Chapter 13 - The Name Rosa Left Behind
Enzo did not reach for his gun.
That was the only reason Sadi did not reach for Gabriel's.
"Explain."
Her voice sounded calmer than she felt.
Enzo looked at the recorder in her hand.
"Play the rest."
"Explain first."
Gabriel stayed between them.
His face had gone paler, but his attention was sharp.
"Enzo."
Enzo exhaled.
"Rosa knew I was investigating the clinic for Vittorio."
Sadi stared at him.
"Then why does she sound afraid of you?"
"Because she did not know whether Vittorio had sent me to protect her or watch her."
"Which was it?"
"Both."
Sadi's hand tightened around the recorder.
"You watched my mother."
"Yes."
"You followed her."
"Yes."
"You knew someone wanted her dead."
"Yes."
Each answer made her angrier.
"And she died anyway."
Enzo did not defend himself.
"Yes."
Sadi stepped around Gabriel.
"Why were you not driving her home?"
"Because Vittorio ordered me to stay with him."
"Why?"
"He believed whoever poisoned him would strike again if Rosa brought the evidence."
"He was right."
"Yes."
Sadi raised the recorder.
"Then why did she name you?"
Enzo looked at her.
"Because I was the last person she gave a copy of the blood results to."
"Where are they?"
"Gone."
"Convenient."
"I burned them."
Sadi stopped.
Gabriel turned toward Enzo.
"You what?"
Enzo's voice became harder.
"After Route Nine, Vittorio ordered every copy destroyed except Rosa's private file."
Gabriel stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because he thought the evidence was getting people killed."
"It was evidence that he had been poisoned."
"He had a twelve-year-old son and a seventeen-year-old son in a family already tearing itself apart."
"I was seventeen."
Enzo looked at him.
"And Victor was eighteen."
Gabriel's expression darkened.
"So my father buried attempted murder to protect us."
"He thought he was protecting you."
"That sentence has excused more damage tonight than any other."
Sadi agreed silently.
She pressed play.
Rosa's voice returned.
"If Enzo is hearing this, he will be angry I used his name."
Enzo closed his eyes.
Sadi looked at him.
The recording continued.
"Good."
For the first time that night, Enzo almost smiled.
Rosa spoke again.
"Enzo knows the black utility truck belongs to a G.F.H. security contractor."
Sadi stopped breathing.
"He saw the access manifest."
"He also knows which Falcone signed it out the night before I am making this recording."
The cassette clicked.
Then silence.
Sadi stared at the recorder.
"That is it?"
Enzo looked sick.
"The tape is damaged."
"Which Falcone?"
Enzo said nothing.
Sadi stepped closer.
"You know."
"I saw the manifest after the crash."
"Name."
"Victor."
Gabriel's face changed.
Sadi felt a strange stillness settle over her.
"Victor signed out the truck."
"Yes."
"Was he driving?"
"I never saw the driver."
"But you knew the truck was under his name."
"Yes."
"And you let my father help him disappear two years later."
Enzo looked at her.
"Tomas did not tell me what he was doing until after Victor was gone."
"Did you tell my father about the truck?"
Enzo's silence answered.
Sadi's anger became something colder.
"You did not."
"Vittorio ordered me not to."
"My mother was dead."
"I know."
"My father spent years believing Matteo ordered it."
"I know."
"And you let him help Victor escape."
Enzo's voice cracked for the first time.
"I know."
Sadi hit him.
Enzo took the punch without moving.
She hit him again.
Gabriel caught her arm before the third.
"Sadi."
"Let me go."
"You will break your hand before he stops deserving it."
Enzo wiped blood from his mouth.
"He is right."
Sadi wanted to scream.
Instead she pulled away and turned toward the archive shelves.
Her mother was dead because men had hidden information in the name of protection.
Her father had made catastrophic choices because he was missing the truth.
Gabriel had grown up inside the same lies.
And now every one of them expected her to trust the next secret would somehow be different.
A phone began vibrating.
It was Enzo's.
He checked the screen.
"Mara."
Gabriel held out a hand.
Enzo answered on speaker.
"Where are you?"
Mara's voice came fast.
"Moving."
"Are you hurt?"
"Not enough to matter."
"Can you reach the old clinic archive?"
There was a pause.
"You opened it?"
"Yes."
"Then find Rosa's protocol."
Sadi looked at the file in her hands.
"We have her medical notes."
Mara heard her.
"Sadi?"
"Here."
"Look for a sheet marked Sequence R."
Sadi searched through the folder.
Laboratory pages.
Handwritten charts.
Patient G-17.
Then a yellow page.
SEQUENCE R.
"Found it."
Mara exhaled.
"Good."
"Can it save Gabriel's arm?"
