Chapter 13 - Five Minutes to Burn Thirty Years of Lies
Four minutes fifty seconds.
Matteo dragged Lorenzo toward the terminal.
“Stop it.”
“I can’t.”
“Code.”
“There is none.”
Matteo slammed him against the desk.
“CODE.”
Lorenzo laughed.
“The system requires vault authority.”
Matteo looked at the final door.
The ownership vault.
Thomas pressed one hand against his bleeding shoulder.
“Open it.”
Matteo stared.
“That’s what he wants.”
“If you don’t, everything burns.”
Gabriel shouted from across the room.
“We can photograph the records!”
“Not enough time.”
Isabella grabbed files.
Celeste helped.
David dragged an unconscious guard away from the shelves.
Elena held Sofia behind a concrete divider.
Sofia cried.
“Mommy, I want to go home.”
Elena kissed her hair.
“So do I.”
Matteo looked at the timer.
03:51.
Then at the ownership vault.
“If I open it, what happens?”
Thomas answered.
“Your biometric signature assumes legal authority.”
“Over the network?”
“Yes.”
Lorenzo smiled.
“Your inheritance.”
Matteo looked at him.
“Or your funeral.”
03:27.
Matteo stepped toward the scanner.
Elena shouted, “Matteo!”
He turned.
“If you do this, he wins.”
Matteo looked at Sofia.
“No.”
He placed his hand on the scanner.
“He thinks he does.”
The door opened.
Inside was not gold.
Not money.
Not weapons.
A single terminal.
And a physical key switch.
Matteo entered.
The screen illuminated.
WELCOME, MATTEO ADRIAN BELLINI.
PRIMARY AUTHORITY ACCEPTED.
Lorenzo laughed.
“At last.”
Matteo scanned the options.
TRANSFER.
ARCHIVE.
DISSOLUTION.
He stopped.
“What is dissolution?”
Lorenzo’s expression changed.
“Don’t.”
Matteo looked at him.
For the first time, Lorenzo Bellini sounded afraid.
“Matteo.”
Thomas smiled faintly despite the blood.
“There.”
Matteo selected DISSOLUTION.
A warning appeared.
THIS ACTION WILL IRREVOCABLY TERMINATE CENTRALIZED OWNERSHIP RIGHTS AND RELEASE DESIGNATED ARCHIVES TO MULTIPLE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES.
Lorenzo screamed.
“No!”
Matteo pressed confirm.
Lorenzo lunged.
Gabriel tackled him.
The screen demanded secondary authentication.
BELLINI DESIGNATE.
Matteo looked at Sofia.
Elena immediately understood.
“No.”
Timer:
02:11.
Matteo stepped out.
“We need her palm.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
“If we don’t, everything burns and Lorenzo keeps the external copies.”
“How do you know?”
Thomas shouted, “Dissolution sends them before purge!”
Lorenzo fought against Gabriel.
“You’re destroying her inheritance!”
Elena looked at him.
Then at the ownership vault.
Her expression changed.
“Good.”
She lifted Sofia.
“Baby, I need you to touch something.”
“Like at the door?”
“Yes.”
“Will it hurt?”
“No.”
Matteo crouched.
“No one will hurt you.”
Sofia looked at him.
“Promise?”
Matteo froze.
Promises had become dangerous things in his family.
He answered carefully.
“I promise I will try to stop anyone who does.”
Sofia considered that more trustworthy than a perfect promise.
She nodded.
They entered the vault.
She placed her palm on the scanner.
SECONDARY DESIGNATE CONFIRMED.
A final message appeared.
DISSOLVE CONTINUITY AUTHORITY?
YES.
NO.
Matteo looked at Elena.
She nodded.
He pressed YES.
The timer stopped.
00:47.
Lorenzo screamed.
“No!”
The network indicator began transmitting.
Federal prosecutors.
International courts.
Medical boards.
Journalists.
Regulators.
Dozens of destinations.
Gabriel stared.
“It’s sending everything.”
Lorenzo collapsed into a chair.
Decades of power disappeared through a progress bar.
Ten percent.
Twenty.
Forty.
Matteo watched the old man.
“You spent your life building something no one person should own.”
Lorenzo looked at him with pure hatred.
“You think truth frees people?”
“No.”
Matteo looked toward Elena.
“But lies already imprisoned them.”
Ninety-eight percent.
One hundred.
TRANSFER COMPLETE.
Then another message appeared.
WARNING.
UNAUTHORIZED ARCHIVE REMOVAL DETECTED.
SECTION S-2 MISSING.
Elena stared.
“Adrian.”
The second child’s files had been removed before they arrived.
By whom?
An explosion shook the monastery.
Not the thermal purge.
Outside.
Gabriel checked the camera feed.
Black vehicles surrounded Meridian.
More than twenty.
David looked at the insignia on one jacket.
Argent.
Lorenzo laughed from the chair.
“They waited.”
Matteo turned.
“You brought them.”
“No.”
For once, Lorenzo seemed truthful.
“They followed you.”
Matteo grabbed the ledgers.
“We leave.”
Thomas struggled to stand.
Gabriel supported him.
Celeste took two archive cases.
Isabella opened a rear escape corridor.
“How far?”
“Half a mile to the river.”
They ran.
Behind them, gunfire erupted.
Argent operatives entered the monastery.
Matteo carried Sofia for part of the tunnel.
She clung to his neck.
“Is the bad man coming?”
“Which one?”
She thought.
“There are too many.”
Despite everything, Matteo laughed.
“Yes.”
At the river, a small maintenance boat waited.
David looked at Isabella.
“You planned that?”
“I planned many things badly.”
They climbed aboard.
As the monastery disappeared behind trees, flames rose from one wing.
Not all the truth had survived.
But enough had escaped.
Matteo looked at his phone.
News alerts were appearing.
CONTINUITY GENETICS NETWORK EXPOSED.
INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION ANNOUNCED.
BELLINI EXECUTIVE RECORDS RELEASED.
Matteo looked at Lorenzo.
The old man sat under guard beside Gabriel.
His empire was ending.
Elena held Sofia.
For the first time since arriving at Bellini House, she seemed able to breathe.
Then Gabriel’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His face changed.
“What?”
May you like
Gabriel looked at Elena.
“They found Adrian.”
