Chapter 11 - The Night Gabriel Lost His Empire
Victor had taken Gabriel from the depot during the confusion.
For the first time, Freya understood what helplessness looked like when attached to someone she cared about.
She hated that realization.
Elias wanted her to wait.
She refused.
Arthur, recovering from his wound, supplied Victor’s likely location.
An abandoned freight terminal near Lake Michigan.
Freya entered using an old maintenance route.
She found Gabriel tied to a chair.
Victor stood before him.
“You destroyed everything.”
Gabriel’s face was bruised.
“No.”
He looked at Freya behind Victor.
“She did.”
Victor turned.
Freya aimed a gun.
“Step away.”
Victor smiled.
“You won’t shoot.”
“Why?”
“You’re not like us.”
Freya thought of Aleppo.
Her parents.
Six years of pain.
Then she lowered the gun.
“You’re right.”
Victor smiled wider.
Until federal agents entered behind her.
Freya had transmitted everything.
Victor reached for his weapon.
Gabriel kicked the chair into him.
Arthur emerged from the side corridor.
Victor fired.
Arthur fell.
Agents tackled Victor.
It was over.
Almost.
Gabriel knelt beside Arthur.
Arthur was bleeding badly.
“You always were dramatic,” Gabriel whispered.
Arthur managed a smile.
“Learned from your family.”
He survived emergency surgery.
Victor was charged under a sprawling federal case built from the ledger.
Reed was captured two days later.
Elias surrendered voluntarily for crimes committed during his infiltration.
Freya visited him before his first hearing.
“You could go to prison.”
“Yes.”
“You saved lives.”
“I also hurt people.”
She nodded.
No excuses.
That mattered.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was afraid you’d hate me.”
“I do hate you a little.”
Elias smiled sadly.
“That’s fair.”
“But I also missed you.”
His eyes filled.
Freya left before hers did.
Gabriel waited outside.
His empire was collapsing.
Companies seized.
Accounts frozen.
Associates cooperating.
For the first time since his twenties, Gabriel Mercer was becoming an ordinary man.
“How much do you have left?” Freya asked.
He considered.
“A house.”
“Legally?”
A pause.
“One house.”
She laughed.
Then Gabriel received a message.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He showed her.
A photograph of Arthur’s hospital room.
Empty bed.
Blood on the floor.
Under it were three words.
HE OWES ME.
May you like
The sender was Victor Mercer.
But Victor was locked inside federal custody.
