Chapter 11 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Victor Sloane had survived the plane crash because he had never boarded the aircraft.
The pilot and two assistants died in his place.
For two years, Sloane built a new network from hidden clinics, private estates, and companies registered under dead men’s names.
Vanessa was not his only operative.
She was simply the one assigned to Adrian.
Sloane gestured toward a metal case on a table.
“Place the key inside.”
Eleanor remained beside the car.
“Rosa first.”
“You are in no position to negotiate.”
“I am always in a position to negotiate.”
Sloane laughed.
“Thomas said the same thing.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“You knew my father.”
“I created your father.”
“You blackmailed him.”
“I gave him opportunities.”
“With stolen money?”
“With useful money.”
Sloane tapped his cane against the stone floor.
“Your father was ambitious. Ambitious men rarely ask whether the ladder belongs to someone else.”
Adrian’s face tightened.
“What did he do?”
“Bring me the key.”
Eleanor held it up.
“You believe this opens the archive?”
Sloane’s smile faded slightly.
“It bears the correct markings.”
“So do museum reproductions.”
The false officer raised his gun toward Rosa.
Eleanor did not flinch.
“If she dies, you never get the real key.”
Sloane studied her.
“You brought a copy.”
“Yes.”
Vanessa whispered, “I told you she would.”
Sloane turned toward her.
“You told me many things.”
His disappointment frightened Vanessa more than anger would have.
Sloane looked at Adrian.
“Your fiancée failed because she allowed emotion to interfere.”
Adrian’s voice was cold.
“She failed because she underestimated my mother.”
“No. She failed because a part of her wanted to be caught.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with sudden panic.
“That isn’t true.”
“Isn’t it?”
Sloane reached beneath his coat and removed a phone.
He played a recording.
Vanessa’s voice filled the conservatory.
I cannot keep doing this.
Then Sloane’s voice.
You will marry him.
Vanessa again.
He trusts me.
That is the purpose.
I think I love him.
The recording stopped.
Adrian looked at Vanessa.
She closed her eyes.
Sloane smiled.
“Love is an infection. It convinced her that confession might earn forgiveness.”
Vanessa faced Adrian.
“I never confessed.”
“But you considered it,” Sloane said.
The false officer stepped behind her and pressed a gun against her back.
Sloane extended his hand toward Eleanor.
“The real key.”
“It is not here.”
“Then call your security team.”
“No.”
“Call them, or I remove one person at a time.”
Eleanor looked at Rosa.
Rosa’s eyes remained steady despite her fear.
Then Adrian moved.
He walked toward the table.
“Take me instead.”
Eleanor turned sharply.
“Adrian.”
“Sloane needs access tied to my father. I am more valuable than Rosa.”
Sloane considered him.
“You believe sacrifice makes you noble?”
“No. I believe you need me alive.”
Adrian stopped several feet away.
“Release Rosa and Vanessa. I go with you.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“Why would you save me?”
“I am not saving you. I am removing your value as leverage.”
The words hurt her.
But something like respect appeared beneath the pain.
Sloane nodded to the false officer.
The man cut Rosa’s restraints.
She stood slowly.
“Walk,” he ordered.
Rosa moved toward Eleanor.
Halfway across the floor, a red light appeared on the false officer’s chest.
Nathan’s sniper.
Sloane saw it.
“Down!”
Gunfire shattered the conservatory.
Eleanor pulled Rosa behind the sedan.
Adrian tackled Vanessa as bullets struck the metal table.
Nathan’s team entered through three doors.
The false officer fired toward the roof.
Glass rained down.
Sloane disappeared behind a row of dead trees.
Vanessa grabbed the metal case from the table.
Adrian saw her.
“What are you doing?”
She opened it.
Inside was an electronic device with a fingerprint scanner and a small glass vial.
“Victor brought the archive interface,” she said.
“What is in the vial?”
“Your father’s blood.”
Adrian stared at her.
Sloane had preserved Thomas Cole’s blood for fifteen years.
A gunshot struck the ground near them.
Vanessa pushed the device toward Adrian.
“Take it.”
Then the false officer emerged from the smoke and aimed at Adrian.
Vanessa stepped between them.
The bullet struck her shoulder.
She fell.
Adrian caught her before she hit the ground.
The false officer raised his weapon again.
Rosa appeared behind him and struck his arm with Sloane’s silver cane.
Nathan’s men pulled him down.
Police flooded the building.
But Victor Sloane had escaped through a tunnel beneath the conservatory.
On the stone floor where he had stood, Eleanor found a sealed plastic sleeve.
Inside was a photograph of Thomas Cole beside Victor Sloane.
May you like
Written across the back were six words.
Ask Adrian what he remembers that night.
