Chapter 8 - CERMACK COLD WORKS
Cermack Cold Works occupied six abandoned blocks on the southwest side.
From the road, it looked dead.
Broken windows.
Rusted loading doors.
A faded sign hanging from one chain.
But the satellite image Rafe pulled from a private service showed fresh tire marks and heat signatures beneath the central warehouse.
"Somebody is using the basement," he said.
Evelyn leaned over the screen.
"How many?"
"At least twelve."
Lorenzo stood behind her.
"Too many for a rescue."
"You have more men," Evelyn said.
"I have men whose names are on a ledger proving some of them were paid by Salvatore."
"So you do not know who to trust."
"Correct."
"That seems inconvenient for a crime empire."
"I will submit a complaint."
They had left Isabella and Luca at a church safehouse with Father Tomas.
Rafe wanted Evelyn there too.
Lorenzo wanted the same thing.
Evelyn refused.
Nobody had enough energy left to physically stop her.
They parked inside a machine shop two streets from Cermack.
Rafe spread blueprints across a workbench.
"Original building has three basement levels."
"Cold storage on one."
"Mechanical on two."
"Old rail access on three."
Evelyn pointed at a blocked corridor.
"What is this?"
"Condemned tunnel to a freight spur."
"Maintenance door."
Lorenzo gave her a look.
"You are enjoying that phrase too much."
"It has kept us alive twice."
"Three times."
"You count the roof?"
"I count everything."
Rafe looked at them.
"Can both of you flirt after we leave the armed warehouse?"
Evelyn nearly dropped the blueprint.
"We are not flirting."
Lorenzo's expression was unreadable.
"Rafe."
"Right."
Rafe returned to the map.
"Tunnel entrance is beneath an old viaduct."
They entered Cermack through the freight tunnel after sunset.
The air smelled of wet concrete and metal.
Old rails disappeared beneath black water.
Rafe moved first with a flashlight covered by red film.
Lorenzo followed.
Evelyn stayed between them.
At the first steel door, they found a modern keypad.
"So much for abandoned," Evelyn whispered.
Rafe removed the panel.
"Thirty seconds."
It took twenty.
The door opened into a mechanical corridor lit by new fluorescent tubes.
A camera turned toward them.
Lorenzo shot it before the lens centered.
An alarm did not sound.
That worried Evelyn.
"They know we are here."
"Probably," Lorenzo said.
"Then why no alarm?"
"Because they want us deeper."
They continued anyway.
Every step felt like agreeing to a bad deal because the alternative was worse.
They passed empty offices.
New locks.
Fresh coffee in a paper cup.
A cigarette still smoking in an ashtray.
People had left seconds earlier.
At the end of the corridor was a refrigerated door.
A handwritten card was taped to it.
EVIE.
Evelyn stopped.
Her knees nearly failed.
The handwriting belonged to her father.
Not a copied version.
Not a memory.
The E leaned too far left.
The dot over the i was almost touching the v.
"That is his."
Lorenzo checked the door.
"Could have been written years ago."
Evelyn touched the card.
The ink smeared beneath her thumb.
Fresh.
She looked at him.
"He is here."
Lorenzo's face tightened.
"Maybe."
"Do not take this from me."
"I am trying to keep it from taking you."
Evelyn opened the door.
Cold air rolled over them.
Inside was a long chamber lined with storage cages.
Most were empty.
One contained a chair, a table, and a lamp.
A man sat with his back to them.
His hair was gray.
His shoulders were thinner than Evelyn remembered.
One hand rested on the table.
The left ring finger bent at the old angle.
Evelyn forgot every warning.
"Dad?"
The man lifted his head.
Slowly, he turned.
Daniel Carter had aged fourteen years.
But he was alive.
Evelyn made a sound she had never heard from herself.
She ran.
Lorenzo caught her around the waist before she reached the cage.
"Wait."
"Let me go."
"Look at the floor."
A thin wire crossed the path in front of the cage.
Evelyn froze.
Daniel stood.
"Evie."
His voice shattered whatever remained of her childhood anger.
"Do not cross it."
Evelyn stared at him through the bars.
"You are alive."
His eyes filled.
"Yes."
"You are alive."
"I am sorry."
"Do not say that."
"Not yet."
Her hands shook violently.
"Fourteen years."
"I know."
"No, you do not."
"You do not know what I buried."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I know enough."
Lorenzo stepped toward the wire.
"What is it connected to?"
Daniel opened his eyes.
Recognition crossed his face.
"Red bicycle."
Lorenzo almost smiled.
"Maintenance road."
