Chapter 2 - The Voice of a Dead Man
The emergency lights turned the safe room red.
Gabriel looked at Marco.
"Who else knows your code?"
Marco did not answer immediately.
The steel door shook beneath another impact.
"Marco."
"You, me, Adrian, and Vittorio."
Mia's eyes sharpened at the last name.
Gabriel noticed.
"You reacted."
"Later."
"Now."
"If we survive the next sixty seconds."
Another voice came through the door.
"Marco Bennett, security override seven-one-black."
Marco's face went hard.
"That is my emergency phrase."
Gabriel moved Leo into his arms.
The baby stirred but did not cry.
Mia tried to stand.
Her knees almost failed.
Gabriel caught her by the uninjured arm.
"You are staying down."
"If they breach the door, the couch will not save me."
"Neither will broken ribs."
"Then we agree this is inconvenient."
Marco glanced at both of them.
"There is a secondary exit."
Gabriel looked at him.
"You told me this room had one door."
"It does if you are not family."
Marco moved to the back wall and ripped a framed map of Chicago from its hooks.
Behind it was a narrow biometric panel.
He pressed his thumb against the scanner.
Nothing happened.
The panel blinked red.
Marco tried again.
Red.
"They killed the backup lock."
Mia leaned against the couch.
"Mechanical release?"
Marco looked at her.
"Behind the panel."
"Move."
"You can barely stand."
"And you cannot open it."
Gabriel handed Leo to Price.
"Doctor, if you drop him, I will make medical history with you."
Price clutched the baby against his chest.
"Understood."
Gabriel steadied Mia as she crossed the room.
She pulled a bent metal pick from the inside of her boot.
Marco stared at it.
"You still have one?"
"They found the expensive set."
"That was the cheap set?"
"My father believed in redundancy."
Mia knelt in front of the panel.
Pain made her breath catch.
Gabriel crouched beside her.
"Tell me what to do."
"Hold the light."
He looked almost offended.
Mia looked back at him.
"Unless your hidden talents include bypassing a seventy-year-old mechanical release."
Gabriel took Marco's flashlight.
"I contain multitudes."
"Then contain them quietly."
Marco looked away to hide a grin.
The door buckled inward by half an inch.
That erased the humor.
Mia inserted the pick into a narrow slot behind the panel.
Her hand trembled.
Gabriel saw blood beginning to spread through the side of her blouse.
"You are bleeding again."
"Useful observation."
"Mia."
"Three pins."
She closed her eyes.
"Old brass."
The pick moved once.
Twice.
The third movement produced a hard click.
A section of shelving slid away from the wall.
Cold air rushed into the room.
Marco pointed into the dark passage.
"Tunnel leads to the garage behind the neighboring property."
"How long?"
"Ninety yards."
Another impact hit the door.
This time the top hinge cracked.
Gabriel looked at Marco.
"You first."
"Boss."
"Check the route."
Marco disappeared into the passage.
Price followed with Leo.
Mia tried to step through.
Her legs folded.
Gabriel caught her before she hit the floor.
"I can walk."
"You just demonstrated otherwise."
"Put me down."
Gabriel lifted her into his arms.
"File a complaint with payroll."
Mia stared at him.
"I run payroll audits."
"Then deny it."
The steel door exploded inward behind them.
Gabriel carried Mia into the passage as Marco fired twice from the far end.
The shelving closed behind them.
Darkness swallowed the tunnel.
Mia heard men shouting inside the safe room.
One voice rose above the others.
"Find the woman."
Nobody said find the baby.
Mia's face went cold.
Gabriel felt it happen against his shoulder.
"You heard that."
"Yes."
"You are the target."
"I told you Leo was insurance."
Gabriel moved faster.
"Who did Daniel name?"
"Not here."
"We may not get another room."
"Then do not get us killed in this hallway."
Ahead, Marco shoved open a rusted service hatch.
Rain hammered the alley beyond it.
A black SUV sat behind a detached garage with its engine running.
Marco stopped.
"That is not ours."
Gabriel lowered Mia to her feet behind the brick wall.
"How many?"
Marco looked through the rain.
"Two in front."
"Plate?"
"Covered."
Mia watched the vehicle.
"Do not shoot them yet."
Marco looked at her as though she had suggested tea.
"They are blocking the exit."
"Exactly."
"Explain."
"They expect us to come through the garage."
Gabriel followed her gaze.
"So they know the tunnel."
"Which means whoever sent them knows this house better than Sterling should."
Marco's mouth flattened.
Mia pointed toward the SUV.
"If we take one alive, we learn who gave them the plans."
Gabriel looked at Marco.
"Can you?"
Marco checked his weapon.
"I can try to be polite."
The next thirty seconds happened in silence.
Marco moved through the rain behind the garage.
Gabriel kept Mia against the wall.
Price crouched with Leo beneath his coat.
A man stepped out of the passenger side of the SUV.
Marco hit him from behind before he could turn.
The driver reached for something beneath the dashboard.
Gabriel fired once into the front tire.
The driver flinched.
Marco ripped open the door and dragged him into the rain.
The first man tried to rise.
Mia kicked his weapon beneath the SUV with the toe of her boot.
Gabriel stared at her.
"Broken ribs."
"Still have feet."
Marco pinned the driver against the pavement.
"Who sent you?"
The man laughed through blood on his lip.
"You already know."
Gabriel stepped into the rain.
"Say it anyway."
The man's expression changed when he recognized him.
Fear arrived late but honestly.
"Sterling."
Mia shook her head.
"Wrong answer."
The driver looked at her.
Recognition flashed across his face.
That was enough.
Gabriel crouched.
"You know her."
"Never seen her."
