Chapter 15 - THE LOWEST FLOOR
Gabriel found Norah on the sixth-floor landing.
He grabbed her shoulders.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Margaret?”
“Upstairs.”
“Isabella?”
“Upstairs.”
“Marcus?”
Norah stopped.
Gabriel understood.
His face tightened.
“He turned on Thomas.”
“Yes.”
They climbed together.
Declan and Mateo moved ahead.
Thomas’s men were retreating toward the roof.
Norah reached the grand ballroom.
Margaret was alive.
Isabella too.
Marcus lay beside the table.
Gabriel crossed the room.
Marcus opened his eyes.
Barely.
“You always were late.”
Gabriel knelt.
“You gave him the ring.”
“A fake exchange.”
“You could have told me.”
“You would have ruined it.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
Marcus coughed.
“Antonio said the same thing about you.”
Then Marcus looked toward Norah.
“Thomas has a second reserve.”
She froze.
“What?”
“The two hundred eighty million is bait.”
Of course.
Thomas never depended on one account.
“Where?”
Marcus whispered.
“Not money.”
Norah leaned closer.
“Assets.”
“What assets?”
“Names.”
His breathing became shallow.
“Judges.”
“Police.”
“Politicians.”
“Executives.”
“Captains.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
A corruption archive.
Thomas’s true power was leverage.
“Where is it?”
Marcus tried to answer.
Then the roof door slammed.
Thomas was leaving.
Gabriel stood.
Marcus caught his sleeve.
“Gabriel.”
He looked down.
Marcus whispered.
“Your father loved you.”
Gabriel’s face broke for half a second.
Then Marcus’s hand fell away.
He was gone.
There was no time to mourn.
Norah looked at the hotel plans.
Thomas could not reach the port directly from the roof.
Unless.
She noticed a bridge line connecting the hotel to an old parking structure.
“East side.”
Gabriel followed her finger.
They ran.
On the roof, wind tore across the concrete.
Thomas was already crossing the enclosed bridge.
Two men covered him.
Declan fired.
One dropped.
The other retreated.
Thomas reached the garage.
A convoy waited below.
Norah saw Margaret beside the roof doorway.
“What is it?”
Margaret handed her a folded paper Marcus had slipped into her pocket.
One word.
CATHEDRAL.
Gabriel stared.
“The old cathedral?”
Norah shook her head.
“No.”
She remembered Thomas’s companies.
Cathedral Holdings.
A real-estate corporation.
One property.
A data center outside the city.
The corruption archive.
Thomas was not going to the port.
He was going there.
The Palermo shipment was another false trail.
Gabriel immediately called Mateo.
Then Declan shouted.
“Boss.”
Headlights appeared below.
Thomas’s convoy split.
Three vehicles went south.
Three west.
Three north.
Gabriel watched.
“He’s making us choose.”
Norah shook her head.
“No.”
“He’s making us waste time.”
She opened Marcus’s paper.
There was something written beneath CATHEDRAL in nearly invisible pencil.
A time.
12:20.
Norah checked her watch.
11:39.
Forty-one minutes.
Gabriel looked at her.
“What happens at 12:20?”
May you like
Norah stared toward the distant city.
“I think Thomas deletes seventeen years of evidence.”
