Chapter 5 - THE TUNNEL
The freight yard looked abandoned.
Norah knew better.
Nothing was truly abandoned when somebody had taken the trouble to install three new surveillance cameras beside rusted warehouses.
Gabriel noticed them too.
“Marcus?”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“You still need more proof?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked annoyed.
Norah did not care.
“Numbers are evidence.”
“And bullets?”
“Also persuasive.”
They entered the maintenance tunnel at 7:17 a.m.
Gabriel had refused to follow the instructions completely.
Declan and Mateo remained several blocks away with a second team.
If communication stopped for more than four minutes, they would move in.
Norah carried the flash drive.
Or what appeared to be the flash drive.
The real one was taped beneath the examination table at the veterinary clinic.
Gabriel had laughed when she suggested the decoy.
“I’m starting to understand why I hired you.”
“You hired me because your previous accountant disappeared.”
“That too.”
The tunnel narrowed.
Water dripped from overhead pipes.
Then a light appeared.
Elena and Claire were tied to chairs inside an old maintenance room.
Two armed men stood behind them.
A third emerged from the shadows.
Norah recognized him.
Victor Dane.
Gabriel’s head of internal security.
That hurt Gabriel.
She saw it immediately.
Victor had protected him for thirteen years.
“Drop the weapon, boss.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“How much?”
Victor smiled.
“You think this is about money?”
“Everything is eventually.”
“Not this.”
Victor looked toward Norah.
“The drive.”
Norah held it up.
“Release them.”
Victor laughed.
“You’re an accountant negotiating with armed men.”
“And yet here you are asking me for something.”
His smile vanished.
“Bring it forward.”
Norah took one step.
Gabriel’s hand closed around her wrist.
Victor raised his pistol toward Elena.
Norah stopped.
Gabriel released her.
“Go.”
She walked forward.
Five steps.
Four.
Three.
She dropped the flash drive.
Victor cursed.
Norah bent down.
That was the signal.
The tunnel lights died.
Gabriel fired.
Norah threw herself sideways.
Chaos filled the room.
Gunshots.
Shouting.
Metal crashing.
Then Mateo’s team entered from a maintenance hatch Victor apparently did not know existed.
Within ninety seconds, it was over.
Victor was alive.
One attacker escaped.
Elena and Claire were freed.
Gabriel pushed Victor against the wall.
“Marcus?”
Victor smiled through blood.
“You still think this ends with Marcus?”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
Victor looked toward Norah.
“Ask your accountant who paid her university tuition.”
Norah froze.
“What?”
“Ask her.”
“I paid my own tuition.”
“No.”
Victor laughed.
“Your mother told you that.”
Norah stepped closer.
“What are you talking about?”
Victor whispered.
“Bell Educational Trust.”
Gabriel stared at him.
Marcus Bell.
Norah shook her head.
“That’s impossible.”
Victor smiled wider.
“Marcus has been watching you since you were sixteen.”
Gabriel’s face became unreadable.
“Why?”
Victor looked directly at Norah.
“Because Samuel Kessler didn’t hide the evidence in box 317.”
Norah felt something drop inside her stomach.
“He hid it in you.”
She stared at him.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Victor laughed.
“It will.”
Then the escaped gunman fired from the far end of the tunnel.
Victor collapsed.
Gabriel pulled Norah behind concrete.
Declan returned fire.
The gunman disappeared into the darkness.
Victor was still conscious.
Barely.
Gabriel knelt beside him.
“Who is above Marcus?”
Victor tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
Then he grabbed Gabriel’s sleeve.
“Your father knew.”
Gabriel leaned closer.
Victor whispered two words.
“The widow.”
Then his hand fell.
Gabriel stared at him.
Norah did not understand.
Declan did.
His face went white.
Gabriel slowly stood.
Because Antonio Moretti’s widow was not dead.
May you like
She was living in Italy.
And she was Gabriel’s mother.
