Chapter 5 - PIER NINE
The first Salazar warehouse burned at 6:14 in the morning.
The second lost power twenty minutes later.
By eight, Rafael’s men had seized three shipments, shut down four gambling rooms, and dragged six Salazar captains from their beds.
The city did not know a war had begun.
Not yet.
To ordinary people, the sirens were isolated accidents.
A warehouse fire.
A traffic collision involving two unregistered trucks.
A power outage in a neighborhood where power outages happened often.
But every criminal organization from Jersey City to Queens understood the message.
Rafael De Santos was dismantling Victor Salazar one piece at a time.
Mara watched the news from the safe house.
The television showed smoke rising near the river.
Nate sat on the floor drawing a map from memory.
“You caused that,” Mara said.
Rafael stood near the window.
“Salazar caused it.”
“You gave the order.”
“Yes.”
“People could die.”
“Yes.”
Her face tightened.
The lack of denial frightened her more than an excuse would have.
“Do you ever hear yourself?”
“Constantly.”
“And it doesn’t bother you?”
“Constantly.”
That answer silenced her.
Nate raised his head.
“I remember where the man with the ring stood.”
Rafael approached.
The boy’s map showed the apartment living room.
Couch.
Cabinets.
Front door.
Kitchen.
Three men.
Kell near the window.
The man with the serpent ring beside the television.
“He smelled like paint,” Nate said.
“Paint?”
“Not house paint. The kind on boats.”
Diego entered.
“Salazar owns a repair yard near Red Hook.”
“Search it.”
“We already did. Empty.”
“He could have moved Sofia.”
“He did.”
Diego placed a file on the table.
“A traffic camera caught the vehicle in the photograph. It crossed into Queens forty minutes ago.”
“Toward Pier Nine?”
“Maybe.”
Mara looked between them.
“What happens at midnight?”
“An exchange,” Rafael said.
“You’re giving him the ledger?”
“No.”
“Then what are you giving him?”
Rafael’s expression remained unreadable.
“A reason to believe I brought it.”
At eleven thirty that night, three vehicles approached Pier Nine.
The rain had returned.
Shipping cranes rose above the waterfront like steel skeletons.
Rafael rode in the center vehicle with Diego.
A locked case rested between them.
Inside it was not Arturo De Santos’s ledger.
It contained blank pages and enough plastic explosive to erase the pier.
“Salazar will search it,” Diego said.
“He will try.”
“And if Sofia is close?”
“We don’t detonate.”
“What if he separates her?”
“Then we adapt.”
Diego looked out at the dark river.
“Kell taught us this route.”
Rafael said nothing.
“He chose the pier when we moved weapons years ago,” Diego continued. “He knows every blind corner.”
“I know.”
“If this is a trap—”
“It is.”
The first sedan entered the shipping yard.
Its headlights disappeared behind stacked containers.
The radio crackled.
“Clear,” the driver reported.
Then gunfire erupted.
The first vehicle lifted off the ground in an explosion.
Flames rolled across the asphalt.
“Reverse!” Diego shouted.
A truck crashed through the rear gate, blocking their retreat.
Gunmen appeared on the container roofs.
Bullets struck the armored sedan in rapid bursts.
Rafael opened the door and fired upward.
Diego followed.
The third vehicle’s men scattered behind concrete barriers.
The pier became a maze of gunfire, sparks, and burning fuel.
A Salazar gunman dropped from a ladder.
Rafael shot him twice.
Another came from the right.
Diego intercepted him but took a bullet through the upper arm.
He staggered.
Rafael pulled him behind a forklift.
“You’re hit.”
“It missed the bone.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“I’m still useful.”
A container door opened twenty yards away.
Sofia appeared inside.
Her hands were bound.
Tape covered her mouth.
Kell stood behind her with a gun against her back.
Rafael rose from cover.
Kell shook his head.
A warning.
Or a threat.
Victor Salazar’s voice came through loudspeakers mounted somewhere above them.
“Bring the ledger into the open.”
Rafael held up the case.
“Release my sister.”
“Place it on the ground.”
“Sofia walks first.”
Salazar laughed.
“You still believe you control the order of events.”
A laser dot appeared on Sofia’s chest.
Then another touched Rafael’s forehead.
Kell stared at him across the rain.
For one brief second, his gun moved away from Sofia’s spine.
Sofia twisted violently.
Kell grabbed her.
Rafael saw something pass between them.
Not cooperation.
Not exactly.
But Sofia did not look at Kell with the fear she showed toward the other men.
“Put the case down,” Salazar ordered.
Rafael lowered it.
A masked gunman moved from behind the containers to retrieve it.
Diego whispered into his radio.
“Team three, wait.”
The masked man lifted the case.
A shot cracked.
His head snapped backward.
Rafael’s hidden team opened fire from a warehouse roof.
Chaos erupted.
Kell dragged Sofia behind the container.
Rafael ran toward them.
A grenade rolled across the ground.
Diego tackled Rafael behind a truck as the blast tore open the container.
When Rafael looked again, Sofia and Kell were gone.
But a wounded Salazar gunman lay beneath the twisted door.
Rafael grabbed him by the coat.
“Where is my sister?”
The man laughed blood into his teeth.
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
Rafael pressed a pistol under his chin.
“What is the right one?”
“Ask how long Kell has belonged to Salazar.”
Rafael’s finger tightened on the trigger.
The man smiled.
“Three years.”
A sniper round struck the gunman’s chest, killing him instantly.
The shot had come from behind Rafael’s position.
Rafael turned.
High above the pier, Kell stood on a crane platform.
May you like
He lowered the rifle.
Then he disappeared into the rain.
