Chapter 9 - The Night Victor Was Supposed to Die
Victor did not hesitate.
“Leo, get the ship.”
Leo stared.
“Victor—”
“Go.”
“What about Evelyn?”
“I get my mother.”
Lana stepped beside him.
“We get her.”
Victor wanted to argue.
There was no time.
Leo took half the team toward the harbor.
Victor, Lana, Thomas, and Rebecca entered the flooded lower tunnels.
The water reached their knees.
Then their waists.
Evelyn appeared behind reinforced glass.
Victor struck the door.
Locked.
Lana searched the control panel.
German labels.
Old system.
She translated quickly.
Emergency release.
Pressure override.
Drainage.
“Here.”
Victor pulled the lever.
Nothing.
Thomas opened the panel.
“Cut power.”
“Which wire?”
Lana read the labels.
“Blue.”
He cut it.
The door released.
Victor pulled Evelyn free.
At the harbor, Leo’s team intercepted the ship before it cleared the breakwater.
Forty-three people were found alive inside modified containers.
Marcus was not aboard.
He had used them as distraction.
Again.
Back at Warehouse Seventeen, Lana finally sat with Rebecca.
Her mother explained.
She had been an investigative accountant working with Ingrid.
When Lana was born, threats intensified.
Rebecca went underground.
Thomas followed later.
Ingrid raised Lana because she was the only person the network did not suspect would keep the evidence.
“I wanted to come back every day.”
“But you didn't.”
“No.”
Lana cried.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
Years of birthdays.
School plays.
Hospital visits.
Graduations.
All the ordinary moments secrecy had stolen.
Rebecca did not ask forgiveness.
That mattered.
Victor found Lana later.
“You saved my mother.”
“You saved forty-three people.”
“Leo did.”
“You made the choice.”
Victor sat beside her.
“My father once told me power was deciding who pays the price.”
“And?”
“He was wrong.”
Lana looked at him.
“Power is deciding you won't make somebody else pay it for you.”
Victor nodded.
“That sounds more like him than anything I remember.”
Their eyes held.
There was warmth now.
Dangerous warmth.
Neither acted on it.
Too much blood still stood between yesterday and tomorrow.
Gavin arrived with Sarah.
The rescued captives were safe.
Authorities were moving.
The archive had been distributed.
Marcus Vale’s empire was collapsing.
It should have felt like victory.
Instead, Lana noticed Sarah staring at one of the rescued manifests.
“What?”
Sarah pointed.
One name had been added by hand.
DANIEL CROSS.
Lana stared.
“Daniel is dead.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Then why is his biometric clearance being used right now?”
A computer showed a live login.
HAWTHORNE GRILL.
Victor stood.
Marcus.
They raced back.
The restaurant was dark.
The private dining room looked exactly as it had before the first gunshot.
One table.
Same chairs.
Same chandelier.
Same silver pitcher.
At Victor’s place sat an envelope.
Lana opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Daniel.
Alive.
Taken ten minutes earlier.
On the back were five words.
YOU NEVER CHECKED THE BODY.
Then the kitchen door clicked.
Someone walked toward them.
Lana recognized the footsteps.
May you like
The door opened.
And Daniel Cross stepped into the room holding a gun...
