Chapter 4 - the empty seat
The blackout inside Bellavista lasted four seconds.
For Sophie, it felt much longer.
Vincent’s coat covered her shoulders. Someone placed a protective arm around her without pulling her away from him. Chairs moved across the floor, and men shouted instructions into radios.
When the lights returned, Vincent was still standing beside her.
Tony faced the windows with one hand beneath his jacket.
The table he had been watching was empty.
A half-full glass of red wine stood beside a folded napkin. The chair had been pushed back, but no one had seen its occupant leave.
“Lock every exit,” Vincent ordered.
The restaurant doors closed.
His security team moved through the dining room while confused guests protested. Vincent ignored them.
He looked at Tony.
“Who was sitting there?”
“The reservation was made under Edward Vale.”
“Councilman Vale?”
“He never arrived. The guest used his name.”
Vincent turned to Marco, Bellavista’s head of security.
“Camera room.”
Marco hesitated.
“What?”
“We lost seventeen seconds of surveillance before the lights went out.”
“That is not a technical failure,” Vincent said.
“No.”
“Then someone on your team caused it.”
Marco’s face tightened.
“I’ll find out who.”
“You have five minutes.”
Vincent crouched in front of Sophie.
“Is your mother’s name Mara?”
“Yes.”
“Did she give you the bell?”
Sophie pulled the chain from beneath his coat.
Vincent touched the tiny silver bell but did not take it from her.
“Did she say anything else?”
“She said Grandma Elena remembers the winter table.”
The restaurant around him disappeared.
For an instant, Vincent was twelve years old again, standing outside a railway café in the middle of winter. His father had thrown him from a moving car after Vincent refused to carry a package for him. Vincent had walked five miles through snow before collapsing beside a table on the café terrace.
Elena Reyes, a waitress with almost no money of her own, had brought him inside.
She fed him soup, wrapped his hands in towels, and lied to the men searching for him.
For three months, Elena hid Vincent in a room above the café.
She was the first person who had ever protected him without expecting payment.
Before Vincent left, Elena gave him one of two silver bells.
“If you ever hear this sound again,” she had said, “someone in my family needs you.”
Vincent still kept his bell in a locked drawer at home.
He had searched for Elena years later, only to learn she had died.
He had not known she had a daughter.
“Your grandmother saved my life,” Vincent told Sophie.
“Then you’ll save Mama?”
Vincent met her eyes.
“Yes.”
He did not say he would try.
Sophie studied his face as if determining whether she could trust him.
“She hid something in the bell,” she said.
Vincent carefully unscrewed its base.
The encrypted drive slid into his palm.
Tony released a quiet breath.
“So that’s what they wanted.”
Vincent handed the drive to him.
“Take it to the private office. Air-gapped computer only.”
Tony nodded.
“And call Dr. Chen,” Vincent added. “I want Sophie examined and kept somewhere secure.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Sophie said immediately.
Vincent looked back at her.
“You’ll be upstairs.”
“What if you disappear?”
“I won’t.”
“That’s what adults say when they’re going to leave.”
The words held more experience than a child should have possessed.
Vincent removed the gold lion pin from his lapel and placed it in her hand.
“This belongs to me. I never go anywhere without it.”
Sophie closed her fingers around the pin.
“You’re giving it to me?”
“Until your mother is safe.”
She nodded reluctantly.
Tony returned from the office entrance.
“The drive is locked. Our system says it requires a physical key.”
Vincent examined the bell.
Inside the cap was a row of tiny numbers.
“Try those.”
Tony read them.
“02141996.”
Vincent knew the date.
February 14, 1996.
The night Elena had found him beside the winter table.
Before Tony could leave, Marco hurried from the security corridor.
“We found the source of the blackout. The signal came from the wine cellar.”
“Who entered the cellar tonight?”
“Three staff members and one guest.”
“Which guest?”
Marco looked toward the empty table.
“The man using Councilman Vale’s reservation.”
Vincent’s phone rang.
The caller identification showed Mara Reyes.
He answered immediately.
“Mara?”
A man’s voice responded.
“You have something that belongs to us.”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
“I have a child who belongs with her mother.”
“Bring the drive to Pier Nineteen.”
“Let me speak to Mara.”
A pause followed.
Then Mara’s voice came through the phone.
“Vincent, don’t give them—”
The call ended.
Sophie had heard her.
“Mama!”
Vincent was already moving.
Tony blocked his path.
“Pier Nineteen is an obvious trap.”
“I know.”
“Then we don’t go.”
Vincent looked at the empty seat across the restaurant.
“We go exactly where they expect us to go.”
“And Sophie?”
A crash came from the private office upstairs.
Vincent turned.
The lights flickered again.
May you like
A security guard shouted from the staircase.
“The doctor’s room has been breached!”