"Your face disagrees."
The man said nothing.
Mia stepped closer.
"He was at the warehouse."
"Which one?"
"Hallway guard."
The man glared at her.
"You should have stayed tied up."
Gabriel's expression turned almost pleasant.
Marco tightened his grip.
"Careful."
The driver spat rainwater.
"You think this is about Sterling?"
Mia went still.
Gabriel leaned closer.
"Tell me what it is about."
The man's smile showed a chipped tooth.
"It is about a dead brother who should have kept his mouth shut."
Gabriel's hand moved faster than Marco expected.
He grabbed the man's collar.
"Who gave you the tunnel plans?"
"Go ask your uncle."
Marco stared at him.
The driver laughed.
"What?"
He looked between them.
"Did nobody tell Gabriel that old men keep better secrets than young ones?"
A small red dot appeared on the driver's chest.
Mia saw it first.
"Down."
She threw herself into Gabriel.
The shot cracked through the rain.
The driver jerked once and collapsed.
Marco fired toward a rooftop across the alley.
Gabriel caught Mia before she struck the pavement.
She gasped and clutched her side.
"Sniper."
"I noticed."
"Roofline east."
Marco dragged the second attacker behind the SUV.
Price ran toward the neighboring garage with Leo.
Another shot shattered the SUV's rear window.
Gabriel lifted Mia again.
"We are leaving."
"Take the second man."
"Marco has him."
"And the driver's phone."
Gabriel looked at her.
"Anything else?"
"His left shoe."
"Why?"
"Warehouse crews used color-coded tags on their boots."
Gabriel almost asked how she had noticed that while kidnapped.
Then he remembered the three-year-old insurance invoice.
"Marco."
"I heard her."
Marco ripped the dead man's shoe free, grabbed the surviving attacker by the back of his jacket, and shoved him toward the garage.
They escaped through a service lane thirty seconds before two more vehicles entered the alley.
Gabriel sat in the back of a borrowed sedan with Mia beside him and Leo safely strapped into an emergency infant seat.
Price worked on Mia's reopened wound as Marco drove.
No one spoke until the Lincoln Park blocks disappeared behind them.
Gabriel held the microSD card in his closed fist.
"We need a machine that has never touched my network."
Mia nodded.
"And no wireless card."
Marco looked through the mirror.
"I know a place."
Twenty minutes later, they entered the basement of a closed print shop owned by one of Marco's cousins.
The computer there was twelve years old and disconnected from everything except a dusty laser printer.
Mia sat in a metal chair while Price wrapped her ribs.
Gabriel inserted the card.
One folder appeared.
DANIEL_PRIVATE.
Inside it were four files.
Three were encrypted.
One was an audio recording dated nine days before Daniel's death.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
Mia watched him.
"You do not have to play it now."
"Yes, I do."
He clicked the file.
Static filled the basement.
Then Daniel Romano's voice came through the old speakers.
Gabriel's face changed before a single full sentence was spoken.
Daniel sounded tired.
Alive, but tired.
"Gabe, if you are hearing this, I ran out of time."
Gabriel closed his eyes.
The recording continued.
"I need you to understand something before you blame yourself."
A long breath crackled through the microphone.
"The transfer carries your signature, but you did not sign it."
Gabriel opened his eyes.
Marco turned slowly toward him.
Daniel's voice grew quieter.
"Someone cloned your approval token and moved money through Crown Harbor Logistics."
Mia leaned forward despite the pain.
"That is the company."
Daniel continued.
"I traced it to Sterling, but Sterling is only a contractor."
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
"Then who?"
As if answering him across eighteen months, Daniel spoke again.
"The person behind it is family."
The recording glitched.
For two seconds there was only static.
Then Daniel's voice returned.
"If anything happens to me, do not trust Uncle Vittorio."
Nobody moved.
The file ended.
Gabriel stared at the silent speakers.
Marco looked sick.
Mia watched Gabriel's face, expecting rage.
What she saw was worse.
Grief became calculation.
"Call Vittorio," Gabriel said.
Marco looked at him.
"You said no calls."
"I changed my mind."
"What do you want me to say?"
Gabriel looked at the dead computer screen.
"Tell him we lost Mia in the escape."
Mia's head turned.
Marco understood immediately.
"And Leo?"
"Tell him Leo is safe with me."
"What are you testing?"
Gabriel looked at Mia.
"Whether my uncle cares more about the child or the accountant."
Marco made the call from a burner phone.
Vittorio answered on the second ring.
His voice sounded breathless and concerned.
"Marco, where is Gabriel?"
"Safe."
"And Leo?"
"Safe too."
Vittorio exhaled heavily.
"Thank God."
Marco glanced at Gabriel.
"We had trouble at the Lincoln Park house."
"What kind of trouble?"
"We were hit."
Vittorio cursed softly.
"Sterling?"
"Maybe."
Marco paused.
"We lost Mia Carver during the escape."
There was silence on the line.
Not long.
Less than two seconds.
But everyone in the basement heard it.
Then Vittorio spoke.
"Lost her how?"
Gabriel's eyes became cold.
Marco answered carefully.
"She disappeared in the alley."
"Is she alive?"
Gabriel looked at Mia.
Mia looked back at him.
Marco said nothing.
Vittorio's voice sharpened.
"Marco, is Mia Carver alive?"
Gabriel reached for the phone.
Before he could take it, the old printer behind them suddenly powered on by itself.
Everyone turned.
The machine had no network cable.
No wireless card.
No connection to anything outside the room.
Yet a single page began sliding from the tray.
Across the top, in large black letters, were six words.
May you like
I KNOW YOU PLAYED DANIEL'S MESSAGE.
