Chapter 6 - The Woman in the Window
Sadi opened the SUV door.
Gabriel grabbed her wrist.
“No.”
“That was my mother.”
“Your mother is dead.”
“I know what I saw.”
“Which is exactly why you don’t run toward it.”
Sadi pulled free.
“Then explain it.”
“I can’t.”
“Neither can I.”
Gabriel stared toward the window.
The woman was gone.
Isabella remained.
Thomas Vale appeared behind her.
Then the light vanished.
Enzo approached the vehicle.
“We have thirty minutes.”
“Entry points?” Gabriel asked.
“Three. Main lobby, kitchen service hall, underground garage.”
“Garage.”
Sadi looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas expects me through the lobby.”
“What if he expects you to think that?”
Gabriel paused.
“You are becoming annoying.”
“Good.”
They entered through the underground garage.
The hotel smelled of dust, wet concrete, and old smoke.
Gabriel Falcone’s father had died somewhere above them.
Gabriel moved differently inside the building.
Sadi noticed.
He knew the hallways.
Remembered corners.
Passed doorways without needing directions.
At the service elevator, Mateo stopped.
“This wasn’t on the old plans.”
A newer steel door had been installed behind decorative wall panels.
The brass key from Elena’s locker fit.
Sadi stared.
“My mother had access?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Apparently.”
Behind the door was a narrow staircase.
They climbed.
Second floor.
Third.
Fourth.
At the landing, they found a medical room.
Modern equipment.
Fresh supplies.
Two hospital beds.
And photographs covering one wall.
Gabriel.
Isabella.
Enzo.
Mateo.
Sadi.
Lucia from Belladonna.
Dr. Warren.
Almost everyone.
Sadi stepped closer.
Her photographs began months earlier.
Walking to work.
Buying groceries.
Visiting her mother’s grave.
Thomas had watched her long before the restaurant attack.
Mateo whispered, “I didn’t know.”
Sadi turned on him.
“You said they mentioned me five months ago.”
“They did.”
“These go back nine.”
Mateo looked sick.
Gabriel studied the wall.
“This plan began before Mateo defected.”
“Then why me?”
Gabriel’s gaze moved toward a photograph of Elena.
“Because of your mother.”
A sound came from behind the curtain.
Sadi froze.
Enzo raised his weapon.
The curtain opened.
The woman from the window stepped out.
Sadi felt the air leave her lungs.
Not Elena.
Her sister.
Her mother’s younger sister.
Rosa.
Sadi had not seen her since childhood.
Rosa had disappeared from the family after Sadi turned sixteen.
Elena never explained why.
“You,” Sadi whispered.
Rosa looked almost identical to Elena now.
Same gray streak near the temple.
Same eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Sadi crossed the room and slapped her.
Gabriel murmured, “Family tradition.”
Sadi ignored him.
“Why were you at the window?”
“Thomas needed you to come upstairs.”
“Then you’re working for him.”
“No.”
A gunshot sounded in the hallway.
Enzo turned.
Rosa grabbed Sadi.
“Listen to me.”
“Get off.”
“He has explosives below the hotel.”
Gabriel looked at her sharply.
“What?”
“He doesn’t plan to leave.”
Mateo said, “Thomas wants the ledger destroyed.”
“No,” Rosa answered. “He wants everyone connected to it dead.”
“Why are you helping us?” Sadi demanded.
Rosa’s eyes filled.
“Because Elena made me promise.”
“Promise what?”
“That if Thomas ever came back, I would keep you away from him.”
“You did a terrible job.”
“I know.”
Sadi laughed bitterly.
“Everyone in my family apparently knows things after they ruin my life.”
Rosa flinched.
Fair.
She deserved it.
“Where is Isabella?” Gabriel asked.
“Presidential suite.”
“Thomas?”
“With her.”
“Matteo?”
Rosa shook her head.
“I haven’t seen him.”
Gabriel looked at Enzo.
“That means he’s somewhere useful.”
They moved.
Fourth floor corridor.
No resistance.
Too easy.
At the stairwell, Enzo stopped.
A tripwire.
He crouched.
“Pressure trigger.”
Rosa pointed toward a service passage.
“Laundry.”
They detoured.
Sadi stayed behind Gabriel.
His breathing had become heavier.
“You’re bleeding again,” she whispered.
“Later.”
“There may not be a later if you collapse.”
“I’m trying to be dramatic.”
“You’re doing great.”
He looked at her.
For the first time all night, both almost laughed.
Then a man rushed from a doorway.
Sadi saw the knife before Gabriel did.
She grabbed a metal housekeeping cart and shoved it between them.
The attacker crashed into it.
Gabriel’s good hand caught his wrist.
Enzo struck him once.
The man dropped.
Gabriel looked at Sadi.
“That counted as improvising.”
“You’re welcome.”
