Chapter 8 - Thirty-Six Minutes
For three seconds, nobody in the room moved.
Then Gabriel swung his legs off the exam table.
Mara stepped in front of him.
"No."
"Move."
"You are not going anywhere."
"I have thirty-six minutes before Matteo can seize emergency voting authority."
"You have less than that before your arm becomes unsalvageable."
"Then keep it attached while I work."
Mara stared at him.
"You are impossible."
"Frequently."
Enzo was already making calls.
"I need the trust counsel awake now."
A voice answered on the other end.
Enzo turned away and began issuing instructions.
Sadi looked at Gabriel.
"What happens at 3:17?"
"Matteo can call an emergency trustee vote."
"And then?"
"If they certify me incapacitated, he receives temporary authority over G.F.H.-linked assets."
"Temporary sounds fixable."
Gabriel gave her a hard look.
"Temporary control is enough to move accounts, destroy records, replace boards, and authorize security actions."
Sadi thought of the warrant with her name on it.
"Including arresting witnesses."
"Especially witnesses."
Mara pulled on sterile gloves.
"Then let me make you legally conscious."
Gabriel looked at her.
"What do you need?"
"The reversal sequence."
Sadi's mind returned to Victor's words.
You have had it since you were twelve.
Your father thought ordinary things were invisible.
The toolbox in her apartment suddenly felt heavier in her memory.
"I know where my father's things are."
Gabriel looked at her immediately.
"Apartment?"
Sadi nodded.
Enzo heard them.
"No."
"Victor said my father gave me what they want."
"Which means your apartment is the first place they will go."
"They might already be there."
"Exactly."
Sadi crossed her arms.
"Then if we wait, they find it first."
Enzo ended his call.
"I can send a team."
"Your teams keep turning out to belong to Matteo."
The insult landed.
Enzo did not deny it.
Gabriel looked at Sadi.
"What are we looking for?"
"A red metal toolbox."
"Combination?"
"No lock."
"Contents?"
"Wrenches, electrical tape, old screws, a level, three screwdrivers, and a bunch of things I never bothered to identify."
Gabriel's mouth almost moved.
"Your father hid the future of a criminal empire in a toolbox."
"If he did, that is your family's fault for being dramatic."
Mara pointed toward the table.
"Both of you can flirt with disaster later."
Sadi stared at her.
"We are not flirting."
Gabriel answered at the same time.
"Agreed."
Mara gave them a skeptical look and returned to the IV.
Enzo checked the time.
"We cannot reach her apartment and the trust meeting before 3:17."
Gabriel looked at him.
"We do not need to reach the meeting."
"Then what?"
"We prevent quorum."
Enzo understood immediately.
"Call the trustees."
"All of them."
"Some are Matteo's."
"Then wake the ones who are not."
Enzo began dialing.
Sadi looked at Gabriel.
"How many?"
"Five seats."
"How many does Matteo control?"
"At least two."
"You?"
"One directly."
"Who has the others?"
Gabriel's expression tightened.
"One is vacant."
"And the last?"
Enzo answered from across the room.
"Victor."
Sadi stared.
"The dead man has a vote?"
"Legally, no," Gabriel said.
"Practically?"
"If Matteo proves Victor is alive before the vote, yes."
Sadi understood the trap.
Victor's resurrection had not been revealed for drama.
It was a vote.
A vote that could hand Matteo control.
"So they have three."
Gabriel nodded.
"If they seat Victor."
Enzo ended another call.
"Trust counsel is refusing remote certification without an independent physician."
Mara looked up.
"I am an independent physician."
Gabriel shook his head.
"You treated my father under a G.F.H. grant."
"Fifteen years ago."
"Matteo will challenge you."
Mara swore.
Enzo's phone rang again.
He answered.
A man's frightened voice spilled through the speaker.
"Mr. Rinaldi, they are already here."
"Who?"
"Matteo's attorneys."
"Where are you?"
"Trust office."
"Do not sign anything."
"They have Victor Falcone with them."
Gabriel closed his eyes for half a second.
The caller continued.
"He has DNA certification and a federal identity restoration order."
Enzo's expression became grim.
"How long until the vote?"
"Twenty-nine minutes."
Gabriel held out his hand for the phone.
"Mr. Kendricks, this is Gabriel Falcone."
The lawyer's voice shook.
"Gabriel, thank God."
"Record this call."
"I am."
"I am conscious, oriented, and expressly reject any transfer of emergency authority."
"I need a doctor to certify capacity."
Mara stepped closer.
"Mara Klein, vascular surgeon, license number 409771."
She recited Gabriel's vital signs and mental status.
The lawyer typed rapidly.
"This may delay them."
Gabriel's eyes sharpened.
"Delay is not enough."
"The amended protocol is valid on its face."
Enzo swore.
"Who signed the amendment?"
The lawyer hesitated.
"You did."
Gabriel became motionless.
"No."
"Your electronic signature is on it."
