Chapter 11 - THE NAME IN THE BLACK LEDGER
Every weapon in the room turned toward Gabriel.
He stood near the breached doorway.
For once, he had no immediate answer.
The screen continued counting down.
Nine minutes, forty-two seconds.
Elias stared at his head of security.
“Explain.”
Gabriel slowly placed his gun on the floor.
“I can’t.”
“That is a poor beginning.”
“The account is mine.”
Clara felt Thomas move beside her.
Gabriel raised both hands.
“But I did not fund the ambush.”
“Four hundred million dollars disagrees,” Isabella said through the monitor.
Gabriel looked toward Victor Sloane.
“You know what that account is.”
Victor’s frail voice came through the speakers.
“I know what it was.”
“What does that mean?” Clara asked.
Gabriel kept his eyes on Elias.
“Your father created an emergency trust. If the Moretti organization collapsed, the funds transferred to the person responsible for protecting you.”
“My father named you?”
“No. Your mother did.”
Isabella went still.
Gabriel continued.
“Years ago, she assigned me as trustee. Rusk changed the account label to make it look like payment.”
“Can you stop the transfer?” Elias asked.
“Not from here.”
Thomas examined the server code.
“The broadcast originates from the radio tower. We need physical access.”
Eight minutes.
Elias picked up Gabriel’s gun and handed it back to him.
Everyone stared.
“You believe him?” Clara asked.
“No.”
Gabriel accepted the weapon.
Elias continued.
“But if he wanted me dead, he had fourteen years to choose a simpler method.”
They moved upstairs.
The radio tower rose above the main building, connected by an exterior staircase.
Rusk had locked the access gate and placed two men on the platform.
Gabriel fired at the tower while Isabella’s team approached from the shoreline.
Thomas studied the control panel.
“The transfer can be interrupted by cutting the transmission cable.”
“Where?” Clara asked.
“At the top.”
Seven minutes.
Elias looked at the rusted staircase.
There was no elevator.
Gabriel turned to him.
“I’ll go.”
“That’s what Rusk expects.”
“I’m the best shot.”
“And the listed beneficiary. If you reach the server alone, every person watching will assume guilt.”
Elias looked toward Clara.
“No.”
She had not said anything.
“You’re thinking loudly,” he told her.
“The maintenance shaft reaches the second platform.”
“It requires climbing.”
“I can climb.”
“You nearly died in an engine compartment yesterday.”
“That was yesterday.”
Thomas shook his head.
“I’ll go.”
“You can barely stand.”
“I know the server.”
“You can guide me through the earpiece.”
Clara had already moved toward the shaft.
Elias caught her wrist.
“Everyone keeps making choices for you,” she said. “You know how that feels.”
His grip loosened.
“This is different.”
“It always feels different when we’re the frightened one.”
The words silenced him.
Clara entered the shaft.
Inside, an old ladder climbed through darkness. Wind screamed through gaps in the metal.
Six minutes.
Thomas guided her toward the transmission junction.
Halfway up, the structure shook.
One of Rusk’s guards had entered below.
Clara climbed faster.
Bullets struck the shaft wall.
She reached the second platform and rolled behind a generator.
The tower guard emerged seconds later.
Clara threw a loose bolt toward the opposite railing.
He turned at the sound.
She struck his wrist with the wrench she had taken from the Mercy Ann.
His pistol fell.
The guard grabbed her throat.
Clara drove her knee into him.
He stumbled backward.
The rusted railing broke.
She caught his arm before he fell.
The man hung above fifty feet of empty air.
“Help me!”
Clara strained to hold him.
He had tried to kill her.
She still could not let go.
“Grab the beam!”
He reached.
For one second, she thought he would save himself.
Then he pulled her toward the edge.
A gunshot cracked.
The guard’s shoulder jerked.
He released Clara and fell into a safety net below.
She looked down.
Elias held a rifle across his lap.
From the ground, he had made an impossible shot.
“Climb!” he shouted.
Four minutes.
Clara reached the top platform.
Rusk stood beside the server.
His face was bleeding.
“You really are a terrible maid,” he said.
“I hear that often.”
He aimed at her.
Elias fired from below.
The bullet struck the railing beside Rusk.
He ducked.
Clara ran toward the server cable.
Rusk seized her hair and threw her down.
The timer showed three minutes.
“You destroyed everything,” he said.
“You did that yourself.”