"If the tissue is still viable."
Gabriel looked at the spreading discoloration.
"And if it is not?"
"Then I save your life instead."
Nobody liked that answer.
Mara gave them a location five miles away in the basement of a closed veterinary hospital.
"I can improvise a vascular suite there for maybe an hour."
Enzo checked the archive entrance.
"Victor will come back."
Gabriel looked at the cabinets.
"He does not need to."
"Why?"
"He took the black folder."
Enzo frowned.
"What was in it?"
Gabriel's eyes moved toward the shelf label Victor had taken it from.
G.F.H. CONTINUITY - PRIMARY.
"The controlling trust instruments."
Sadi stared at him.
"You let him leave with the thing Matteo needs for the vote?"
"I did not let him do anything."
"You stopped Enzo from chasing him."
"Because you were standing in a room with two wounded men and four armed guards."
"There were two guards left."
"Still too many."
Sadi opened her mouth.
Then the archive alarm sounded.
A red message appeared on the terminals.
REMOTE PURGE REQUEST RECEIVED.
Gabriel looked at the screen.
"Matteo."
A countdown began.
TEN MINUTES TO ARCHIVE DESTRUCTION.
Sadi stared.
"Can he do that?"
"Apparently."
Enzo began pulling folders from cabinets.
"Take only originals."
Sadi looked around at thousands of pages.
"Which originals?"
Gabriel pointed.
"Rosa's file."
"The old covenant."
"Vascorin manufacturing records."
"Trust amendments."
Enzo found a locked drawer.
"What about Vittorio's file?"
Gabriel hesitated.
Sadi saw it.
"Take it."
He looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because every time your family decides a truth is too dangerous, somebody dies."
Gabriel held her gaze.
Then he nodded.
They filled two archive cases.
The countdown reached seven minutes.
A low vibration moved through the floor.
Enzo looked toward the ceiling.
"Charges."
Sadi stared.
"Explosives?"
"Thermite locks and structural drop points."
"Your grandfather did not trust anyone."
Gabriel picked up one case with his right hand.
"He met his relatives."
They moved toward the exit.
Sadi carried Rosa's file beneath her coat.
Enzo carried the second case.
Gabriel made it twenty yards before stumbling.
Sadi caught him.
His body was burning hot now despite his cold hand.
"You are worse."
"Observant."
"Stop joking."
"Not joking."
They reached the outer tunnel with four minutes left.
Headlights suddenly appeared at the far end.
Vehicles.
Enzo drew his gun.
"Matteo."
Gabriel looked behind them.
The archive had begun venting smoke.
Sadi looked ahead.
Three SUVs blocked the tunnel exit.
Armed men stepped out.
A loudspeaker crackled.
Matteo's voice filled the concrete passage.
"Gabriel, the trust now recognizes me as emergency principal."
Gabriel's face hardened.
Matteo continued.
"Place the archive cases on the ground and send Sadi forward."
Sadi looked at Gabriel.
"He is obsessed with me."
"Your charm."
"Not helping."
Matteo's voice returned.
"You have three minutes before the archive seals permanently."
Enzo looked at a side maintenance shaft.
"There is another way out."
Gabriel stared at him.
"How do you know?"
Enzo wiped blood from his mouth where Sadi had hit him.
"Rosa showed me."
Sadi looked at him.
Another secret.
Enzo did not pretend otherwise.
"You can punch me again outside."
The countdown reached two minutes.
They ran.
The side shaft was barely four feet high.
Sadi crawled first.
Gabriel followed.
Enzo came last, dragging the archive case.
Behind them, Matteo's men breached the outer door.
The archive countdown reached zero.
The world shook.
Heat blasted through the shaft.
The concrete floor jumped beneath Sadi's hands.
She crawled faster.
A steel hatch appeared ahead.
She pushed it open.
Cold predawn air hit her face.
They emerged behind a collapsed warehouse wall two blocks from the main tunnel.
Mara's stolen ambulance waited at the curb.
She leaned across and opened the passenger door.
"Get in."
They loaded Gabriel onto the stretcher.
Mara looked at Sadi.
"Do you have Sequence R?"
Sadi handed it over.
Mara read the first line.
Her face changed.
"What?" Gabriel asked.
Mara looked at him.
"Rosa wrote a warning across the dose table."
Sadi leaned closer.
In her mother's handwriting were six words.
SECOND EXPOSURE MAY CAUSE CARDIAC FAILURE.
Gabriel had not been exposed twice.
According to Rosa's file, he had been exposed once at seventeen.
Tonight made twice.
The monitor alarm began screaming.
Gabriel's heart rate dropped to thirty-eight.
May you like
Mara reached for the defibrillator pads.
"He is crashing."