"Date?"
"October fourteenth last year."
Gabriel looked at Enzo.
"I was in Madrid."
"You signed documents remotely from Madrid," Enzo said.
"Not that one."
Sadi felt the trap tighten again.
Matteo had prepared this months ago.
Maybe years ago.
The shooting was only the visible part.
Gabriel ended the call.
"We need the original covenant."
Enzo nodded.
"Tomas."
Sadi looked at them.
"What does my father have to do with the covenant?"
Gabriel answered.
"He was one of two outside witnesses when my grandfather revised the trust."
"You said he moved records."
"Apparently he witnessed them too."
Enzo looked uncomfortable.
Sadi caught it.
"What else are you not saying?"
Enzo exhaled.
"Tomas did not just witness the covenant."
"Then what?"
"He removed the original from the G.F.H. archive the night Rosa died."
Sadi's anger returned.
"You knew what Victor wanted this entire time."
"I suspected."
"Stop using that word."
"I did not know Tomas kept it."
"But you knew he took it."
"Yes."
Sadi stepped closer.
"And you still brought me into Gabriel's house."
Enzo held her gaze.
"Because once the cufflink appeared, you were already in this whether I brought you there or not."
Sadi hated that he might be right.
Mara checked the clock.
"Twenty-four minutes."
Gabriel made the decision.
"Enzo, take Sadi to her apartment."
Enzo shook his head.
"You need me."
"I need the covenant more."
"And you?"
"Mara keeps me alive."
"Matteo knows this location."
"Then move me after they leave."
Sadi looked at Gabriel.
"You trust me with this?"
He met her eyes.
"I trust that you hate being lied to more than you fear them."
"That is a terrible security assessment."
"It has worked so far."
Mara handed Enzo a medical pack.
"If his pulse drops below forty, call me."
Enzo stared at her.
"I am leaving him with you."
"Then if her pulse drops below forty, call me."
Sadi took the bag.
"Why would my pulse drop?"
Mara looked at Enzo's gun.
"Tonight?"
Sadi accepted the point.
They left through the rear entrance.
Enzo drove an unmarked sedan.
Sadi sat low in the passenger seat.
The city looked normal outside the windows.
Traffic lights changed.
Convenience stores glowed.
A couple argued beside a taxi.
Nobody knew that somewhere behind dark glass, an old family trust was about to transfer millions of dollars and hundreds of armed men because one wounded man might not be able to sign his name.
Enzo broke the silence.
"Your father was a good man."
Sadi looked out the window.
"You do not get to tell me that after hiding half his life from me."
"Fair."
"Did you know him well?"
"Yes."
"How well?"
"Well enough that he broke my nose twice."
Sadi looked at him.
"Why?"
"First time I deserved it."
"Second?"
"Also deserved it."
Despite herself, she almost smiled.
Then Enzo's expression became serious.
"He asked me to stay away from you."
"Why?"
"Because he believed anyone connected to G.F.H. would eventually be used against you."
Sadi looked down at her hands.
"He was right."
"Yes."
They reached her block twelve minutes later.
The building looked dark.
Too dark.
Sadi pointed.
"My hallway light is always on."
Enzo parked across the street.
"Stay here."
"No."
"Sadi."
"My toolbox."
"Your life."
"They are apparently the same thing now."
Enzo sighed.
"Behind me."
They crossed the street.
The lobby door was unlocked.
It was never unlocked after midnight.
Enzo drew his weapon.
They climbed four flights without using the elevator.
Sadi's apartment door was open.
The frame had been splintered around the lock.
Her stomach dropped.
Inside, every drawer had been emptied.
Couch cushions were slashed.
Cabinet doors hung open.
Her mattress had been cut apart.
The closet was empty.
Sadi rushed inside.
"The toolbox."
It was gone.
Enzo searched the room.
"Too late."
Sadi stood in the middle of the wreckage.
Then she noticed something beneath the overturned kitchen table.
A strip of red metal.
She crouched.
The toolbox had not been taken.
It had been smashed.
Every tool lay scattered across the floor.
Sadi picked up her father's old level.
The plastic casing had cracked open.
Something white protruded from inside.
Enzo saw it.
"Do not move."
Sadi ignored him and pulled the object free.
It was a narrow envelope wrapped in waxed paper.
Her name was written across the front in her father's handwriting.
SADI.
Her hands began to shake.
Enzo checked the room again.
"Open it."
Sadi tore the waxed paper.
Inside was a brass key and a single index card.
The card contained four words.
LOCKER 317.
Sadi stared at it.
Beneath the number, her father had written one more line.
IF THEY FIND YOU, TRUST NO FALCONE.
A floorboard creaked behind them.
Enzo turned.
Police filled the doorway.
"Gun down."
Enzo froze.
Captain Dorsey stepped into the apartment with a warrant in his hand.
May you like
His smile told Sadi everything.
"Sadi Moreno, you are under arrest for murder."
