Chapter 4 - The Man Beneath the Rail Yard
The rail yard was covered in fog when they arrived.
Rusting train cars sat beneath broken roofs.
Weeds grew through the tracks.
Lucas brought only Marco and two men who had served him since childhood.
Hannah insisted on coming.
Lucas argued until she held up the locket.
“The vault may require this.”
He could not deny it.
Track Nine ended beside a collapsed repair shed.
The etched sequence opened a metal panel hidden beneath the rail.
A staircase descended into darkness.
The underground vault smelled of oil and damp concrete.
Shelves lined the walls.
Some held weapons.
Others held files.
A glass cabinet stood in the center.
Inside was Antonio Valentasi’s gold watch.
Lucas opened the cabinet.
A tiny puncture marked the leather strap.
Michael’s file had been correct.
The poison entered through the wrist.
Hannah found a box labeled COLLINS.
Inside were photographs of her taken over four years.
The Boston coffee shop.
Her apartment.
Cape Cod.
The diner.
Michael had not been the only person watching her.
A letter rested beneath the photographs.
Michael,
The woman remains alive only while she remains ignorant.
If you tell her anything about the organization, she becomes part of it.
Salvatore’s signature appeared at the bottom.
Hannah sat on the edge of a metal crate.
Michael had lied.
But the lie had been placed around her by men who treated knowledge as a death sentence.
Lucas found the original port ledger.
Every weapons shipment appeared in Salvatore’s handwriting.
Kodra’s organization received guns through Valentasi warehouses.
Salvatore then ordered attacks against Valentasi businesses and blamed Kodra.
The manufactured war increased his control over both groups.
A sound came from behind the vault wall.
Marco raised his weapon.
The panel opened.
A man stepped through.
He was thinner than the Michael in Hannah’s photograph.
A scar crossed his jaw.
His left leg dragged slightly.
Hannah forgot how to breathe.
Michael looked at Lucas first.
Then at her.
“Hannah.”
His voice was the same.
Older.
Rougher.
But the same.
She crossed the distance and struck him across the face.
The sound echoed through the vault.
Michael did not defend himself.
“You let me think you abandoned me.”
“Yes.”
“You let him bury you.”
“Yes.”
“You watched us?”
“From a distance.”
She hit him again.
Lucas caught her wrist before the third strike.
“Enough.”
Hannah pulled free.
“No.”
“Not enough.”
Michael looked toward the floor.
“She is right.”
Lucas stepped closer to his brother.
Two years of grief hardened his face.
“Why did you not trust me?”
“I trusted your love.”
“I did not trust what Salvatore could make you do with it.”
Lucas grabbed Michael’s coat.
“I would have killed him for you.”
“That is exactly why I stayed hidden.”
Before Lucas could answer, alarms began sounding.
A red light flashed above the vault entrance.
Michael looked toward the ceiling.
“Salvatore found us.”
Steel doors sealed every exit.
A digital timer appeared on the wall.
Ten minutes.
Fuel began pouring through pipes above them.
Michael reached for the emergency controls.
“He wired the vault to burn.”
Lucas looked toward the evidence shelves.
“Can we stop it?”
“No.”
“We can only open the maintenance shaft.”
“How?”
“One person holds the interior release.”
The timer dropped to nine minutes.
May you like
Hannah stared at the mechanism.
Someone would have to remain inside.
