Chapter 10: The Last Train
The vibration beneath their feet grew stronger.
Dust fell from the tunnel ceiling.
The abandoned rails hummed with a deep metallic groan.
Frank's face turned pale.
"It can't be..."
Vincent looked toward the darkness.
"What?"
Frank swallowed.
"There's an old maintenance train."
"They used it decades ago to inspect these tunnels."
"I thought it was scrapped."
A brilliant white light suddenly burst around the bend.
An engine emerged from the darkness.
Old.
Rust-covered.
But very much alive.
Its horn echoed through the underground chamber.
Lucia smiled.
"Right on time."
Marcus stared at her.
"You planned this too?"
"Of course."
The train slowed just enough for armed men to jump from the moving cars.
Eight of them.
Dressed in black tactical gear.
Not mob soldiers.
Professional mercenaries.
Their movements were precise.
Disciplined.
Efficient.
Vincent immediately recognized the difference.
"They're military."
Lucia nodded.
"I stopped relying on family years ago."
The mercenaries surrounded the group in seconds.
Their leader stepped forward.
A tall man with gray hair and a scar across his left cheek.
"Package secured," he said calmly.
Lucia smiled.
"Excellent."
The man looked toward Vincent.
"Alive?"
"For now."
Elena quietly whispered,
"There's too many."
Vincent counted.
Eight mercenaries.
Lucia.
Nine.
The train crew.
At least two more.
Eleven.
Against four exhausted survivors.
The odds weren't impossible.
They were suicidal.
The mercenary leader approached Marcus.
"You betrayed the client."
Marcus looked confused.
"The client?"
The man nodded toward Lucia.
"You were never the employer."
"You were the asset."
Marcus slowly looked at Lucia.
"You hired them..."
"...before you even told me the plan?"
Lucia answered without emotion.
"I always prepare for failure."
Marcus finally understood.
She had never trusted him.
Not completely.
Not ever.
Vincent watched Marcus's expression change.
The anger was gone.
So was the arrogance.
Only disappointment remained.
He whispered,
"I was never your son."
Lucia didn't answer.
She didn't have to.
The mercenary leader held out his hand.
"The ledger."
Lucia gave him the black book.
He flipped through it.
His expression darkened.
"This is fake."
Lucia looked stunned.
"What?"
"The final page has been replaced."
She turned toward Vincent.
"You lied."
Vincent smiled.
"I promised you'd never find it."
Without warning—
Lucia fired.
The bullet struck the ledger in the mercenary's hands.
Paper exploded into the air.
The mercenaries instantly aimed their rifles at her.
The leader stepped back.
"You deceived us."
Lucia remained calm.
"No."
"He did."
The mercenary leader looked at Vincent.
"You have sixty seconds."
"Then everyone dies."
Silence.
Vincent slowly removed something from inside his jacket.
Not a weapon.
A small silver flash drive.
Marcus frowned.
"What is that?"
"The real inheritance."
Lucia's eyes widened.
"You copied everything."
Vincent nodded.
"The archive burned."
"But not before I digitized every document worth saving."
Frank couldn't hide his surprise.
"When?"
Vincent smiled slightly.
"While everyone was watching the fire."
The mercenary leader extended his hand.
"Give it to me."
Vincent looked at him.
"Who hired you?"
"No questions."
"No deal."
The leader sighed.
Then slowly removed an encrypted satellite phone from his pocket.
He pressed a button.
A distorted voice answered.
"Status."
The mercenary spoke.
"The old man has the archive."
The voice replied.
"Bring him alive."
Vincent frowned.
That voice...
He knew it.
Not from the family.
Not from the streets.
From somewhere else.
Somewhere far more dangerous.
Then he remembered.
Five years earlier...
A secret meeting in Switzerland.
A man whose face he had never seen.
Only his voice.
The broker known as The Chancellor.
A legend in the international underworld.
Someone who sold governments...
Toppled cartels...
And started wars without ever pulling a trigger.
Vincent slowly whispered,
"So that's who you've been working for."
The mercenary leader smiled.
"You finally understand."
Lucia looked genuinely shocked.
"The Chancellor?"
"You never told me—"
The leader interrupted her.
"You were never supposed to know."
Lucia realized, too late, that she had been manipulated just as Marcus had.
She hadn't been the mastermind.
She had been another pawn.
The leader raised his rifle.
"The Chancellor thanks all of you."
"You've done exactly what he wanted."
Behind him, the maintenance train's engine roared louder.
Then, suddenly—
A deafening explosion erupted from the tracks behind the train.
The entire tunnel shook violently.
The lead carriage lifted off the rails.
Metal screamed against stone.
The mercenaries stumbled as sparks filled the darkness.
Frank stared in disbelief.
"Who did that?"
Through the smoke, a convoy of armored police vehicles burst into the tunnel from a newly blasted entrance.
A loudspeaker echoed through the cavern:
"Federal agents! Drop your weapons!"
Lucia's eyes went wide.
Marcus froze.
Vincent slowly smiled.
Elena lowered her pistol and quietly said,
May you like
"My insurance package..."
"...just arrived."
