Chapter 15 - A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL Victor answered on the second ring.
“Adrian.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I expected you to be running.”
“I’m done running.”
Victor smiled through the phone.
“Good.”
“Kane has Gabriel.”
Silence.
Adrian noticed it.
Victor hadn’t known Gabriel was alive.
“You knew?”
Victor whispered:
“No.”
Adrian continued.
“Kane is destroying you.”
“That’s your interpretation.”
“He released files linking you to crimes while removing his own involvement.”
Victor said nothing.
Adrian smiled coldly.
“You were never his partner.”
Victor’s breathing changed.
“You were evidence.”
That landed.
Adrian continued.
“When Kane is finished, the country will believe you built everything.”
Victor’s voice became quiet.
“What do you want?”
“Gabriel.”
“Why would I help him?”
“Because Kane wants him dead.”
“And?”
“After Gabriel, you’re next.”
Silence.
Then Victor said:
“Where?”
Adrian gave him a location.
Reed stared.
“You trust him?”
“No.”
“Then why—”
“Because Victor trusts revenge.”
Two hours later, Victor arrived alone.
At least apparently.
Elias stood beside Adrian.
Victor looked at his son.
“You chose them.”
Elias shook his head.
“I chose myself.”
Victor almost looked proud.
Then he saw Claire.
For the first time, his confidence cracked.
“You should be dead.”
Claire stepped forward.
“You tried.”
Victor stared at her.
“I kept you alive.”
“You kept me imprisoned.”
“I protected you from Kane.”
“You used me.”
Victor looked at Adrian.
“Everyone used everyone.”
Adrian shook his head.
“That’s how you justify it.”
“That’s how the world works.”
“No.”
Noah’s voice came from the doorway.
Victor turned.
Noah looked at him.
“That’s how scared people survive.”
The chess game.
Victor remembered.
Noah continued.
“But Dad isn’t scared of you anymore.”
Victor stared at the boy.
Something almost human crossed his face.
Then vanished.
“Take Noah away.”
Adrian didn’t move.
Victor looked at him.
“You’re making him part of this.”
“He already is.”
“No.”
Victor’s voice sharpened.
“You don’t understand what Kane will do to him.”
“Then tell me.”
Victor hesitated.
Adrian stepped closer.
“For once in your life, tell the truth.”
Victor looked at Noah.
“Kane has been searching for a legal path to the Mercer archive for twenty years.”
Claire nodded.
“Noah is that path.”
“Yes.”
“What happens if he gets Noah?”
“He doesn’t need to hurt him.”
Victor looked at Adrian.
“He needs Noah’s biometric identity.”
Claire went pale.
“Fingerprint.”
“Voice.”
Victor nodded.
“And DNA.”
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
“For what?”
“To activate the Mercer archive.”
“And then?”
“Delete it.”
Sarah entered.
“You can’t delete a sealed federal archive.”
Victor smiled.
“You can if you control the people maintaining it.”
Sarah’s face hardened.
Victor continued.
“Kane needs Noah physically for less than ten minutes.”
Adrian looked at his son.
“That will never happen.”
Victor nodded.
“Then we agree on something.”
Reed unfolded a map.
“Where is Gabriel?”
Victor pointed toward an old federal facility in New Hampshire.
“Kane used it during classified interrogations.”
Sarah stared.
“That facility closed twelve years ago.”
Victor looked at her.
“Officially.”
They planned the assault.
Victor knew the underground access.
Sarah knew the federal security architecture.
Reed knew tactical procedure.
Michael knew Kane.
For the first time, people who had spent years hiding from one another were building something together.
Adrian looked around.
“This ends tonight.”
Victor smiled.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Kane is not the end.”
Adrian frowned.
“Who is?”
Victor looked toward Noah.
“The people who funded him.”
Sarah stared.
“What people?”
Victor shook his head.
“First Gabriel.”
Adrian hated it.
Another secret.
Another layer.
But for now, Gabriel mattered.
They entered the facility at 2:13 a.m.
Victor led them through a maintenance tunnel.
Noah remained with Claire and Vanessa at a secure location.
Adrian hated leaving him.
But bringing him near Kane would be worse.
Inside, they found empty corridors.
Too empty.
Reed whispered:
“He knows.”
Victor nodded.
“He always knows.”
They reached the interrogation wing.
Gabriel sat alone inside a glass room.
Alive.
Evelyn ran forward.
“Dad!”
The door unlocked.
Too easily.
Adrian stopped.
“WAIT.”
A speaker activated.
Kane’s voice.
“Good.”
Doors slammed behind them.
Steel shutters sealed the corridor.
Kane appeared behind the glass.
Not physically.
On a screen.
“You brought Victor.”
Victor looked up.
“Marcus.”
Kane smiled.
“You finally figured it out.”
“You betrayed me.”
“No.”
Kane laughed.
“I employed you.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“I built the Blackwood network.”
“You built nothing I didn’t allow.”
Adrian watched Victor.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Victor Blackwood understood what it felt like to be powerless.
Kane continued.
“Now give me Adrian.”
Victor looked at Adrian.
Kane smiled.
“You can leave with Elias.”
Elias stared at his father.
Adrian waited.
This was the moment.
The devil’s bargain.
Victor had spent his entire life choosing himself.
Victor slowly raised his weapon.
Toward Adrian.
Elias whispered:
“Dad.”
Victor looked at his son.
Then at Adrian.
Then he turned the gun toward the camera and fired.
The screen exploded.
“No deal.”
Alarms screamed.
Gabriel smiled.
“About time.”
Victor shot the lock.
“MOVE!”
They freed Gabriel.
Gunfire erupted from both ends of the corridor.
Kane’s men attacked.
Victor fought beside Adrian.
It felt impossible.
Elias was hit in the leg.
Reed dragged him behind cover.
Michael fired toward the stairwell.
Sarah hacked the security doors.
“Thirty seconds!”
Adrian saw Victor reload.
“You could have taken Kane’s deal.”
Victor laughed.
“And spend the rest of my life knowing he beat me?”
“There he is.”
Victor smiled.
“Don’t mistake pride for redemption.”
“I wasn’t.”
The doors opened.
They ran.
Then Victor stopped.
A bullet had struck his abdomen.
Elias saw.
“Dad!”
Victor looked down.
Blood.
Lots of it.
Elias grabbed him.
“No.”
Victor pushed him away.
“Go.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
Victor stared at his son.
“You already did.”
For once, there was no anger in his voice.
Only acceptance.
Elias began crying.
Victor looked at Adrian.
“Take him.”
Adrian hesitated.
Victor smiled.
“You wanted me to pay for everything.”
“I still do.”
“Then make sure I live.”
Adrian almost laughed.
Even dying, Victor refused to surrender.
They carried him out.
At the entrance, Sarah’s phone rang.
She answered.
Then went pale.
“What?”
Sarah looked at Adrian.
“Kane wasn’t here.”
Adrian stared.
“Where is he?”
Sarah turned the phone toward him.
Security camera.
The motel where Noah had been hidden.
The door was open.
Claire lay unconscious on the floor.
Vanessa beside her.
Noah was gone.
On the wall, written in black marker:
TEN MINUTES IS ALL I NEED.
Adrian stared.
Kane had never wanted Gabriel.
May you like
Gabriel had been bait.
And Adrian had taken it.