“My father chose Moretti over me.”
“Your father chose to stop killing people.”
“He was weak.”
Rusk raised the gun.
Clara saw a thick black transmission cable behind him.
She kicked the server cart.
It rolled into Rusk.
The gun fired.
Pain tore through Clara’s side.
She fell.
Below, Elias shouted her name.
Rusk aimed again.
A second shot came from the staircase.
Gabriel struck Rusk in the leg.
Rusk collapsed.
Gabriel reached Clara and pressed one hand against her wound.
“Where’s the cable?”
She pointed.
Two minutes.
Gabriel fired at it.
The armored line sparked but remained intact.
“Thomas!” he shouted into the radio.
“It has three internal layers. You need to cut it manually.”
Gabriel drew a knife.
Rusk shot him through the shoulder.
Both men fell.
Clara crawled toward the cable.
Blood soaked her shirt.
One minute.
She picked up Gabriel’s knife.
Rusk grabbed her ankle.
“You think Elias loves you?” he asked.
Clara kicked his injured leg.
“He doesn’t love anything he can’t control.”
She looked down toward Elias.
His face was filled with terror.
Not because of the money.
Because of her.
Clara turned back to Rusk.
“You don’t know him.”
She drove the knife into the cable.
Forty seconds.
The outer layer split.
Copper wires burned her palms.
She cut again.
Twenty seconds.
Rusk crawled toward his gun.
Gabriel tackled him.
Ten.
The final wire resisted.
Nine.
Eight.
Clara pulled with both hands.
Seven.
Six.
The insulation tore.
Five.
The tower lights died.
The countdown vanished.
Silence fell.
Then the entire platform tilted.
The damaged supports began collapsing.
Gabriel dragged Rusk toward the stairs.
Clara tried to stand.
Her legs failed.
“Leave me,” she said.
Below, Elias transferred himself from his chair onto the maintenance lift.
No one had secured it.
The platform rose slowly.
“Elias, no!” Gabriel shouted.
The tower leaned farther.
Elias reached the upper platform.
He pulled himself across the metal floor using his injured hands.
Clara watched him approach.
“You’ll fall.”
“So will you.”
“You can’t carry me.”
“No.”
He reached her.
“But I can stay.”
The echo of the office floor struck her.
She had stayed when he could not rise.
Now he sat beside her while the tower collapsed around them.
Clara laughed weakly.
“You stole my idea.”
“It was a good idea.”
The maintenance lift hung several feet away.
Elias wrapped a cable around Clara’s waist.
Gabriel returned from the staircase.
Together, they dragged her onto the lift.
Rusk appeared behind him.
He raised his pistol.
Isabella’s voice came through the loudspeaker.
“Anthony, stop.”
Rusk froze.
Victor Sloane stood below with Coast Guard officers around him.
He looked up at his son.
“I left to protect you,” Victor said.
Rusk began laughing.
“That is what everyone says.”
Then he aimed at Elias.
Gabriel fired first.
The bullet struck Rusk’s weapon.
Rusk lost his balance.
He fell over the edge.
Gabriel caught his wrist.
For a moment, Rusk hung above the ground.
“Let me go,” he whispered.
Gabriel held on.
Rusk looked down at Victor.
Then up at Gabriel.
“You should have taken the money.”
He released his own grip.
Gabriel tried to catch him again.
Too late.
Rusk fell.
The safety net below tore beneath his weight.
He struck the ground and did not move.
The tower collapsed seconds after the lift reached the bottom.
Elias covered Clara’s body with his own as metal crashed around them.
When the noise stopped, she opened her eyes.
His face was inches from hers.
“You came back,” she whispered.
“You asked me to.”
“I asked you on the boat.”
“I assumed it remained applicable.”
Paramedics rushed toward them.
As they lifted Clara onto a stretcher, she caught Elias’s hand.
“Don’t let them take Mom.”
“She’s safe.”
“Promise.”
“I promise.”
Her eyes closed.
Elias watched the ambulance leave.
Then Gabriel approached.
“The account transfer stopped.”
“I don’t care.”
“The ledger names are contained.”
“I don’t care.”
“Clara may need surgery.”
Elias looked toward the disappearing ambulance.
For the first time in fourteen months, his fear had nothing to do with losing control of his own body.
It came from the possibility of losing someone else.
May you like
And there was no rule he could create to protect himself from that.
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