Chapter 10 - THE FIRE ABOVE THEM
Gabriel wanted to return immediately.
Norah stopped him.
“That’s what Thomas expects.”
“My people are inside.”
“And he knows you’ll go to them.”
Gabriel stared at the burning building on the phone.
Norah hated herself for what she said next.
“If you die running into his trap, you help nobody.”
Marcus nodded.
“She’s right.”
Gabriel turned on him.
“You’re fortunate I haven’t killed you already.”
“I’ve been fortunate for seventeen years.”
Marcus looked exhausted.
“I’m aware.”
Mateo coordinated the evacuation remotely.
The fire had started on the thirty-first floor.
Sprinklers failed on three levels.
Emergency exits locked automatically.
Sabotage.
But the guards managed to override the system.
No deaths.
Six injuries.
Then Norah noticed which floor had burned.
Thirty-one.
Gabriel’s archives.
“Thomas isn’t destroying the building.”
she said.
“He’s destroying records.”
Marcus looked at her.
“Which records?”
“The current vendor contracts.”
Norah opened copies from her laptop.
Steel.
Concrete.
Waste disposal.
Electrical contractors.
All connected to companies she had already flagged.
“He knows we can trace him now.”
Gabriel understood.
“So he’s erasing his network.”
“No.”
Norah shook her head.
“He’s consolidating it.”
She sorted payment dates.
Every suspicious vendor had received unusually large advances within the last forty-eight hours.
“Thomas isn’t running.”
“He’s preparing something.”
“What?”
Norah followed the transactions.
Millions moved into fuel companies.
Transportation firms.
Temporary security contractors.
A waterfront logistics terminal.
Declan leaned over her shoulder.
“That terminal handles container shipping.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“He’s moving money overseas?”
“Maybe people.”
Norah opened another record.
One shipment was scheduled to depart at midnight.
Destination: Palermo.
Marcus went pale.
“Isabella.”
Gabriel immediately called his mother.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Elena whispered.
“Mom.”
Mateo contacted Italy.
Two minutes later, confirmation arrived.
Isabella’s security team had been found unconscious.
Isabella was gone.
Gabriel became frighteningly calm.
“What does Thomas want with her?”
Marcus answered.
“Leverage.”
“For what?”
Marcus looked toward Norah.
“The black ring.”
Gabriel frowned.
“It disappeared.”
“No.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Isabella took it.”
Gabriel stared.
“She told me it was missing.”
“She lied.”
“Why?”
“Because Antonio gave it to her before he died.”
Marcus explained.
“The ring does more than decode Samuel’s files.”
Norah felt the next piece approaching.
“What else?”
“It contains a micro-engraved access sequence.”
“For where?”
“A private reserve.”
Gabriel looked annoyed.
“My father had no reserve.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Not yours.”
Then he named an amount.
“Two hundred eighty million dollars.”
Silence.
“The Vale Reserve.”
Thomas had hidden money before Antonio discovered the betrayal.
Antonio had seized the access key.
Isabella had carried it ever since.
If Thomas recovered the ring, he could rebuild everything Norah had begun dismantling.
Gabriel checked the clock.
9:44 a.m.
The ship left at midnight.
Norah stared at the terminal records.
Then she noticed a familiar vendor code.
One used on the original steel invoices.
She opened the payment.
Thomas had purchased something from a demolition contractor.
Not explosives.
Hydraulic cutting equipment.
Industrial torches.
Concrete saws.
Her eyes moved toward the map of Vale Tower.
“He isn’t taking Isabella directly to the port.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because he still needs the ring.”
“Where is it?”
Norah looked at Marcus.
The old man closed his eyes.
He already knew.
Norah said it anyway.
May you like
“Box 317.”
And beneath the abandoned First Federal Storage building, Thomas Vale was already waiting for them.
