Chapter 6 - THE WAR BETWEEN ACCOMPLICES
Laurent’s speedboat struck the yacht’s boarding platform.
Four men climbed onto the lower deck.
They wore private security uniforms without company markings.
Laurent no longer intended to negotiate.
He believed Camilla and Isabelle planned to take the full ninety million.
He had come to seize the security token.
The yacht captain ordered the crew to lock the upper salon.
Isabelle remained seated.
“Your lover lacks discipline,” she told Camilla.
“He is not my lover anymore.”
“When did that change?”
“When he began believing he deserved half.”
Isabelle smiled faintly.
“You learned something from me after all.”
Victor looked toward Mateo.
“My mother recruited her.”
“It sounds that way.”
“Camilla did not enter my life accidentally.”
“No.”
The realization hurt more than the cold water.
Isabelle had introduced Camilla at a charity dinner six years earlier.
She described Camilla as the daughter of an old friend.
Victor later learned that Camilla’s parents were dead.
Isabelle filled the missing history with elegant stories no one questioned.
Laurent’s men entered the communications deck.
Mateo locked the room seconds before they reached it.
Victor accessed the yacht’s internal controls.
He sealed fire doors across the middle corridor.
The armed men became trapped between decks.
Laurent reached the salon through an exterior staircase.
He pounded against the glass doors.
“Open it.”
Isabelle sipped her champagne.
“You are making a scene.”
“You tried to remove me from the transfer.”
“You were never necessary.”
Laurent raised a pistol.
Camilla stepped behind the marble bar.
Isabelle did not move.
“If you shoot me, the token becomes inaccessible.”
“You gave Camilla the code.”
“I gave her part of it.”
Laurent looked at Camilla.
“You knew.”
“I knew enough.”
He fired into the ceiling.
The yacht crew screamed from the lower deck.
Victor activated the salon speakers.
His voice filled the room live.
“Put the weapon down, Laurent.”
Laurent froze.
Camilla’s face turned white.
Isabelle slowly lowered her glass.
Victor continued.
“The contingency system is recording.”
“Every word has already been copied.”
Laurent looked around the salon.
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
Camilla moved toward the doors.
“You are dead.”
“You watched a wheelchair sink.”
“You never watched me die.”
Isabelle stood.
For the first time, fear entered her face.
She approached the control panel and disabled the salon lock.
Laurent forced the doors open.
Isabelle slapped him before he could enter.
“You brought armed men onto my yacht.”
“You lied to me.”
“Everyone on this vessel has lied to you.”
Victor unlocked the communications room.
Mateo rolled him into the corridor.
Crew members stared as he passed.
One woman crossed herself.
Victor entered the salon.
Camilla backed against the window.
Laurent lowered his pistol.
Isabelle looked at her son as if he were a ghost that had refused burial.
Victor stopped several feet from them.
His clothes were dry.
His face was pale.
His eyes were steady.
“You should have confirmed the body,” he said.
Camilla’s lips trembled.
Isabelle recovered first.
“Victor, you misunderstand what happened.”
“No.”
“I finally understand all of it.”
Laurent turned the pistol toward Isabelle.
“She planned everything.”
Camilla pointed toward Laurent.
“He altered the helicopter.”
Isabelle looked at Camilla.
“You pushed him.”
All three began speaking at once.
Each accusation revealed another piece.
Victor listened.
Then the yacht captain entered with unexpected news.
French maritime police were approaching.
Someone had transmitted a distress signal from Victor’s private channel.
Victor had not sent it.
Elena had not sent it.
The signal originated from inside Isabelle’s cabin.
May you like
There was another person aboard the yacht.
Someone who wanted the police to find them together.
