Chapter 13 - THE LAST EMPIRE
Rafael shot Salazar’s hand.
The pearl-handled pistol spun across the floor.
Diego fired at the overhead lights.
Darkness swallowed the garage.
Kell wrapped the chain around his forearm and pulled.
Sofia climbed high enough for Rafael to seize her wrists.
Together, they dragged her from the shaft.
Salazar escaped through a hidden passage.
His remaining men withdrew beneath covering fire.
The garage fell silent except for the wounded.
Kell sat against a support column.
Blood soaked his shirt.
Rafael knelt beside him.
“The bullet passed through.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I haven’t decided.”
Sofia pressed cloth against Kell’s wound.
“He saved me again.”
“He also revealed Mara’s location.”
“It was code,” Kell said.
Rafael looked at him.
“I know.”
“You remembered.”
“I remember things people don’t want me to remember.”
Kell almost smiled.
“Nate’s line.”
“He has useful lines.”
They moved everyone before the police arrived.
Salazar had lost the garage, most of his harbor forces, and nearly half his commanders.
But he had escaped.
More importantly, he still had Arturo’s network of corrupt officials.
Men who would provide vehicles, warrants, safe passage, and information as long as Salazar held evidence that could destroy them.
Mara spent the morning examining her mother’s old belongings.
Salazar believed she could find the copy of the ledger.
So did Rafael.
Nate watched her open boxes she had not touched in years.
Photographs.
Hospital records.
A music box.
An old nurse’s watch.
A paperback book with its pages hollowed out.
Nothing.
Nate picked up the music box.
A small ballerina turned when he opened it.
The melody skipped every seven notes.
“Was it always broken?” he asked.
Mara looked over.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you fix it?”
“My mother told me never to.”
Nate examined the base.
One screw differed from the others.
Rafael removed it.
Inside the box was a brass key.
Mara covered her mouth.
The key belonged to a train-station locker system discontinued fifteen years earlier.
Only one station still preserved the original lockers as part of a historical building.
Grand Central.
They entered through a maintenance corridor after closing.
Locker 417 contained no ledger.
Only a cassette tape and a photograph of Arturo De Santos standing beside Mara’s mother.
On the back were three words.
UNDER THE BELLS.
Nate looked at the picture.
“There are bells in the video.”
“What video?” Rafael asked.
“When Salazar had me. I heard a bell every time a train passed.”
“That was the freight depot.”
“No. This one sounded different.”
He tapped the rhythm on the locker door.
Three slow strikes.
Two fast.
Mara recognized it.
“St. Agnes.”
The abandoned church near the old shipyard had a damaged bell that struck unevenly in strong wind.
Beneath the church, Arturo had once stored cash during federal investigations.
Rafael gathered every surviving man.
The final assault began before dawn.
Vehicles approached the shipyard without headlights.
Boats moved along the river.
Snipers occupied rooftops.
Diego commanded the northern entrance.
Kell, despite his wound, insisted on joining Rafael.
“You should be in a hospital,” Rafael said.
“You said that to Diego.”
“He is more useful than you.”
“Then you need me more.”
They entered the church through a crypt.
Beneath the altar, they found a metal vault.
The brass key opened it.
Inside lay Mara’s copy of Arturo’s ledger.
And a second cassette.
Rafael inserted it into an old recorder.
His father’s voice filled the chamber.
“If you are hearing this, then I failed to protect Evelyn Hayes.”
Mara closed her eyes.
“I made enemies by buying men who believed they could not be bought. Victor Salazar was not yet a king, but he understood that information could make one.”
Rafael listened.
“Evelyn discovered Salazar was stealing from the organization and paying police to frame loyal men. I chose compromise over justice. That decision killed her.”
Kell looked at Rafael.
The recording continued.
“If harm comes to her daughter, it is the debt of my bloodline.”
Mara began to cry silently.
A gun clicked behind them.
Victor Salazar stood at the crypt entrance.
Dozens of armed men surrounded him.
He smiled at the open vault.
“Arturo always did enjoy speaking after he was too dead to be challenged.”
Rafael’s men raised their weapons.
Salazar’s men did the same.
The crypt was too narrow.
The first shot would kill everyone.
Salazar looked toward Kell.
“Come back to my side.”
Kell laughed.
“You shot me.”
“I forgive mistakes.”
“You mean your own.”
Salazar held up a small transmitter.
“Your sister is no longer my only insurance.”
A video appeared on a tablet.
Explosives had been placed throughout the safe building where Nate and Mara’s medical team were stationed.
A timer showed twenty minutes.
Rafael looked at Diego.
Diego whispered into his radio.
No response.
The communications network had been jammed.
Salazar pointed toward the ledger.
“Give it to me, and I provide the disarm code.”
Rafael closed the book.
“You will detonate it anyway.”
“Perhaps.”
“Then why should I negotiate?”
“Because hope makes intelligent men behave foolishly.”
Kell stepped forward.
“Take me with the ledger.”
Rafael looked at him.
Kell kept his eyes on Salazar.
“He wants the man who betrayed both sides.”
Salazar smiled.
“That has poetry.”
Kell moved closer to Rafael.
Under his breath, he whispered, “Get Mara and Nate out.”
“You won’t survive.”
“I know.”
Rafael handed him the ledger.
Kell walked toward Salazar.
At the final step, he opened the book.
A wire ran through its spine.
Salazar saw it too late.
Kell pressed the hidden trigger.
The vault wall exploded.
The blast opened a tunnel to the river passage.
Rafael’s men fired.
Smoke filled the crypt.
Salazar seized Kell by the throat and dragged him through a side door.
Rafael followed.
The door slammed shut between them.
A steel barrier dropped from the ceiling.
May you like
On the other side, Kell shouted once.
Then a gunshot echoed.
