CHAPTER 7 — BENEATH THE OLD COURTHOUSE
I didn’t go alone.
I only made Marcus believe I had.
Naomi’s tactical teams entered through underground utility tunnels while I approached the abandoned courthouse from the front.
The building stood at the edge of town, surrounded by dead grass and rusted fencing.
Its stone columns were cracked.
Its windows were boarded.
But fresh tire tracks marked the dirt be
hind it.
Marcus was inside.
The front door opened before I touched it.
A speaker crackled above the entrance.
“Leave your phone and weapon outside.”
I placed the satellite phone on the steps.
I carried no gun.
That didn’t mean I was unprepared.
The main courtroom smelled of dust, mildew, and old wood.
A single light illuminated the judge’s bench.
Judge Samuel Kessler sat there.
Alive.
Calm.
Still wearing the suit he had worn while signing Lily’s psychiatric order.
“I wondered when you would recognize my signature,” he said.
“You built the legal protection.”
“I built stability.”
“You signed orders for kidnappings, illegal surveillance, and murder.”
Kessler smiled.
“Those are ugly words for necessary decisions.”
A side door opened.
Marcus Reed entered.
He looked almost identical to Malcolm, but his eyes were different.
Empty.
Behind him, two men dragged Daniel into the courtroom.
His hands were bound.
Blood covered one side of his face.
“Arthur,” Marcus said warmly. “It’s been a long time.”
“I don’t remember recruiting you.”
“You didn’t. You rejected me.”
That was true.
Marcus had once applied to Nightfall.
His psychological evaluation described him as brilliant, manipulative, and incapable of accepting limits.
I had denied his appointment.
“You spent twenty-three years punishing me for that?”
“No. I spent twenty-three years proving you wrong.”
He gestured toward the courtroom.
“Mayors. Police chiefs. judges. developers. prosecutors. I created a network more powerful than your government task force ever was.”
“You built a criminal organization.”
“I built a system that functions.”
Daniel lifted his head.
“System’s falling apart, Marcus.”
Marcus struck him across the face.
I took one step forward.
The guards raised their weapons.
Marcus smiled.
“There he is. The great Arthur Bennett. Still convinced everyone is worth saving.”
He placed a folder on the evidence table.
“Sign this.”
I opened it.
The document claimed I had secretly directed Nightfall for fourteen years. It accepted responsibility for every crime committed by Marcus’s network.
“If I sign, Daniel lives?”
“And Lily’s criminal exposure disappears.”
“You’ll release her assets?”
“Completely.”
“What about Richard?”
Marcus shrugged.
“Richard is disposable.”
That was probably the first honest thing he had said.
I picked up the pen.
Daniel shook his head.
“Don’t.”
Marcus pressed the pistol against Daniel’s neck.
I signed.
Marcus took the paper and smiled.
Then an explosion shook the floor.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Naomi’s teams had breached the lower tunnels.
Marcus didn’t panic.
He looked almost relieved.
“You still don’t understand,” he said. “I needed them underground.”
A red timer illuminated behind the judge’s bench.
Four minutes.
Kessler hurried toward a hidden exit.
Marcus fired once.
The judge fell before reaching the door.
“You killed your own partner,” I said.
“He was going to negotiate.”
The courthouse doors locked automatically.
Steel shutters slammed over the windows.
Marcus walked backward toward the hidden passage.
“You signed the confession. Your agents are trapped beneath the building. And in four minutes, history will remember you as the man who killed them all.”
May you like
He disappeared behind the wall.
Then the timer jumped from four minutes to sixty seconds.
