Chapter 13 - THE VAULT BENEATH MONACO
The helicopter landed on the Moreau headquarters roof.
Camilla remained in the pilot’s seat.
Roman forced Marcel toward the access stairs.
Isabelle waited inside the executive boardroom.
The remaining directors had been locked in a conference room on another floor.
She watched Roman enter.
“You grew careless,” she said.
“You grew old,” Roman answered.
Marcel looked at his wife.
“You should have told Victor about him.”
“You should have acknowledged him.”
Roman laughed.
“Please continue blaming each other.”
“It is the family language I remember best.”
Isabelle had met Roman secretly years earlier.
She promised him money in exchange for staying away from Victor and Celia.
Roman accepted the payments.
Then he built Meridian Recovery Group using Moreau money.
When Victor began dismantling the illegal shipping network, Roman’s income collapsed.
Isabelle suggested removing Victor from company control.
She expected Camilla and Laurent to make him appear mentally incompetent.
Roman changed the plan to murder.
Isabelle claimed she learned of the pier only hours before it happened.
Celia’s call gave her time to intervene.
She chose not to.
Victor entered the building through a harbor service tunnel with Detective Fournier and Mateo.
The tracked wheelchair moved through the narrow passage.
A company engineer restored partial internal cameras.
Victor saw Roman, Marcel and Isabelle descending toward the vault.
Camilla left the roof and followed them.
“Why is she still with him?” Mateo asked.
“She believes the money can save her.”
The underground vault required three authorizations.
The acting chairman.
The previous chairman.
And the original founder.
Isabelle, Victor and Marcel.
Roman possessed Isabelle’s token.
He had Marcel physically present.
He needed Victor.
The vault corridor ended behind a reinforced door.
Roman contacted Victor.
“Come alone.”
“You have four hostages.”
“Isabelle is not a hostage.”
Victor looked at the camera.
His mother stood freely beside Roman.
“Perhaps not.”
“If police approach the vault, Camilla releases the fire suppression gas.”
“The concentration will kill everyone inside.”
Camilla stared at Roman.
“That was not our agreement.”
Roman looked at her.
“You no longer have an agreement.”
Victor told Detective Fournier to remain beyond the lower corridor.
He entered with Mateo.
Roman allowed Mateo because Victor needed assistance transferring to the vault scanner.
Inside, Victor saw his father for the first time in eight years.
Marcel appeared thinner than in the video.
His eyes remained sharp.
“Son.”
“Do not call me that yet.”
Marcel nodded.
“You have every right.”
Isabelle stood near the wall.
She did not meet Victor’s eyes.
Camilla held the gas control.
Victor looked at her.
“Was any part of our marriage real?”
Camilla’s fingers tightened.
“That question stopped mattering when you began investigating me.”
“It matters to me.”
She looked away.
Roman pushed Marcel toward the founder’s scanner.
Isabelle’s token activated the chairman panel.
Victor placed his hand on the third scanner.
The vault doors opened.
Inside were rows of documents, sealed cases and historical company records.
There was no gold.
No bearer bonds.
Roman stared at the empty central platform.
“Where are they?”
Marcel smiled.
“The bonds never existed.”
Roman struck him across the face.
“You made me build everything around a myth.”
“I made you reveal everyone who believed it.”
Victor understood.
Marcel had used the rumor to map the entire criminal network.
A hidden camera activated inside the vault.
Data began uploading to international authorities.
Marcel had designed his own trap.
Roman raised his pistol.
Camilla pressed the gas control.
Nothing happened.
Victor had disabled the system through the founder’s scanner.
Roman turned toward him.
May you like
Victor spoke calmly.
“You were not the only one who knew about the physical override.”
