Chapter 5 - Midnight Registry
The terminal flashed green beneath my stolen handprint and a mechanical voice announced, “Primary authorization accepted.”
A drop of blood smeared across the glass.
It was not mine.
Someone had cut Ethan’s palm before the lights failed.
The countdown changed from thirty minutes to sixty seconds.
Emergency lights snapped on.
Chaos.
Ethan was on the floor beside me, fighting one of Victor’s men.
Salvatore had been shot through the shoulder.
My mother crouched behind a server rack.
Emily was still trapped inside the glass room.
Victor stood near the terminal.
Smiling.
“Fifty-two seconds,” he said.
Ethan drove his elbow into the attacker’s jaw and got up.
“Cancel it.”
Victor shrugged.
“You can’t.”
“What did you do?”
“What Enzo should have done years ago.”
Victor looked at me.
“Do you have any idea what’s inside this registry?”
“I’m starting to.”
“Governors. Judges. prosecutors. union bosses. billionaires. criminals who pretend they’re philanthropists. Philanthropists who are worse than criminals.”
“Then expose them.”
He laughed.
“Oh, Claire. That’s adorable.”
Thirty-nine seconds.
“You don’t expose leverage,” Victor said. “You own it.”
Ethan moved toward the terminal.
Victor raised his weapon.
“Another step.”
Ethan stopped.
I looked at the screen.
TRANSFER AUTHORIZATION.
CLAIRE MARLOWE: ACCEPTED.
ETHAN MORETTI: ACCEPTED.
How?
Then I saw the blood.
Victor had used Ethan’s blood on the scanner.
The system didn’t require a conscious choice.
Only biometric proof.
Enzo had built a flaw.
Or perhaps someone had changed it.
“Mom,” I said.
She looked at me.
“Can we destroy it remotely?”
“No.”
“Twenty-five seconds,” Victor said pleasantly.
“There has to be another command.”
My mother’s eyes moved toward the terminal.
I followed them.
A tiny slot beneath the scanner.
Key shaped.
The brass key.
I reached into my pocket.
Victor noticed.
His smile vanished.
“Don’t.”
I pulled out the key.
He pointed the gun at me.
“Drop it.”
Ethan stepped between us.
“Shoot her and you lose the registry.”
Victor smiled.
“Not anymore.”
Fifteen seconds.
He fired.
Ethan jerked.
For half a second I thought he had been hit.
Then I saw the bullet hole in the wall behind him.
Nico burst through the rear entrance with two men.
Gunfire erupted.
I dropped to the floor.
My mother screamed my name.
Ten seconds.
I crawled.
Eight.
Victor tackled Nico.
Six.
I reached the terminal.
Four.
I shoved the brass key into the slot.
Three.
Turned.
Two.
The screen went black.
One.
Nothing.
No alarm.
No transfer notification.
Silence.
Victor stopped fighting.
Everyone stared at the terminal.
Then words appeared.
REGISTRY SEVENTEEN: MANUAL JUDGMENT REQUIRED.
SELECT:
TRANSFER.
DESTROY.
RELEASE.
I looked at Ethan.
“Release?”
His eyes widened.
Victor lunged toward me.
Nico stopped him.
“What does release mean?” I yelled.
My mother stared at the screen.
“I don’t know.”
Victor did.
His face told me.
I turned.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
“Tell me.”
He smiled.
“Pick it and find out.”
Ethan approached.
Blood ran from a cut on his palm.
“You know what it means.”
Victor said nothing.
Ethan grabbed his collar.
“What does release mean?”
Victor laughed.
“Your father’s final revenge.”
My mother whispered, “Public distribution.”
Everyone looked at her.
She stared at the three options.
“That was Enzo’s plan. If control became impossible, release everything simultaneously.”
“To who?” I asked.
“Journalists. prosecutors. international agencies. internal affairs units. competing jurisdictions.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“You’ll cause chaos.”
“Maybe.”
“You’ll destroy innocent people alongside guilty ones.”
That stopped me.
Ethan looked at my mother.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know. The registry contains transactions, associations, surveillance, confidential informants. Some names could be innocent.”
Victor smiled.
“Now you understand.”
Destroy it, and guilty people walked free.
Transfer it, and Victor owned them.
Release it, and innocent lives might burn with the guilty.
There was no clean answer.
My father—or the man who protected me like one—had left me an impossible choice.
“Why me?” I whispered.
My mother’s eyes filled.
“Because Enzo believed you would ask that question before choosing.”
Ethan stood beside me.
“What do you think?”
I almost laughed.
“You’re asking me?”
“Yes.”
“You run the organization.”
“This decision isn’t about my organization.”
Victor shook his head.
“Don’t pretend you’re noble, Ethan.”
Ethan ignored him.
“What do you think, Claire?”
I looked at the screen.
Then at Emily.
At my mother.
At Salvatore bleeding but conscious.
At Victor.
The man who had manipulated all of us.
“There’s a fourth option.”
Victor laughed.
“There isn’t.”
“There is if we don’t accept the system’s rules.”
I looked at Ethan.
“Can we copy it without transferring ownership?”
My mother frowned.
“Possibly.”
“Can we separate verified evidence from unverified associations?”
“It would take time.”
“How much?”
“Weeks.”
Victor laughed again.
“You think everyone will wait?”
“No.”
I looked at Nico.
“Can Victor disappear for a few weeks?”
Nico almost smiled.
“Yes.”
Victor’s face changed.
Ethan looked at me.
“You want to audit the registry.”
“Yes.”
“With whom?”
“People outside the network.”
“We don’t know who is outside.”
“Then we build layers. Independent attorneys. journalists who don’t know each other. retired investigators. forensic accountants. Nobody sees everything.”
My mother stared at me.
“That’s what Enzo wanted originally.”
“Then why didn’t he do it?”
“He ran out of time.”
I turned the key back to neutral.
The options disappeared.
REGISTRY LOCKED.
Victor’s face twisted.
“You stupid girl.”
Ethan hit him.
Once.
Victor fell.
Ethan flexed his hand.
“That,” he said quietly, “was for the restaurant.”
Despite everything, a laugh escaped me.
Victor glared up from the floor.
“You think this ends because you locked a computer?”
“No,” I said. “I think it starts.”
Nico freed Emily.
She ran to me.
I hugged her.
“I’m sorry.”
She was crying.
“You owe me a raise.”
I laughed harder.
“You’re getting one.”
Behind us, Salvatore was helped upright.
My mother approached him.
Their eyes met.
Thirty years sat between them.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Salvatore looked at me.
Then back at her.
“So am I.”
Ethan pulled Nico aside.
They spoke quietly.
I watched him.
The relief I had felt learning Ethan was not my brother had created another problem.
Now there was nothing morally impossible standing between us.
Only six months of deception.
A criminal legacy.
A fake date.
Several armed kidnappers.
And perhaps the most emotionally unavailable man in Manhattan.
Simple.
Ethan turned.
He caught me watching.
Neither of us looked away.
Then Nico’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face tightened.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The transfer never completed.”
“We know.”
“That isn’t the problem.”
Nico put the call on speaker.
A technician’s voice came through.
“Someone copied the registry thirty-seven minutes ago.”
Ethan looked at Victor.
Victor smiled slowly.
“Who?” Ethan demanded.
The technician swallowed audibly.
“The access came from inside Moretti Holdings.”
“Name.”
A pause.
Then the technician said it.
“Emily Reeves.”
The woman still holding my hand went completely still.
I looked down.
There was blood on her sleeve.
May you like
Not hers.
And tucked beneath her cuff was Daniel’s missing phone.