"Good."
Daniel looked at Rafe.
"Do not cut that wire."
"Pressure release triggers the doors."
Rafe examined the wall.
"What doors?"
Daniel pointed upward.
Steel shutters were hidden above both exits.
"Then how do we get you out?"
"You do not."
Evelyn stared at him.
"Excuse me?"
"Not until you listen."
"I did not come here for a lecture."
"You came because Celeste led you here."
Daniel's voice sharpened.
"That is the problem."
Lorenzo looked around.
"She wants us in this room."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Daniel's gaze moved to the ceiling camera.
"Because she has been waiting fourteen years for me to tell Evelyn the truth in front of Lorenzo."
Evelyn felt cold despite the refrigeration.
"What truth?"
Daniel looked at her.
"Your mother did not die because of the Vanes."
Isabella's accusation flashed through Evelyn's mind.
"Then who?"
Daniel's face twisted.
"Me."
Evelyn stopped breathing.
"What did you say?"
"I did not kill her."
"But I caused what happened."
"I agreed to work for Salvatore."
"I thought I could take his money and build a case from inside."
"They discovered it."
"They poisoned your mother to teach me obedience."
Evelyn pressed both hands to the bars.
"You knew."
"Afterward."
"And then you left me."
"I disappeared because the same people threatened you."
"You could have taken me with you."
"No."
Daniel's voice broke.
"I tried."
"The extraction failed."
"Someone inside the Moretti family sold the route."
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
"Salvatore?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Your father."
The words landed like a gunshot.
Lorenzo stared at him.
"My father helped them?"
"Once."
"He regretted it."
"That regret got him killed."
Daniel gripped the bars.
"The third ledger is not just a list of traitors."
"It is a map of people who changed sides."
"Your father started as part of Project Janus."
"Then he tried to destroy it."
Rafe asked quietly.
"What is Janus?"
Daniel looked at all three.
"A system for replacing leaders without changing the organization beneath them."
"A judge dies and another judge already belongs to them."
"A union boss retires and his successor is already paid."
"A police commander gets exposed and the deputy has been bought for years."
"A Moretti dies and another Moretti steps into place."
Lorenzo's face hardened.
"Salvatore."
"He was supposed to replace your father."
Daniel nodded.
"But your father made you his heir instead."
"That delayed Janus."
"So they built a second route."
Evelyn knew before Daniel said the name.
"Celeste."
"Marriage instead of murder," Daniel said.
"If Lorenzo married Celeste, Janus controlled both families."
"If he refused, he died."
"If he discovered the plan, they used you to unlock the ledger and force him into the open."
Evelyn looked at the wire.
"Why keep you alive?"
Daniel gave a tired smile.
"Because I am the only person who knows how to authenticate the full ledger."
"The book you found is only one layer."
Lorenzo's eyes sharpened.
"Where is the rest?"
Daniel looked at Evelyn.
"With Marian Vale."
Celeste's mother.
Evelyn remembered the triangle in the ledger.
"She is alive too."
"Yes."
"Where?"
"I do not know."
A speaker crackled overhead.
Celeste's voice filled the cold room.
"He always lies beautifully, does he not?"
Evelyn looked up.
Celeste laughed softly.
"Hello, Evelyn."
"Hello, Lorenzo."
"And hello, Daniel."
Daniel's face went gray.
"You should have stayed hidden."
"So should you," Celeste replied.
The steel doors slammed shut at both ends of the chamber.
Rafe spun toward the exits.
Red lights began flashing.
Celeste continued.
"I needed all three keys in one room."
"The Carter daughter."
"The Moretti heir."
"And the accountant who thinks guilt makes him noble."
Lorenzo looked at the ceiling camera.
"What do you want?"
"The same thing our parents wanted."
Celeste's voice became cold.
"A Chicago where nobody can say no to us."
Daniel stepped closer to the bars.
"Marian would hate what you became."
For the first time, Celeste lost control.
"Do not say her name."
Daniel looked directly at the camera.
"She is alive, Celeste."
Silence.
Then a whisper.
"You are lying."
"No."
Daniel smiled without humor.
"And she is the one who sent me the date October seventeenth."
The lights went out.
A mechanical hum began beneath the floor.
Rafe looked toward the vents.
"Temperature is dropping."
Daniel backed away from the bars.
"She is going to freeze the chamber."
Evelyn stared at the wire separating her from her father.
"Then tell us how to get you out."
Daniel looked at Lorenzo.
"The wire cannot be cut."
Then he looked at Evelyn.
May you like
"But the cage can."
