Emma's breathing became shallow behind him.
Lucas remained outside.
"Adrian," he said. "Open the door."
Emma whispered, "Don't."
Lucas heard her.
"There she is."
Adrian looked back.
Emma shook her head urgently.
"He's lying."
"About what?"
"Everything."
Lucas struck the door once with his palm.
"She's not a maid."
Emma's face drained of color.
Adrian noticed.
That reaction mattered.
He kept his voice even.
"Lucas, step away from the door."
"You don't understand what's happening."
"Then explain it."
"Not through a locked door."
"Start anyway."
Silence followed.
Then Lucas spoke.
"The woman with you is Emma Brooks."
Adrian glanced at Emma.
She said nothing.
"Her father was Daniel Brooks," Lucas continued. "He worked for Vale Security fourteen years ago."
Emma closed her eyes.
Adrian waited.
Lucas added, "He died after stealing confidential files from your father."
Emma's head snapped up.
"That's a lie."
Adrian lifted one hand.
She stopped.
"Lucas," he said, "why are armed men searching my house?"
Another pause.
"They're not mine."
Adrian almost smiled.
"Their radio says otherwise."
"What exactly did you hear?"
"Mercer wants Vale alive."
Lucas cursed under his breath.
"Adrian, somebody is using my name."
"Convenient."
"I came here because I found out about the breach twenty minutes ago."
"The gates were opened with an authorized code."
"I know."
"Yours?"
"No."
"You still wear the signet ring."
Lucas didn't answer.
Adrian looked toward Emma.
She stared at the pistol as though unsure whether she should lower it.
Lucas finally said, "My ring was stolen three days ago."
Emma gave a bitter laugh.
"Of course it was."
"Ask her why she applied to work this event under a false reference."
Adrian looked directly at Emma.
"Did you?"
Her silence answered first.
"Emma."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"My real application would have been rejected."
"Why?"
"Because of my father."
Lucas spoke through the door.
"Because her family has spent fourteen years blaming yours."
Emma stepped closer.
"My father didn't steal anything."
"He was caught with company files."
"He was trying to expose someone."
"Who?"
Emma looked at Adrian.
"Your father."
The name changed the room.
Charles Vale had been dead six years.
To the public, he remained a legendary industrialist and philanthropist.
To Adrian, he had been a brilliant, ruthless man who considered affection a weakness.
"Explain."
Emma hesitated.
"My father was responsible for internal security. He found evidence that money from Vale shipping subsidiaries was being moved through shell companies. Millions at first. Then hundreds of millions."
Adrian's expression tightened.
"Our audits never found that."
"Because the auditors were being paid."
Lucas spoke through the door.
"She's repeating a conspiracy theory."
Emma ignored him.
"My father copied the records. He planned to go to federal investigators."
"What happened?"
"He died."
Adrian already knew the official story.
Daniel Brooks had driven off a bridge in Connecticut after allegedly stealing company data.
His body was recovered two days later.
"Accident," Adrian said.
"No."
Emma's eyes filled with anger.
"Murder."
Adrian looked at the door.
Lucas remained silent.
"Why tonight?" Adrian asked Emma.
"Because three weeks ago, someone mailed me a package."
"What was inside?"
"A photograph of my father."
"That's it?"
"No."
She reached under the collar of her uniform and removed a thin chain.
Attached was a tiny brass key.
"There was this."
Adrian took it.
Stamped into the metal were the same numbers.
The service room.
"What does it open?"
"I don't know."
"Then why were you in room 417?"
"Because those numbers were written on the package."
Lucas suddenly said, "Adrian, listen carefully. The men in this building want whatever that key opens."
Emma looked stunned.
"You know about it."
Lucas said nothing.
"You know," she repeated.
Adrian's gaze hardened.
"Lucas?"
A heavy impact sounded at the far end of the hallway.
Someone shouted.
Then gunfire.
Two suppressed shots.
Lucas cursed.
"They found me."
Adrian opened the door.
Emma grabbed his arm.
"What are you doing?"
"If Lucas wanted me dead, he wouldn't announce himself."
The door swung open.
Lucas Mercer stood there in a black tuxedo.
Forty years old.
Tall.
Dark hair.
Blood streaked one sleeve.
No signet ring.
And no weapon.
He shoved inside.
"Lock it."
Adrian did.
Emma kept the gun trained on him.
Lucas barely glanced at her.
"Nice uniform."
"Screw you."
"Later."
Adrian stepped between them.
"Talk."
Lucas pulled back his sleeve.
A bullet had grazed his upper arm.
"They're moving through the east wing."
"Who are they?"
"Contractors."
"For whom?"
"I don't know."
"Try again."
Lucas looked at Adrian.
"I know who paid them."
"Who?"
"Vale Meridian Holdings."
Adrian stared at him.
That company was part of his own corporate group.
Dormant.
It existed only to hold legacy assets.
"That's impossible."
"I thought so too."
Lucas removed a folded printout from inside his tuxedo jacket.
