Chapter 13 - beneath the winter table
The vapor inside the safe room was not poisonous.
Dr. Chen recognized it as a harmless theatrical fog intended to frighten Sophie and reduce visibility. Julian wanted her to open the door herself.
Sophie remembered her mother’s emergency rules.
When someone wants you to hurry, slow down.
When someone wants you to panic, count.
She covered her mouth with her sleeve and counted backward from one hundred.
At eighty-two, she found an air vent near the floor.
At sixty-one, she discovered a manual communications panel.
At forty, she heard Tony’s voice through the secure phone.
“Sophie, listen carefully. The fog cannot hurt you.”
“I know.”
“We are coming.”
“Julian said he’s going to the winter table.”
“We heard him.”
“I think he wants the bell.”
“He does.”
Sophie touched the silver chain.
“Should I give it to him?”
“No.”
Mara’s voice came through the phone.
“Sophie, the safe room has a second exit. Look for a lion with no crown.”
Sophie searched the wall.
Most of the panels displayed Vincent’s crowned lion symbol. One small carving near the floor showed a plain lion.
She pressed it.
A narrow door opened into the restaurant’s old service tunnel.
“Go through,” Mara said. “Turn right and follow the blue lights.”
“What about Mrs. Bell?”
“Vincent’s team is entering the office now.”
Sophie crawled into the tunnel.
Behind her, the safe-room door sealed again.
At the office entrance, Marco and three guards confronted Julian’s remaining men. Julian had already escaped with the tracking device hidden in Luna.
He believed Sophie remained behind the wall.
Vincent entered moments later and freed Mrs. Bell and Dr. Chen.
Mara went directly to the service tunnel.
“Sophie!”
Her daughter appeared beneath the blue emergency lights.
Mara dropped to her knees and pulled Sophie into her arms.
For several seconds, the entire conspiracy disappeared.
There was only a mother holding her child and a child finally allowing herself to cry.
“You came back,” Sophie whispered.
“Always.”
Vincent stood at the tunnel entrance, giving them space.
Sophie looked over Mara’s shoulder.
“I kept your lion.”
She held out the pin.
Vincent closed her fingers around it.
“Keep it until this is finished.”
Mara examined the silver bell.
“The drive is still inside?”
“Yes.”
Tony arrived carrying Luna.
“We found a tracker in the rabbit. Julian believes it’s moving toward the winter café.”
Vincent understood.
“You sent a decoy.”
“Marco is driving there now.”
“The original ledger may actually be beneath the café,” Mara said. “Julian will destroy it if he realizes Sophie isn’t with him.”
“Then we let him reach it.”
Mara looked at Vincent.
“You intend to follow him.”
“We need the Architect’s identity.”
“We already have enough to expose Julian.”
“Julian is a messenger. If we arrest him now, the person above him disappears.”
Mara held Sophie closer.
“And if waiting puts her in danger?”
“It won’t.”
“How can you promise that?”
Vincent looked toward the child wearing Elena’s bell.
“Because this time, I am not leaving Elena’s family behind.”
They returned to the winter café through the underground route while Julian approached from the street above.
Marco’s decoy vehicle stopped outside. A guard wearing Sophie’s red borrowed coat ran toward the rear alley, drawing Julian’s men away.
Julian entered the café alone.
He placed his hand beneath the winter table and pressed the carved letter E.
A hidden compartment opened in the floor.
Inside was a metal box.
Julian lifted it.
Vincent stepped from the shadows.
“You’ve been searching for that for a long time.”
Julian turned.
Mara stood beside Vincent, with Tony and Captain Holcomb behind them.
Sophie remained in a protected room at Bellavista with Mrs. Bell.
Julian looked at Mara.
“You should have remained an accountant.”
“You should have chosen a better shell company.”
Julian smiled.
“You believe this ends with me?”
“No,” Vincent said. “But your part ends tonight.”
Julian placed the metal box on the table.
“If you arrest me, every secret in this ledger becomes public.”
“That is the idea,” Mara replied.
“You don’t understand what Elena recorded. Judges, police commanders, senators, foreign officials. Some of these names can collapse governments.”
“Then perhaps those governments deserve to fall.”
Julian studied her.
“You sound like your mother.”
“You knew her.”
“I knew of her.”
“Who caused her death?”
Julian’s gaze moved toward Vincent.
“Ask the man standing beside you.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
Mara did not look away from Julian.
“He was a child when my mother began recording your organization.”
“But he wasn’t a child when she died.”
The café door opened.
Dario entered with the Spider, Elias, beside him.
Dario pointed a weapon toward Vincent.
Elias stood very still.
Julian reached for the box.
Before he could take it, Elias knocked Dario’s arm aside. The weapon discharged into the ceiling.
Tony and Holcomb moved forward.
Dario was restrained.
Julian ran toward the trapdoor, but Mara pulled the winter table into his path. He fell without serious injury, and Vincent secured his wrists.
The metal box opened on the floor.
Inside was no ledger.
There was only a photograph.
It showed Elena Reyes standing beside a younger woman with Vincent’s eyes.
May you like
On the back, Elena had written:
THE ARCHITECT WAS NEVER A MAN.
