Chapter 10 - Pier 19
Gabriel read the message twice.
Mia watched Dante instead.
His face had changed.
Not much.
Enough.
"You did not know," she said.
Dante looked at her.
"Know what?"
"Your father would use you in the exchange."
Dante laughed.
"Of course I knew."
"No."
Mia pushed away from the car despite the pain.
"You thought you were the person making deals."
Dante's smile disappeared.
"Be quiet."
"Now you are cargo too."
Gabriel looked at his cousin.
Dante avoided his eyes.
That confirmed it.
Marco grabbed Dante by the collar.
"Where is Pier 19?"
"You know where it is."
"Whose property?"
Dante looked at Gabriel.
"Romano Maritime."
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
Pier 19 was one of the oldest terminals in the family network.
It had belonged to his grandfather.
Daniel learned to drive there.
Gabriel learned to fight there.
Vittorio had managed it before Gabriel's father promoted him.
Mia understood from their faces.
"He chose somewhere personal."
Gabriel nodded.
"And controlled."
Sterling looked at the message.
"It is a kill box."
Marco agreed.
"Container stacks on both sides, river behind, two vehicle entrances."
Mia looked at Dante.
"And cameras?"
Dante said nothing.
Gabriel crouched in front of him.
"Your father just offered to trade you for a hostage."
Dante's face hardened.
"He knows you will not hurt me."
"Does he?"
For the first time, Dante looked uncertain.
Gabriel held his gaze.
"Help us get the girl."
"Why would I?"
"Because if you do not, your father learns that you are disposable and keeps treating you that way."
Mia saw the sentence land.
Dante looked away.
"He will kill me if I turn."
Gabriel's voice softened slightly.
"He already put your name in a hostage exchange."
Dante swallowed.
"Pier 19 has a control room beneath the crane office."
Marco leaned closer.
"Access?"
"Old freight elevator."
"Code?"
Dante hesitated.
Gabriel waited.
"0617."
Mia stared at him.
"Again."
Dante frowned.
"What?"
"Six-seventeen."
Gabriel looked at her.
Mia's mind moved through the night.
VR-617.
Box 617.
The cross.
The control code.
"It is not just Daniel's death date."
Dante looked confused.
"It was my grandfather's code."
Gabriel turned.
"My father?"
"Yes."
"For what?"
Dante shrugged.
"He used it on everything."
Gabriel went still.
"June seventeenth."
Mia looked at him.
"What happened then?"
Gabriel's expression changed.
"My mother found out my father had a second family."
Marco looked surprised.
Gabriel continued.
"June seventeenth was the day she left him."
Mia stared.
"Why would he use that as a code?"
"He said it was the day he learned secrets cost more than money."
Sterling laughed softly.
"Your family turns trauma into passwords."
Gabriel ignored him.
Mia looked at Dante.
"Second family."
Dante's face went blank.
Too blank.
Gabriel noticed.
"What do you know?"
"Nothing."
Gabriel stepped closer.
"Dante."
"Ask my father."
"I am asking you."
Dante looked at the floor.
"Vittorio used to say your father had another son."
Gabriel's expression changed.
Marco stared.
Mia felt the story shift beneath them.
"Older or younger?"
"I do not know."
Dante looked at Gabriel.
"He said Salvatore paid the mother to disappear."
Gabriel's voice became cold.
"My mother would have told me."
"Maybe she did not know everything."
The sentence cut deep.
Mia stepped in before Gabriel could respond.
"Does the second son matter tonight?"
Dante looked at the message from Vittorio.
"Maybe."
"Why?"
"Because my father once said Crown was built for the brother nobody was allowed to name."
Nobody spoke.
Mia looked at the master key hidden beneath her bandage.
The Crown accounts suddenly seemed older and more complicated than theft.
Gabriel's family had been moving money for someone outside the visible family tree.
"Name?" Marco asked.
Dante shook his head.
"I never heard it."
Gabriel looked at the clock.
"We deal with that after Emma."
The plan for Pier 19 used Dante as visible bait.
Mia hated the symmetry.
Dante hated it more.
Marco fitted him with a hidden transmitter.
Sterling positioned men on the river side.
Gabriel refused to leave Mia behind.
Mia refused to stay in the vehicle.
They compromised by placing her in the crane control room with Marco.
Nobody called it reasonable.
At 3:04 a.m., a black SUV rolled through Pier 19's main gate.
Dante sat alone in the back seat.
The driver was one of Marco's trusted officers.
Gabriel remained hidden behind a row of refrigerated containers.
Mia and Marco entered the freight elevator.
The code 0617 unlocked the basement control room.
Inside, old monitors showed every camera on the terminal.
