Chapter 8 - THE FERRY
The phone shattered.
Harlan pulled the trigger.
Sofia fired again.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He fell behind the SUV.
Tony shot the driver before he could raise his weapon.
I ran toward the broken phone.
The screen still displayed the explosive signal.
The release timer had started.
Ninety seconds.
Agent Shaw shouted through the radio.
“The ferry bomb is active.”
“Lower deck.”
“We cannot evacuate in time.”
Sofia ran toward me.
“There is a manual disarm inside the captain’s console.”
“How do you know?”
“I helped install it.”
Tony aimed at her.
“You helped build the bomb?”
“I built contingencies.”
“For Harlan?”
“For myself.”
The ferry moved beneath the bridge.
Federal boats could not board safely at full speed.
A helicopter circled above it.
I looked toward the rail line.
An old service boat remained tied near the yard’s river wall.
We reached it in twenty seconds.
Tony drove.
Sofia and Bruno came with us.
Harlan remained alive beneath federal guns.
I should have stayed to make sure he never stood again.
The children came first.
The ferry crew saw us approaching.
Gunmen on the upper deck fired.
Sofia shot one.
Tony pulled beside the stern.
Bruno jumped first.
He landed on the ferry deck and attacked the nearest gunman’s arm.
I followed.
The timer on my radio showed fifty-four seconds.
We fought through the rear corridor.
A teenage girl opened a storage-room door.
“More kids are downstairs.”
“Stay hidden,” I told her.
Sofia led us toward the bridge.
The captain lay unconscious beside the wheel.
Marco’s wife stood over him holding the detonator console.
I recognized her from family dinners.
Angela Ricci.
Tony froze.
“You were part of this?”
Angela’s eyes filled with tears.
“Marco said Harlan would kill our sons.”
“Where are they?”
“Sofia has them.”
Everyone looked at my sister.
Sofia did not deny it.
She had held Marco’s children to control him.
That was why he obeyed.
That was why he killed Carlo.
That was why he joined Harlan.
It did not excuse him.
It changed the shape of the betrayal.
Angela pointed the gun toward Sofia.
“You promised they would be safe.”
“They are.”
“Where?”
Sofia smiled.
“Somewhere Nico will never find unless the ferry reaches Canada.”
The timer showed twenty-seven seconds.
I grabbed Sofia.
“Disarm it.”
“Let me leave with Harlan’s files.”
“No.”
“Then everyone dies.”
Bruno growled.
Sofia looked at him.
For the first time, my sister’s confidence broke.
I pressed her hand against the console.
“Do it.”
She entered a code.
The screen requested voice authorization.
Sofia spoke.
“Mercury sleeps beneath the river.”
The timer stopped at five seconds.
Tony exhaled.
Angela lowered the gun.
Then the console displayed another message.
SECOND DEVICE ACTIVE.
The lower deck shook.
Water rushed into the ferry.
Sofia stared at the screen.
“I did not know about that.”
Harlan had built a contingency she did not control.
May you like
The ferry began tilting toward the river.
Children screamed below us.