"Six days ago, someone reactivated an account connected to Meridian. Four million dollars moved into a private security firm in Zurich."
Emma said, "Who authorized it?"
Lucas looked at Adrian.
"His signature."
Adrian took the paper.
It was his digital authorization.
Perfect.
Except he had never signed it.
"Forgery."
"Yes."
"Who had access?"
"Three people."
"Names."
"Me. Your chief financial officer. And you."
Adrian thought of Gregory Shaw, his CFO.
Gregory was currently in the ballroom.
Or had been.
"Where's Shaw?"
"Missing."
Emma lowered the pistol slightly.
Lucas noticed.
"That's progress."
"Don't get comfortable."
Adrian scanned the payment document.
Something in the account reference caught his attention.
A six-digit number.
April 8, 2017.
The date his sister Elena had died.
Adrian's expression froze.
Lucas saw it.
"I noticed."
"Why use that date?"
"I don't know."
Emma asked softly, "What happened that day?"
Adrian folded the document.
"My sister died."
"How?"
"Car accident."
Emma's face changed.
Adrian noticed instantly.
"What?"
"My father's accident happened April eighth."
Lucas stared at her.
"What year?"
"2012."
Five years earlier.
Same date.
Adrian felt the shape of something old and ugly forming beneath the night's violence.
Different deaths.
Same date.
Same corporate network.
"That can't be coincidence," Emma said.
"No," Adrian replied.
"It isn't."
The emergency phone vibrated.
Another message.
Adrian opened it.
A video.
Live feed.
The ballroom.
The stage was empty now.
Guests were beginning to notice that exits weren't opening.
A senator argued with a guard.
A woman tried another door.
The atmosphere was changing.
Then the camera zoomed.
A man stood near the center of the ballroom.
Gregory Shaw.
Adrian's missing CFO.
He looked directly toward the hidden camera.
Raised his champagne glass.
And smiled.
A text appeared beneath the video.
MIDNIGHT. BRING THE GIRL AND THE KEY.
Emma backed away.
Lucas whispered, "They know she's with you."
Adrian studied the clock.
9:43 p.m.
They had a little more than two hours.
"Where does the key lead?"
Emma said, "I don't know."
Lucas looked at it.
"I might."
Both turned toward him.
Lucas pointed toward the brass key.
"Charles Vale kept private archive boxes beneath the original wine cellar. Different locks. Different keys."
Adrian frowned.
"My father emptied those archives before he died."
"No."
Lucas looked uneasy.
"He told you he did."
Adrian's anger sharpened.
"You knew?"
"I knew one room remained sealed."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because your father made me promise."
Emma laughed in disbelief.
"There it is."
Lucas glared at her.
"Not everything is a conspiracy."
"Four gunmen are inside his house."
"Which is exactly why we don't open whatever they're trying to reach."
Adrian took the key.
"If they want it, I want to know why."
Lucas shook his head.
"Bad idea."
"Then stay here."
Adrian moved toward a bookcase.
Behind it was an old servant lift.
Emma followed.
Lucas cursed and followed them both.
They descended to the basement.
The estate became colder below ground.
Stone replaced paneled walls.
The narrow passage smelled of wine and dust.
Adrian led them past the modern cellar toward a bricked archway.
Lucas stopped.
"There."
A steel door was hidden behind racks of Bordeaux.
Adrian pulled the racks aside.
The lock was tiny.
Brass.
Emma inserted the key.
It fit.
She looked at Adrian.
"Ready?"
"No."
"Good."
She turned it.
The lock clicked.
Inside was a narrow archive room.
Shelves lined the walls.
Most were empty.
Only one black case sat beneath a hanging lamp.
Emma stepped toward it.
A label had been taped across the lid.
DANIEL BROOKS.
Her knees nearly gave out.
"My father."
Adrian caught her elbow.
Lucas stared at the box.
"This should not exist."
Emma touched the lid.
Then stopped.
"There's something underneath."
Adrian crouched.
A second label had been stuck beneath the first.
Older.
Almost hidden.
He peeled back the Daniel Brooks label.
The original name appeared.
ELENA VALE.
Adrian stopped breathing.
His dead sister's name was written across the box.
Emma whispered, "Why would my father's key open something belonging to your sister?"
Adrian lifted the lid.
Inside sat a hard drive.
A photograph.
And an envelope.
The photograph showed Elena and Daniel Brooks standing beside each other.
Alive.
Smiling.
Taken only weeks before Daniel's death.
Emma covered her mouth.
Adrian opened the envelope.
One sentence had been written inside.
ADRIAN, IF YOU FOUND THIS, LUCAS FAILED TO KEEP YOU AWAY.
Adrian slowly lifted his eyes.
Lucas had gone pale.
Emma raised the gun.
"Adrian."
Lucas backed toward the door.
"I can explain."
Adrian held up the letter.
"Then start."
Before Lucas could speak, the steel door slammed shut behind him.
The lights went out.
And from somewhere inside the darkness, a woman's voice whispered:
May you like
"Adrian?"
It was the voice of his dead sister.
