Chapter 10 - A DEAL IN THE DARK
Matteo's admission changed Enzo's posture.
He did not reach for a weapon.
He did not raise his voice.
He simply moved one step away from the man who had guarded his life for eighteen years.
“Explain.”
Matteo stared at the screen.
“May fourteenth was the night Camilla came to the estate after midnight.”
Enzo remembered.
She had told him she was upset after arguing with her father.
She had arrived without a driver and stayed less than an hour.
“She said Victor had threatened to cancel funding for one of her charities,” Enzo said.
Matteo nodded.
“She called me from the north gate instead of the main entrance.”
“Why?”
“She said she did not want the staff gossiping.”
“And you let her in.”
“Yes.”
“Did she meet anyone else?”
“I thought she went straight to you.”
“She did not reach my study for almost twenty minutes.”
Matteo's face tightened.
“I didn't know that.”
Adeline watched both men.
“You could be C3.”
Matteo turned toward her.
“Yes.”
The answer surprised her.
“You are not going to deny it?”
“I am going to deny being a traitor.”
He pointed toward the note.
“But if Daniel saw Camilla meet someone at my gate, then I am part of the chain whether I knew it or not.”
Enzo's eyes remained on him.
“Who else was working that night?”
“Owen.”
The room went quiet.
Matteo continued.
“He was assigned to exterior patrol.”
“Could he have met Camilla?”
“Yes.”
“Could he have used the gate without appearing on your log?”
“If he had my token.”
Enzo's jaw tightened.
The pattern was becoming clearer.
Someone had learned how to use Matteo's access as a disguise.
That did not prove Matteo was innocent.
But it gave the sabotage a method.
Adeline looked at Daniel's note again.
“C3 receives copies of every transfer before Salvatore sees them.”
She tapped the line.
“Owen was not working for your family nine years ago, was he?”
Matteo shook his head.
“No.”
“He joined five years ago.”
“Then he cannot be C3.”
Enzo leaned closer to the screen.
“Unless C3 is a role, not a person.”
Matteo looked at him.
“What?”
“Bell may have assumed one individual because the same code kept appearing.”
Adeline understood.
“But the code could belong to an access point, an office, or a position.”
“Yes.”
Matteo rubbed one hand over his face.
“The head of security office used to be designated C wing, room three.”
Enzo stared at him.
“C3.”
Matteo nodded.
“My predecessor used that office under your father.”
“Who was your predecessor?” Adeline asked.
Matteo's answer came quietly.
“Frank Moretti.”
Enzo's expression changed.
Adeline noticed.
“Who is Frank Moretti?”
“My mother's brother.”
“Your uncle?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he now?”
Enzo looked toward the dark window.
“He retired after my father died.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Arizona.”
Matteo shook his head.
“Not anymore.”
Enzo turned.
Matteo continued.
“He returned to Illinois six months ago.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he called me.”
“And you did not tell me?”
“He asked me not to.”
Enzo's expression hardened.
“Why?”
“He said he wanted nothing to do with the family.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It did at the time.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
Enzo laughed once without humor.
“Tonight everyone I trust seems to have one secret too many.”
Matteo absorbed the accusation.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I thought I was protecting an old man who wanted peace.”
“Maybe you were protecting the man who helped destroy Thomas Croft.”
Matteo said nothing.
Adeline looked at the prepaid phone.
“Daniel may know.”
“He is not answering,” Enzo said.
“Then we find Leo Benton.”
Matteo checked a message on his phone.
“My people found his wife.”
“Is she safe?”
“Yes.”
“She says Leo called at eight twenty and told her to take their son to her sister's house.”
“Did he say why?”
“He said he had made a mistake and someone knew.”
“What mistake?”
“She does not know.”
Enzo looked back at the code sheet.
“Find Frank Moretti.”
Matteo nodded.
“Quietly.”
“Very.”
Adeline folded her arms.
“And Daniel?”
“We find him too.”
“How?”
Enzo looked at the prepaid phone.
“He said the man following us told him where we were.”
“That means he is in contact with someone watching us.”
“Or someone watching the watcher,” Matteo said.
Adeline stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Daniel may not be hiding alone.”
The idea had not occurred to her.
Someone had helped him survive four months.
Someone had arranged the locker.
Someone knew when they reached Union Station.
Enzo's phone rang.
He looked at the number.
Unknown.
He answered.
“Marchetti.”
A distorted voice spoke.
“You have something that belongs to us.”
Enzo put the call on speaker.
Adeline's heart accelerated.
“What?” Enzo asked.
“The drive.”
Matteo reached for a second phone to trace the call.
The voice continued.
“Bring it to Lower Wacker at two fifteen.”
“Where?”
“Columbus access tunnel.”
“Who are you?”
“You don't need a name.”
“I usually prefer one before I make deliveries.”
“You will prefer the person we give you in exchange.”
Adeline stepped forward.
“Daniel?”
The caller paused.
Then a sound came through the speaker.
A man coughing.
Adeline recognized it.
“Daniel!”
“Addie.”
His voice was weak.
Then the distorted voice returned.
“Two fifteen.”
“No police.”
“No extra cars.”
“The drive for Daniel Croft.”
The call ended.
Adeline looked at the clock.
1:26 a.m.
“We go.”
Matteo shook his head.
“We verify first.”
“That was him.”
“It was his voice.”
“I know my brother.”
Matteo met her eyes.
“And the people who took him know you know his voice.”
Adeline turned toward Enzo.
“You heard him.”
“Yes.”
“You believe it was Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“Then we go.”
Enzo picked up the flash drive.
