Chapter 17 - THE COUNTERATTACK
Thomas escaped the data center.
But he left without his greatest weapon.
Norah copied the mirrored archive onto three separate encrypted drives.
One went to Gabriel.
One to Declan.
One to Margaret.
“Why my mother?”
Margaret asked.
“Because nobody searches the accountant’s mother twice.”
Margaret nodded approvingly.
“Your grandfather would have liked that.”
Before sunrise, Norah began dismantling Thomas’s network.
Not physically.
Financially.
Vendor accounts froze.
Emergency transfers were reversed.
Credit facilities were suspended.
Insurance policies triggered investigations.
Three front companies lost access to payroll.
Two corrupt executives attempted to flee.
One called Gabriel asking for protection.
Gabriel watched Norah work from the other side of the table.
“You enjoy this.”
“I enjoy balanced books.”
“You just collapsed a fourteen-company network.”
“It was poorly structured.”
Declan laughed.
For the first time since the safe house attack, the room almost felt normal.
Then Norah opened the Vale Reserve.
The real ring and Samuel’s missing sequence gave her access.
Two hundred eighty million dollars sat across layered accounts.
Gabriel looked at the total.
“That money belongs to people Thomas stole from.”
Norah looked at him.
It was not the answer she expected from a mafia boss.
“What do you want done?”
“Freeze it.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“Even your father’s share?”
Gabriel looked toward the ring.
“My father died trying to stop that money from owning him.”
He pushed the keyboard toward her.
“Freeze it.”
Norah did.
Thomas’s empire began suffocating.
At 6:14 a.m., his first message arrived.
YOU THINK THIS IS OVER.
Norah showed Gabriel.
He typed nothing.
At 6:17, another.
ASK DECLAN WHERE HIS WIFE IS.
Everyone turned.
Declan called Claire.
No answer.
His face drained.
“She was with Elena.”
Elena entered the room.
Alone.
Declan stood.
“Where’s Claire?”
Elena frowned.
“She left twenty minutes ago.”
“With who?”
“She said Mateo sent a car.”
Mateo looked up sharply.
“I didn’t.”
Silence.
Thomas had one more move.
Declan called again.
This time someone answered.
Thomas.
“You ruined my accounts.”
Declan’s face became murderous.
Thomas continued.
“So I’m taking something of yours.”
“Touch her—”
“Bring the black ring.”
Declan looked toward Gabriel.
Thomas gave a location.
The waterfront terminal.
This time real.
“Come alone.”
Thomas said.
“Or Claire leaves on the Palermo ship.”
The call ended.
Declan grabbed the ring.
Gabriel stopped him.
“No.”
“She’s my wife.”
“And Thomas wants you angry.”
“I am angry.”
“That’s why you don’t go alone.”
Declan pulled away.
Norah stepped between them.
“He doesn’t need the ring anymore.”
Both men looked at her.
“The reserve is frozen.”
she explained.
“So why demand it?”
Gabriel understood first.
“He wants the symbol.”
Norah nodded.
“The ring proves continuity.”
Thomas planned to present himself to surviving captains as Antonio’s legitimate successor.
Old organizations loved symbols.
Ownership.
History.
Myth.
If Thomas possessed Antonio’s ring and Declan delivered it, he could claim Gabriel had lost control.
“He’s not escaping.”
Norah said.
“He’s staging a coup.”
Gabriel looked toward the waterfront.
By nightfall, every remaining captain would be forced to choose.
May you like
Gabriel.
Or the man who had spent seventeen years preparing to replace him.
