Chapter 1 - THE MAN BENEATH THE WATER
Victor Moreau continued sinking beneath the Mediterranean.
The steel weight under the wheelchair dragged him toward the shadowed floor of the marina.
Pressure tightened around his chest.
The water filled his ears until the world became silent.
He pulled the release lever again.
It refused to move.
Camilla had not merely jammed it.
She had wired the mechanism shut.
Victor’s fingers moved along the underside of the armrest.
Six months earlier, after noticing unexplained changes to his medical equipment, he had asked his engineer to install a second emergency release.
Camilla knew nothing about it.
His hand found the small recessed button.
He pressed it.
Nothing happened.
The weight continued pulling him down.
Victor’s remaining breath escaped in a trail of bubbles.
Above him, the pale underside of the pier became smaller.
Then a dark shape appeared through the water.
A diver rushed toward him.
The stranger carried a compact cutting tool.
Victor felt the blade strike the steel cable beneath the chair.
Once.
Twice.
The cable separated.
The weight dropped into the darkness.
The wheelchair stopped sinking.
The diver wrapped one arm around Victor’s chest and pushed a breathing regulator between his lips.
Air flooded Victor’s lungs.
He looked through the diver’s mask.
The man was Mateo Ruiz, the former naval rescue officer Victor had quietly hired three weeks earlier.
Mateo pointed toward the concrete support columns beneath the pier.
They could not surface where Camilla might see them.
Victor nodded.
Together, they moved toward a maintenance tunnel built into the marina wall.
Above the water, Camilla watched the final bubbles disappear.
Her phone vibrated.
The financial portal displayed a second message.
IDENTITY CONFIRMATION PENDING.
She frowned.
The first screen had promised the release of ninety million dollars.
She had expected an immediate transfer.
A black sedan stopped at the far end of the pier.
Laurent Vale stepped out wearing a dark suit.
He was Victor’s chief financial officer.
He was also Camilla’s lover.
“Is it done?” Laurent asked.
Camilla looked toward the empty water.
“He is dead.”
“You saw the body?”
“I saw him sink.”
“That is not the same thing.”
Camilla’s eyes narrowed.
“The weight was attached.”
“The release was blocked.”
“He could not have survived.”
Laurent approached the edge.
The surface had become calm again.
“Victor built his fortune by surviving things other people considered impossible.”
Camilla lifted the phone.
“The contingency system detected his death.”
“It detected an event.”
“It has not confirmed anything.”
Camilla’s expression hardened.
“Then we confirm it ourselves.”
Beneath the pier, Mateo pulled Victor through a rusted metal door.
They entered a narrow service chamber above the waterline.
Victor coughed violently.
His legs remained motionless beneath him, but his arms were strong.
Mateo removed the regulator.
“You were under for fifty-eight seconds.”
Victor looked back toward the dark water.
“She believed I would not prepare for this.”
“Did you know she planned to push you?”
“I knew she planned to kill me.”
“Why let her get so close?”
Victor’s face became cold.
“Because now she will lead us to everyone helping her.”
Mateo handed him a waterproof phone.
The screen showed Camilla’s financial portal.
The beneficiary request had been intercepted.
Victor pressed one command.
On Camilla’s phone above the pier, a new message appeared.
DEATH VERIFICATION ACCEPTED.
FUNDS AVAILABLE IN SIX HOURS.
Camilla smiled.
Victor watched her through a hidden camera mounted beneath the railing.
May you like
Then he whispered the words she could not hear.
“Spend those six hours carefully.”
