Chapter 9 - THE FACTORY OF STOLEN NAMES
Mercer Textiles stood abandoned beside the Hudson River.
Broken windows covered the brick walls.
The original company sign remained above the entrance, faded but visible.
Elena stepped from the police vehicle before anyone could stop her.
Aaron followed.
Federal agents surrounded the property.
A heat scan showed six people inside.
Victoria.
David Crane’s remaining men.
And one unknown person confined inside the manager’s office.
The building smelled of oil and wet concrete.
Old machines stood beneath white sheets.
Elena imagined her grandfather walking between them.
She imagined her parents visiting before the company was stolen.
Victoria waited on the upper platform.
She wore a dark coat over the cream suit from the video call.
The silver locket hung around her neck.
“Elena.”
Her voice echoed through the factory.
“You finally came home.”
Elena looked up.
“This was never your home.”
Victoria smiled.
“It belonged to whoever could keep it.”
Aaron raised a loudspeaker.
“Victoria Langley, surrender.”
She ignored him.
A spotlight activated over the factory floor.
A woman sat tied to a chair beneath it.
Her gray hair covered her face.
Elena stopped.
The woman lifted her head.
A familiar scar ran beside her left eyebrow.
Elena had seen it in childhood photographs.
“Mom?”
The word escaped before she could stop it.
Isabel Mercer had supposedly died twenty-four years earlier.
The woman began crying.
“Elena.”
Elena moved forward.
Aaron caught her arm.
“It may be a trap.”
Victoria laughed.
“It is absolutely a trap.”
Isabel looked thin and exhausted.
But she was alive.
Victoria had forced her car from the road.
She survived the crash.
Victoria arranged a false death certificate and moved her between private facilities.
Isabel knew too much about the original Mercer fraud.
She also owned patents worth hundreds of millions.
Her legal death allowed Langley Industries to claim them.
“Why keep her alive?” Elena shouted.
Victoria touched the locket.
“Because she never signed the transfer.”
Elena understood.
The patents still legally belonged to Isabel.
Victoria needed her signature.
For twenty-four years, she had failed to obtain it.
Jonathan discovered Isabel’s survival shortly before his death.
That was the final secret in the vault.
Victoria held up a document.
“Sign the Mercer transfer, Elena.”
“Then I release your mother.”
“I don’t own her patents.”
“You own her inheritance rights if she dies.”
Isabel shook her head.
“Do not sign.”
Victoria placed a gun against her temple.
Aaron’s officers moved.
Victoria’s men appeared behind the machines.
Gunfire erupted.
Elena dropped behind a steel table.
Aaron returned fire.
One of Victoria’s guards fell from the platform.
Another ran toward the rear exit.
Isabel kicked backward, knocking Victoria off balance.
The gun fired.
The bullet struck the ceiling.
Elena ran up the metal stairs.
Victoria recovered and aimed at her.
Before she could fire, Dr. Hayes emerged from the shadows.
He stepped between them.
The bullet struck his chest.
Hayes fell against the railing.
Victoria stared at him.
“You were always weak.”
Hayes looked toward Elena.
“Not this time.”
He grabbed Victoria’s coat and pulled her toward the edge.
May you like
The railing broke.
Both of them fell.