“No.”
Her face changed.
“What?”
“You stay here.”
“Absolutely not.”
“They asked for the drive, not you.”
“They used my brother to get it.”
“That is exactly why you are not walking into a tunnel with me.”
Adeline stepped close enough that Matteo quietly moved away.
“You do not get to decide this for me.”
“If you are coming in my car with my security, I do.”
“Then I will take a cab.”
“At one thirty in the morning to an exchange arranged by people who just attacked you on a staircase?”
“Yes.”
“That is not courage.”
“What is it?”
“Panic.”
The word stung because it was true.
Adeline's eyes filled with anger.
“If it were Antonio, would you stay behind?”
Enzo said nothing.
“If someone had your uncle in a tunnel, would Matteo be able to stop you?”
“No.”
“Then do not ask me to do what you would not.”
Enzo looked at her for several seconds.
“Fine.”
Matteo exhaled sharply.
“Enzo.”
“She stays in the car until I see Daniel.”
Adeline opened her mouth.
“That is the compromise.”
She hated it.
She accepted.
They prepared a duplicate flash drive containing a harmless copy of the scanned code sheet.
The original remained locked in the office safe.
Matteo wanted six men surrounding Lower Wacker.
Enzo allowed three, positioned far enough away not to be seen.
At 2:09 a.m., their black sedan descended into the concrete maze beneath downtown Chicago.
The lower roadway was nearly empty.
Water dripped from overhead beams.
Headlights moved in distant tunnels like ghosts.
Adeline sat in the back seat gripping the door handle.
Enzo sat beside her.
Matteo drove.
At 2:14, a white van appeared ahead.
Its headlights flashed twice.
Matteo stopped fifty yards away.
Enzo took the duplicate drive.
“Stay.”
Adeline did not argue this time.
Enzo stepped out.
The van door opened.
A man wearing a hood emerged.
He held no visible weapon.
“Drive.”
Enzo raised it.
“Daniel first.”
The hooded man pointed toward the van.
The side door slid open.
A figure sat inside with his hands bound.
Adeline saw him through the windshield.
Her breath vanished.
“Daniel.”
He was thinner.
His hair was longer.
There was bruising along one side of his face.
But it was him.
Alive.
Adeline reached for the door.
Matteo locked it.
“Not yet.”
“Unlock it.”
“Not yet.”
Outside, Enzo stepped closer to the van.
“Let him walk.”
The hooded man shook his head.
“The drive.”
Enzo tossed it onto the pavement halfway between them.
The man moved forward.
Daniel suddenly shouted from the van.
“Enzo, no!”
The hooded man spun toward him.
Daniel kicked the inside of the door.
“It's not them!”
Enzo froze.
The hooded man grabbed the drive.
Daniel shouted again.
“They're here for you!”
A red laser dot appeared on Enzo's chest.
Adeline screamed.
Matteo threw the car into gear.
The first gunshot struck the pavement where Enzo had been standing a second earlier.
He dove behind a concrete pillar.
The white van accelerated.
Adeline stared through the rear window as Daniel disappeared inside it again.
Matteo drove straight toward Enzo, braking just long enough for him to jump into the back seat.
Another shot hit the rear quarter panel.
The car surged away.
Adeline was shaking so hard she could barely speak.
“They still have him.”
Enzo looked back at the van vanishing into another tunnel.
“Yes.”
“You gave them the drive.”
“A copy.”
“That does not help Daniel.”
“No.”
Matteo took a hard turn.
Enzo's phone buzzed.
A message appeared from the prepaid number.
It contained a photograph taken seconds earlier.
Enzo stood in the tunnel with the laser dot on his chest.
Beneath it were six words.
THE NEXT SHOT WILL NOT MISS.
Back at the office after the failed exchange, Adeline replayed one detail no one else seemed focused on.
Daniel had shouted before the first shot.
Not after seeing the laser.
Before.
“He knew where the shooter was.”
Enzo looked at her.
“What?”
“In the van.”
“Daniel warned you before the laser appeared.”
Matteo stopped checking the car damage.
“He may have heard them discussing it.”
“Or he saw something inside the van.”
Adeline picked up the prepaid phone.
“Maybe the people holding him are not all on the same side.”
Enzo considered it.
“Someone let him speak twice.”
“Someone also let him keep enough strength to kick the door.”
Matteo frowned.
“That does not make them friendly.”
“No,” Adeline said.
“But it means the group may have fractures.”
Enzo looked at the copied drive they had surrendered.
“If one person wants me dead and another wants the evidence, those are different objectives.”
Matteo nodded.
“And different people.”
Adeline thought of Victor, Camilla, Hale, Price, Voss, and the unknown C3.
A conspiracy sounded organized when described from the outside.
Inside, it might be nothing more than frightened people pulling in different directions while pretending they still shared control.
That possibility gave them leverage.
Enzo called the state investigator again and reported the shooting despite Matteo's concern that official attention could expose Daniel further.
Adeline watched him make the choice.
“You are putting the attack on record.”
“Yes.”
“Even though it connects you to the tunnel.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because secrecy is helping them more than it is helping us.”
The sentence stayed with her.
For years, she had protected her father's memory privately because public accusations seemed impossible to fight.
Daniel had hidden evidence.
Margaret, if alive, had disappeared.
Carlo had faked his death.
Everyone had survived by becoming invisible.
Camilla and Victor had survived by making sure invisibility remained necessary.
Enzo looked at the clock.
“We start changing that now.”
May you like
Adeline stared at the bullet mark through the window.
“Assuming they give us time.”