Mia scanned the feeds.
"There."
Camera twelve showed Emma Mercer sitting on the concrete near the river loading platform.
Her hands were tied in front of her.
Two men guarded her.
Vittorio was not visible.
Marco zoomed another camera.
"More movement east."
Six armed men waited between containers.
Gabriel's route.
"Kill box," Mia said.
Marco nodded.
"They expect him."
On camera four, Dante stepped out of the SUV.
A speaker mounted above the pier crackled.
Vittorio's voice filled the terminal.
"Dante, walk toward the yellow line."
Dante looked around.
"Where are you?"
"Walk."
"You said you would trade Emma."
"I said bring Mia."
Dante's face tightened.
"She got away."
Silence.
Then Vittorio laughed.
"Of course she did."
Mia stared at the monitor.
Marco whispered, "He expected that."
Dante continued.
"You have me."
"That is not an equal trade."
Dante's face changed.
Gabriel heard it through the transmitter.
Mia saw it on the screen.
A son finally understanding his value to his father.
"Dad."
Vittorio answered without warmth.
"You failed a simple assignment."
Dante swallowed.
"I am your son."
"Then act like one."
Mia looked away for half a second.
Even after everything Dante had done, the cruelty was difficult to watch.
Marco did not look away.
"Now he knows."
A truck entered the far gate.
Mia zoomed the camera.
Dr. Price was in the passenger seat.
His wrists were bound.
"Price."
Marco looked.
"Alive."
Vittorio's voice came over the speaker.
"Gabriel, I know you are here."
Gabriel remained hidden.
"You always come when someone you love is threatened."
Mia heard a faint sound behind the control-room wall.
Metal against concrete.
She turned.
"Marco."
He heard it too.
The maintenance door moved.
Someone was entering the room from the tunnel behind them.
Marco raised his weapon.
The door opened.
Adrian Vale stepped through with his hands raised.
Mia stared.
"How did you get here?"
"The same tunnel you used."
Marco aimed at his chest.
"Bad answer."
Adrian looked at the monitors.
"Vittorio has a remote trigger wired to the fuel pumps."
Mia's blood went cold.
"Explosion?"
"Fire."
"How much?"
"Enough to make this pier look like an accident nobody survives."
Marco stared at him.
"Why tell us?"
"Because I helped build the system."
Mia's face hardened.
"You keep saying things that make trust difficult."
Adrian looked at her.
"Your father said the same thing."
"Do not use him to make yourself sound human."
Adrian flinched.
That surprised her.
"Where is the trigger?" Marco asked.
"Vittorio carries the primary."
"Backup?"
"Control cabinet beside pump three."
Mia looked at the camera map.
Pump three sat seventy yards from Emma.
"Can you disable it?"
Adrian nodded.
"If I reach it."
Marco lowered the weapon one inch.
"Why should I let you out of this room?"
"Because in eight minutes Vittorio will ignite the terminal whether Gabriel agrees to anything or not."
Mia looked at the time stamp.
"Why eight?"
Adrian pointed to the river camera.
A barge was approaching.
Its hull carried the logo of a federal hazardous-materials contractor.
"Because once that barge enters the zone, the fire becomes a national incident."
Marco understood.
"And evidence disappears under federal control."
Adrian nodded.
"Including Daniel's murder trail."
Mia looked at Gabriel's position on camera seven.
Vittorio had not designed an exchange.
He had designed a funeral.
She grabbed the radio.
"Gabriel."
His voice answered immediately.
"Talk."
"Do not move toward Emma."
"Why?"
"The pier is wired to burn."
A pause.
Then Gabriel spoke.
"Where is Vittorio?"
Mia scanned the cameras.
"Not visible."
Adrian leaned toward screen nine.
"There."
A figure stood inside the glass office above the loading platform.
Vittorio.
He held something small in his right hand.
A remote.
Gabriel saw the office from his position.
"I have him."
Mia's voice sharpened.
"Do not shoot him."
"Why?"
Adrian answered over the radio.
"Dead-man trigger."
Gabriel went silent.
Vittorio's voice filled the pier again.
"I wondered when Adrian would choose a side."
Adrian closed his eyes.
"He knows I am here."
Marco stared at the ceiling speaker.
Vittorio continued.
"Gabriel, bring me the ledger, the key, and Mia Carver."
Mia's stomach tightened.
"You have five minutes."
A timer appeared on every monitor in the control room.
05:00.
04:59.
04:58.
Then camera twelve changed.
One of the guards pulled Emma to her feet.
The other opened a gate at the edge of the river.
Vittorio spoke one final sentence.
May you like
"At zero, the girl goes into the water and the pier burns."
