Chapter 14 - MARCUS CHOOSES
Norah stared at Marcus.
Thomas smiled.
“I told you loyalty was a temporary condition.”
Marcus did not look at her.
He placed the ring into Thomas’s palm.
Norah’s throat tightened.
Gabriel had trusted Marcus despite everything.
Again.
And Marcus had chosen Thomas.
Thomas examined the ring.
“Antonio’s.”
“Yes.”
Marcus replied.
“You verified it?”
“Yes.”
“Access sequence?”
“Incomplete.”
Thomas’s smile faded.
Marcus continued.
“Samuel removed six digits.”
Thomas looked toward Norah.
“Of course he did.”
Norah folded her arms.
“I’m starting to like my grandfather more every hour.”
Thomas walked closer.
“You’ll recover them.”
“No.”
“You will.”
“Threatening my mother is getting repetitive.”
Thomas smiled.
“I’m not threatening your mother.”
He looked toward the security screen.
Gabriel remained trapped below.
“I’m threatening him.”
Norah’s chest tightened.
Thomas saw it.
There.
The reaction he wanted.
He had been right.
Gabriel had become her weakness too.
Marcus finally looked at her.
His face remained unreadable.
Thomas placed paper before Norah.
“Six digits.”
“I don’t know them.”
“You will calculate them.”
“They aren’t mathematical.”
“Then remember them.”
Norah looked at the ring.
Samuel had trained her with dozens of puzzle sequences.
Which one?
Thomas gave her ten minutes.
At five minutes, Norah still had nothing.
At three, she remembered Gabriel’s father’s death.
14-11-03.
At two, she remembered Samuel’s ownership share.
14.
At one, she understood.
The missing sequence was not hidden in a puzzle.
It was hidden in the theft itself.
Three million.
Fourteen percent.
Eleven-minute approval delays.
Every abnormality had been a number.
Samuel’s system used financial irregularities as code.
Norah wrote six digits.
Thomas took the paper.
11-14-03.
The date in American format.
November 14, 2003.
Wrong year.
Gabriel’s father died in 2009.
Thomas immediately noticed.
“This is wrong.”
Norah smiled.
“You wanted six digits.”
Thomas struck the table.
Then Marcus moved.
Fast.
He grabbed Thomas’s wrist and twisted the ring free.
At the same instant, Margaret threw her chair into the electrical panel.
Lights exploded out.
Isabella dropped to the floor.
Norah ran.
Gunfire cracked behind her.
Marcus shouted.
“STAIRS.”
Norah reached the stairwell.
Then stopped.
Gabriel was still trapped.
She turned.
Marcus appeared in the darkness.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
“You betrayed Thomas?”
Marcus almost laughed.
“I’ve been betraying Thomas since 2009.”
He pushed the ring into Norah’s hand.
“Go.”
“What about you?”
“Go.”
Thomas’s men were approaching.
Norah refused.
Marcus grabbed her arm.
“Samuel gave me one job.”
“What?”
“Make sure his granddaughter lived long enough to finish this.”
Norah stared.
“He knew you?”
Marcus’s eyes filled with something she had never seen there before.
Guilt.
“He was my best friend.”
Footsteps came closer.
Marcus shoved her toward the stairs.
“I failed Antonio.”
His voice broke.
“I will not fail Samuel.”
Norah ran downward.
Behind her, Marcus fired twice.
Then the hotel shook violently.
A blast echoed from below.
May you like
The steel tunnel doors had opened.
Gabriel was coming.