They reached the presidential floor at 11:57.
Thomas waited inside the ballroom.
Isabella sat beside him.
Hands bound.
Six armed men surrounded the room.
Thomas smiled when Gabriel entered.
“Exactly like your father.”
Gabriel’s eyes swept across the room.
“Insulting opening.”
Thomas noticed Sadi.
“Elena’s daughter.”
Sadi said nothing.
“You have her eyes.”
“People keep saying that.”
“Your mother was extraordinary.”
“You poisoned my boss.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Boss?”
“I panicked.”
Thomas laughed.
“Wonderful.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“Let Isabella go.”
“The ledger.”
Mateo held up the flash drive.
Thomas smiled.
“Toss it.”
Mateo did.
Thomas caught it.
Inserted it into a laptop.
Files appeared.
His smile disappeared.
“Encrypted.”
Gabriel shrugged.
“You expected hospitality?”
“Password.”
“Release Isabella.”
Thomas raised his hand.
One guard untied her.
Isabella stood.
Thomas kept a pistol against her ribs.
“Password.”
Gabriel looked at Sadi.
“Moreno.”
She blinked.
“What?”
“The password.”
Sadi understood.
Thomas typed MORENO.
Wrong.
Gabriel said, “Elena.”
Wrong.
Thomas’s face darkened.
“Enough.”
Sadi suddenly remembered the cookbook.
The handwritten recipes.
Her mother always signed notes to Mateo and Sadi with the same two words.
For my children.
“Children,” Sadi said.
Thomas looked at her.
“What?”
“Try CHILDREN.”
He typed it.
The files opened.
Thomas smiled.
“Thank you.”
Then every screen went black.
Thomas’s smile vanished.
“What did you do?”
Mateo smiled.
“The drive was never the ledger.”
Gabriel’s phone buzzed.
Upload complete.
The real files had been transmitted simultaneously to three federal prosecutors, two investigative journalists, and an attorney Elena Moreno had apparently chosen years earlier.
Thomas stared.
“No.”
Gabriel smiled.
Quietly.
The same smile Sadi had seen after knocking the attacker down.
Thomas raised his pistol.
“Then none of you leave.”
The ballroom doors slammed shut.
A countdown appeared on the laptop screen.
03:00.
Explosives.
Rosa screamed, “He armed them!”
Chaos erupted.
Enzo shot the first guard.
Mateo tackled another.
Isabella drove her chair backward into the man holding her.
Sadi grabbed her and pulled her toward the service door.
Gabriel fired twice.
Thomas disappeared behind a column.
02:31.
“Garage!” Enzo shouted.
“No time,” Rosa yelled.
“There’s another exit!”
“Where?”
Rosa pointed toward the far wall.
“Behind the stage.”
They ran.
Gabriel stumbled.
Sadi caught him.
Blood soaked his sling.
“I’m fine.”
“You are absolutely not fine.”
02:04.
Behind the stage, they found a steel door.
Locked.
Rosa searched desperately.
“The key.”
“What key?”
“Elena’s.”
Sadi pulled out the brass key.
It fit.
The door opened.
A tunnel.
Old service passage.
They entered.
01:41.
Gabriel stopped.
“Isabella?”
Behind them.
Not there.
Sadi turned.
“She was with Mateo.”
Mateo appeared.
Alone.
Gabriel grabbed him.
“Where is my sister?”
“She went back.”
“For what?”
Mateo looked horrified.
“For you.”
Gabriel understood first.
Thomas had disappeared.
Isabella had followed him.
00:58.
Gabriel turned toward the ballroom.
Sadi blocked him.
“No.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“That’s my sister.”
“And you can barely stand.”
Gabriel’s eyes blazed.
Sadi did not move.
Then a gunshot came from the ballroom.
Another.
A woman screamed.
Gabriel shoved past her.
Sadi ran after him.
00:31.
They entered the ballroom.
Thomas lay near the window.
Bleeding from his leg.
Isabella stood over him holding his gun.
Gabriel stopped.
“Isa.”
She looked toward him.
“Go!”
00:22.
Gabriel ran to her.
Sadi reached Thomas.
He was laughing.
“Too late.”
00:15.
She saw something in his hand.
A remote.
Thomas pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
His smile vanished.
Mateo appeared behind Sadi.
“Remote jammer.”
00:09.
Enzo screamed from the door.
“MOVE!”
They ran.
00:05.
00:04.
00:03.
Sadi reached the service passage.
Gabriel and Isabella were ahead.
Mateo behind.
00:02.
Then the countdown stopped.
00:01.
Nobody breathed.
Thomas laughed from the ballroom.
“You really thought that was the bomb?”
A second timer illuminated on the wall.
10:00.
Gabriel looked toward the tunnel.
May you like
Then his phone rang.
Matteo Falcone’s name appeared on the screen.
