Chapter 9 - The Woman in the Mirror
Mercer’s agents secured the penthouse doors.
Alexander directed Sofia, Elena and Adriana into the hidden room while Mercer contacted the missing transport team.
The elevator continued upward.
Twenty-eight.
Thirty-one.
Thirty-four.
Sofia stood inside the steel doorway, staring at the security screen.
“Javier is coming here.”
“He wants the ledger,” Adriana said.
“He wants the condo,” Elena replied.
“No. The condo was only a way inside. Vale needs the black notebook.”
Sofia looked toward the glass case.
“What is in it?”
“Luciana’s personal record of Meridian Seven. Not only payments. Confessions.”
Alexander examined the locking mechanism.
“Can the room be sealed?”
“From the inside,” Adriana said. “But once locked, it cannot be reopened for six hours.”
“We are not hiding for six hours.”
Elena touched his arm.
“This is not a battlefield.”
“It became one when the elevator started moving.”
The elevator reached the penthouse.
The doors opened.
No one stepped out.
A hotel service cart rolled slowly into the lobby outside Sofia’s apartment.
An envelope rested on top.
Mercer’s agents checked the corridor and retrieved it.
Inside was Sofia’s wedding ring.
A note had been folded around it.
Come to the roof alone or Elena dies.
Everyone turned toward Elena.
She was gone.
The bathroom window stood open.
A maintenance harness hung outside it, leading toward the service balcony.
“Elena,” Alexander shouted.
Adriana ran to the window.
“She was beside me thirty seconds ago.”
Sofia looked at the security footage.
A woman in Elena’s dark green gown appeared on the roof camera, being led toward the edge by Javier.
But the real Elena had changed into a white blouse hours earlier.
“That is not her,” Sofia said.
Alexander studied the image.
The woman turned slightly.
Her face was identical to Elena’s.
Adriana touched her own cheek.
“A mask.”
“No,” Sofia said. “Look at the hand.”
The woman wore Elena’s ring.
Adriana looked down.
Her own left hand was bare.
“You took her ring,” Sofia said.
Adriana’s expression changed.
Alexander raised his weapon toward her.
“Where is my sister?”
Adriana stepped backward.
“I did not take Elena.”
“You entered this house without being seen. You knew every security system. You carried her ring.”
“Because Elena gave it to me.”
“When?”
“In the kitchen, after we returned from the hotel.”
Sofia remembered Elena and Adriana leaving the command room for several minutes.
“Why?” Sofia asked.
Adriana looked toward the roof camera.
“Because we needed Vale to believe he had the right sister.”
Alexander lowered his weapon slightly.
“You planned this without telling us.”
“Elena planned it.”
The woman on the roof pulled away from Javier.
She struck his arm, removed the realistic mask and revealed Elena beneath it.
Sofia stared at the screen.
Elena had disguised herself as Adriana.
Javier stumbled backward in shock.
Elena raised a small microphone hidden inside the ring.
“Rafael,” she said loudly, “your son says you ordered him to force Sofia’s signature. Is that true?”
Javier looked toward the shadows beside the rooftop ventilation units.
An older man stepped into view.
He resembled Javier, but his hair had turned silver and a deep line crossed his forehead.
Rafael Robles was alive.
“The girl was supposed to sign quietly,” Rafael said.
Elena kept the ring close to her side.
“And Luciana?”
Rafael’s face tightened.
“That was Vale’s decision.”
On the security monitor, General Vale remained in the lobby below.
His expression changed when he heard Rafael’s words through the phone.
Sofia understood Elena’s plan.
She had not gone to the roof to be rescued.
She had gone to make the men accuse each other.
Mercer transmitted the audio to his team.
“We have the confession,” he said.
Alexander moved toward the door.
Then a gunshot echoed from the roof.
May you like
The camera image shook.
Elena disappeared from view.
