Chapter 13 - The Choice Vittorio Built)
The water rose quickly.
Caesar searched the walls.
“There has to be a release.”
Vittorio sat against a support column, blood soaking his shirt.
“There is.”
Everyone turned.
Caesar moved toward him.
“Where?”
Vittorio pointed toward two metal levers on opposite walls.
One marked A.
One marked B.
“If the system is still configured as I designed it, one opens the medical chamber.”
“And the other?”
“Opens the exterior floodgate.”
Marcus understood.
“We cannot do both.”
Vittorio nodded.
Caesar stared.
“You built this?”
“Orpheus facilities required containment measures.”
“You built a room where someone had to choose who survives.”
“I built systems where decisions had consequences.”
Caesar wanted to kill him.
Instead he looked at the rising water.
Adrian checked the boat.
“The exterior gate stays closed unless we pull B.”
Caesar looked at Isabella.
Her chamber was beginning to fill from vents in the floor.
“If we pull A, Mom gets out.”
“But we stay trapped,” Marcus said.
“If we pull B, we escape.”
“And she dies,” Adrian replied.
Vittorio watched them.
Even wounded, he seemed fascinated.
Caesar suddenly understood.
“This is not Shaw’s game.”
Vittorio smiled faintly.
“What?”
“This is yours.”
Vittorio said nothing.
“You designed this place. You designed the choice.”
“I did.”
“You wanted to know which son would sacrifice the group for the mother.”
Adrian stared at him.
Vittorio whispered, “Leadership requires unacceptable decisions.”
Isabella spoke through the microphone.
“Do not listen to him.”
Caesar looked at her.
“Mom.”
“Open the gate.”
“No.”
“You have children.”
“I am not leaving you.”
Her eyes filled.
“You already lost enough years.”
“So did you.”
Evelyn tugged Caesar’s sleeve.
“Daddy.”
He looked down.
She pointed toward the ceiling.
“Why is there a camera over Grandma’s bed?”
Caesar frowned.
There was.
A small security camera.
Evelyn continued.
“And another over the boat.”
Marcus looked.
Two cameras.
Adrian understood.
“Shaw needs visual confirmation.”
Rose looked up.
“So this is a remote system.”
Clara said, “Remote systems need communication wiring.”
Marcus followed the cable conduit.
“There.”
It disappeared behind Isabella’s chamber.
Caesar looked at the two levers.
A trap designed to force a binary decision.
His father’s favorite kind.
Caesar smiled slowly.
“What?”
Vittorio frowned.
Caesar looked at him.
“You taught me never to accept an opponent’s framing.”
Vittorio’s expression changed.
Caesar pulled out his gun.
He fired into the control box above lever A.
Sparks exploded.
Adrian laughed.
Then he fired into the control box above B.
Both systems failed.
The alarms changed tone.
Marcus ripped open the panel and manually bridged the exposed circuits.
Daniel helped.
The floodgate began opening.
At the same moment, Isabella’s glass chamber unlocked.
Vittorio stared.
“You could have killed everyone.”
Caesar lifted him roughly.
“But I did not.”
Adrian helped Isabella from the medical chamber.
For the first time, the brothers worked together without argument.
They placed her in the boat.
The water had reached their waists.
Everyone climbed aboard.
Vittorio was last.
Caesar looked at him.
For one second he considered leaving him.
Vittorio saw it.
“Do it.”
Caesar stared.
“Prove you are stronger than I was.”
Caesar grabbed him by the coat and dragged him aboard.
“No.”
Vittorio looked surprised.
“I will prove I am nothing like you.”
The boat shot through the partially opened floodgate.
Behind them, the boathouse filled completely.
They emerged onto the black lake.
The mansion burned on the hill.
Flames filled windows.
Smoke rose into the night.
Evelyn watched her childhood home burn.
“Are we safe now?”
Caesar looked around the crowded boat.
Amelia.
Evelyn.
Samuel.
Rose.
Clara.
Vanessa.
Marcus.
Daniel.
Isabella.
Adrian.
Vittorio.
Enemies.
Family.
Victims.
Liars.
Nobody knew.
“No,” Caesar said quietly.
“At least you stopped lying,” Adrian said.
Caesar almost answered.
Then Marcus’s radio came alive.
A federal emergency frequency.
“Unidentified vessel on Lake Moretti, cut engines immediately.”
Searchlights appeared.
Three boats approached.
Marcus relaxed slightly.
“Coast Guard?”
Daniel stared.
“No.”
The boats carried no markings.
Armed figures stood on their decks.
Dr. Shaw’s voice came over the radio.
“You made an inventive choice, Adrian.”
She intentionally used Caesar’s real name.
“But innovation was always the purpose of Orpheus.”
The approaching boats separated.
One moved left.
One right.
One directly ahead.
They were surrounded.
Isabella grabbed Caesar’s hand.
“There is something you need to know.”
“What?”
“Shaw did not take control of Orpheus from Vittorio.”
Caesar looked at her.
“Then who did?”
Isabella turned toward Amelia.
Amelia frowned.
“Why are you looking at me?”
Isabella whispered, “Because the person who controls Orpheus is a Bennett.”
Clara stared.
“Our mother is dead.”
Isabella shook her head.
“No.”
Amelia went pale.
Caesar looked between the sisters.
“Margaret Bennett is alive?”
Isabella nodded.
“And Eleanor Shaw works for her.”
May you like
A gunshot cracked across the water.
The engine exploded.
