Chapter 6 - The Door Beneath Pier Nine
Lauren ran toward the staircase.
Roman caught her shoulder, then immediately released it when she glared.
"Trap."
"I know."
"Then don't charge into it."
"My mother is down there."
"And Elena might be too."
That stopped her.
Mateo checked the opening.
A narrow concrete staircase descended beneath Warehouse 12.
Old emergency lights flickered along the walls.
Behind them, Keene's men were closing in.
They had no time.
Roman looked at Mateo.
"Cover the entrance."
Mateo shook his head.
"We go together."
"Mateo—"
"I lost Gabriel once. I'm not losing his daughter because you decided to become heroic."
Lauren looked at him.
For the first time in her life, she was standing beside family she hadn't known existed two hours earlier.
It wasn't comforting.
It was terrifying.
They descended.
The passage ended in an old civil-defense tunnel running beneath the pier.
Lauren heard voices.
Maria.
Another woman.
They followed the sound.
A steel door waited ahead.
Roman raised his weapon.
Lauren tried the brass key.
It opened.
Inside sat Maria Hayes.
Her hands were tied.
Beside her sat Elena Vescari.
Alive.
Roman forgot every rule.
He crossed the room in three steps.
"Elena."
She looked up.
For one second neither sibling moved.
Then Elena stood.
Roman wrapped his arms around her.
Fourteen years disappeared.
Elena buried her face against his shoulder.
"You got old."
Roman laughed and cried at the same time.
"So did you."
Lauren crossed to her mother.
Maria whispered, "I'm sorry."
Lauren untied her.
"We're not doing this now."
"I should have told you."
"Later."
Maria touched Lauren's face.
"You look like Gabriel when you're angry."
Lauren almost broke.
Almost.
Instead she focused.
"How did you get here?"
"Keene came to the house."
"You went willingly?"
Maria nodded.
"He said he would kill you if I didn't."
Lauren closed her eyes.
Of course.
Across the room Roman held Elena by the shoulders.
"Why did they keep you alive?"
Elena looked toward Lauren.
"Because I memorized the ledger."
Roman frowned.
"What?"
"Vane thought Dad had hidden copies. He believed I knew where."
"Did you?"
"No."
Elena smiled weakly.
"But I convinced him I did."
Lauren understood.
"You made yourself valuable."
"For fourteen years."
Roman's face twisted.
Elena touched his cheek.
"I wanted to come home."
"You should have."
"They would have killed you."
Roman shook his head.
"I would've—"
"Died."
That silenced him.
Elena looked toward Lauren.
"You saved me."
Lauren's throat tightened.
"I lost you."
"You came back into the fire."
"I couldn't get you out."
"You got me to the loading dock."
Lauren remembered.
Men appearing.
Elena pushing Lauren through a gap.
A blast.
Darkness.
Elena continued.
"Keene's people found me before your team did."
Lauren nodded slowly.
"So Keene knew you survived."
"From the beginning."
A speaker crackled overhead.
Thomas Keene's voice.
"Beautiful reunion."
Roman looked up.
"Come down here."
"No."
"Afraid?"
Keene laughed.
"I've survived men far more frightening than you."
Lauren walked toward the speaker.
"What do you want?"
"The original ledgers."
"You already have copies."
"I need originals destroyed."
"Why now?"
"Because Judge Vane is about to become attorney general."
Lauren stared.
There it was.
The timing.
Everything tonight wasn't simply about old secrets.
It was cleanup.
Vane's confirmation hearing began in two days.
If Gabriel's ledgers surfaced, a future attorney general could become a federal defendant.
Keene continued.
"Bring them to the tunnel entrance. Everyone walks away."
Lauren looked at Maria.
Elena.
Roman.
Mateo.
Nobody believed him.
Roman whispered, "We give him the box."
Lauren shook her head.
"Then he kills us."
"We don't have options."
"We do."
Lauren held up her phone.
Roman frowned.
"No service."
"Not for calls."
She opened an app.
Roman saw a small progress bar.
UPLOAD COMPLETE.
"What did you do?"
"While you were looking at photographs upstairs, I photographed every ledger page."
Mateo smiled.
Roman stared.
"Where did you send them?"
Lauren looked at him.
"Three journalists, one federal inspector general, and a lawyer who hates Thomas Keene."
Roman blinked.
"You did that in the warehouse?"
"I type fast."
The speaker crackled.
Keene's voice was no longer amused.
"Lauren."
She smiled.
He knew.
"You're too late, Thomas."
Silence.
Then alarms sounded.
Elena looked frightened.
"What is that?"
Roman scanned the room.
"Fire system?"
Lauren smelled fuel.
"No."
Keene spoke again.
"You always were Gabriel's daughter."
Lauren looked upward.
"Meaning?"
"He made the same mistake."
"What mistake?"
"Thinking evidence mattered more than survival."
The lights went out.
A deep explosion shook the tunnel.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Maria screamed.
Roman grabbed Elena.
Mateo found his flashlight.
"Move!"
They ran toward a secondary passage.
Smoke followed.
Lauren stayed behind Maria.
Roman kept Elena ahead.
The tunnel split.
Mateo stopped.
"Which way?"
Elena pointed left.
"Right floods at high tide."
Roman stared.
"You know these tunnels?"
"I've been moved through them for years."
They turned left.
Gunshots echoed behind.
Keene's men had entered.
Roman fired twice toward the darkness.
Lauren pulled him forward.
"Don't stop."
They reached another steel door.
Locked.
Elena looked around.
"There should be a release."
Mateo searched.
Smoke thickened.
Maria began coughing.
Lauren found a corroded lever.
It wouldn't move.
Roman grabbed it with her.
Together they forced it downward.
The door opened onto an underground parking structure beneath a waterfront hotel.
Fresh air.
They stumbled out.
Roman immediately locked the door behind them.
Mateo checked his phone.
"Signal."
Lauren called 911.
Roman looked at her.
"You just called police while standing beside me."
"Get used to new experiences."
For the first time, Elena laughed.
Then Mateo's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered cautiously.
A man's voice said, "Mr. Cruz, this is Special Agent Daniel Reeves with the Inspector General's office. We received files from Lauren Hayes."
Lauren exhaled.
The upload worked.
Reeves continued.
"Federal teams are moving on Judge Malcolm Vane now."
Roman looked at Lauren.
"Keene?"
"Unknown."
Lauren's phone buzzed.
A message.
Thomas Keene.
ONE LEDGER IS MISSING.
She frowned.
Another message.
ASK ELENA WHAT SHE TOOK.
Lauren looked toward Elena.
Elena saw her expression.
"What?"
Lauren showed her.
Roman turned to his sister.
"Elena?"
Elena became pale.
"There were six ledgers."
Lauren remembered.
They had found five.
"What was in the sixth?"
Elena swallowed.
"Names that never appeared in the others."
"Whose names?"
"People above Vane."
Roman stared.
"How far above?"
Elena looked at Lauren.
"Federal judges. Senators. Cabinet officials."
Mateo swore.
Lauren's phone buzzed again.
A photograph arrived.
Thomas Keene stood beside a private jet.
In his hand was the sixth ledger.
Behind him, through the open aircraft door, stood Judge Malcolm Vane.
The final message appeared beneath it.
WE LEAVE IN TWENTY MINUTES.
Roman looked at the parking garage exit.
The distant sound of aircraft engines drifted across the harbor.
May you like
The private airfield was less than three miles away.
And if that plane took off, the people behind Pier Nine would disappear with it.
