Chapter 14 - The Badge and the Monster
Gabriel did not fight when federal agents put him in the black sedan.
That was because Agent Sloan had told him they were safe.
For ten minutes, he believed her.
Then the vehicle passed the turn toward the federal building.
Gabriel looked out the window.
“Where are we going?”
The man beside him smiled.
“Secure location.”
“What location?”
“Somewhere your father can’t reach you.”
Gabriel’s stomach tightened.
Salvatore had taught him something earlier without meaning to.
People who wanted you safe told you where you were going.
People who wanted control called everything necessary.
Gabriel looked at the front passenger.
He had a federal badge.
But beneath his cuff was a tattoo.
Black bird.
Three stars.
Same as Dominic.
Same symbol his mother feared.
Gabriel looked down quickly.
Think.
His key fragment was no longer around his neck.
Sloan had secured it separately.
Good.
They needed him alive but could not open the archive.
Unless they had recovered the key.
The car entered a tunnel.
Gabriel began coughing.
At first lightly.
Then violently.
The agent beside him frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
Gabriel clutched his throat.
“I can’t breathe.”
The driver looked back.
“Is he allergic?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel gagged.
The agent unbuckled.
That was what Gabriel needed.
He threw himself forward and yanked the door handle.
Locked.
The agent cursed.
“Sit down.”
Gabriel bit his hand.
Hard.
The man screamed.
Gabriel grabbed the emergency hammer mounted beside the rear glass.
He swung once.
The glass cracked.
Twice.
Shattered.
At forty miles per hour inside a tunnel, the world became screaming wind.
“You little—”
Gabriel threw the hammer out.
Not to escape.
To leave a trail.
Then he screamed through the broken window:
“HELP!”
The agent covered his mouth.
Cars honked.
Someone filmed.
That mattered.
Visibility.
His mother’s old rule had been invisibility.
His new rule was the opposite.
If bad men wore badges, witnesses were armor.
Back at the bank, Sloan traced the vehicle through federal fleet systems.
“Disabled.”
“What?”
“Somebody revoked my access.”
Salvatore grabbed her laptop.
“Use city traffic.”
“They’ll change plates.”
Carmine’s phone rang.
He answered.
Then smiled.
“Maybe not fast enough.”
“What?”
“A video just hit social media.”
He showed them.
A passerby had filmed a federal sedan in Midtown.
Broken window.
A child’s arm visible.
Gabriel shouting.
Salvatore’s face hardened.
“That’s him.”
The clip already had thousands of shares.
Public kidnapping.
The conspirators had lost invisibility.
Sloan grabbed a radio.
“All units—”
“Not all,” Dominic warned.
She looked at him.
“If Price controls agents, you don’t know who to trust.”
Sloan froze.
He was right.
Salvatore pointed toward Carmine.
“Private team only.”
“And me,” Sloan said.
“No.”
“My people took him.”
“Your people will shoot you.”
“Then I’ll finally know which ones are compromised.”
They tracked the sedan toward Queens.
Gabriel meanwhile had stopped fighting.
He sat with wrists tied.
The agent beside him held a cloth to his bleeding hand.
“You’re dead when Price is finished.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“If you kill me, you don’t get the vault.”
The man stared.
Gabriel realized he had power.
Small power.
But enough.
“Who told you about the vault?”
“My mom.”
“What else did she tell you?”
“That Vittorio’s going to kill all of you when he gets what he wants.”
The man laughed.
“He needs us.”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at the tattoo.
“He uses people until they know too much.”
The front passenger shifted.
Gabriel noticed.
Seeds of fear.
Good.
The car entered an abandoned airport service complex.
Waiting inside a hangar was Deputy Director Harold Price.
And Vittorio.
Gabriel stepped from the car.
Vittorio smiled.
“You continue to be inconvenient.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Price approached.
“Where is the third key piece?”
“I don’t know.”
“Sloan had it.”
Price looked at Vittorio.
“Our team didn’t recover it.”
Vittorio’s smile vanished.
Gabriel understood something.
They were divided.
Price worked with Vittorio but did not trust him.
Vittorio used Price but planned to discard him.
That meant Gabriel could push.
“My mother said there’s another copy.”
Both men looked at him.
“Of what?” Price asked.
“The archive.”
Vittorio stepped forward.
“He’s lying.”
Gabriel looked at Price.
“She made two.”
Price’s face changed.
“Where?”
“I know.”
Vittorio slapped Gabriel.
The blow knocked him to the floor.
Price grabbed Vittorio’s arm.
“Don’t damage him.”
Vittorio turned slowly.
For one moment the alliance cracked.
Gabriel saw it.
Then gunfire erupted outside.
Salvatore.
Gabriel’s heart slammed.
Vittorio grabbed him.
Price drew his weapon.
Federal agents scattered.
The hangar doors exploded inward under an armored SUV.
Carmine drove.
Salvatore leaned out the passenger side.
“GABRIEL!”
The boy twisted.
Vittorio fired.
Salvatore disappeared behind the door.
Gabriel screamed.
“No!”
Price ran for cover.
Sloan entered from the opposite side.
“Federal agent! Drop your weapons!”
Half the men obeyed.
Half fired at her.
Now everyone knew who belonged to whom.
Gabriel drove his elbow backward into Vittorio.
The old man lost his grip.
Gabriel ran.
A bullet struck the ground beside him.
Then another.
He reached the SUV.
Carmine pulled him inside.
“Your dad’s okay.”
“Where?”
“Other side.”
Salvatore climbed in, blood on his forehead but no gunshot wound.
Gabriel launched himself into him.
This time he did not hesitate.
“Dad.”
Salvatore held him so tightly the boy could barely breathe.
Vittorio escaped through a rear service door.
Price did not.
Sloan pinned him against a vehicle.
“You’re under arrest.”
Price laughed.
“You think this ends with me?”
“No.”
She cuffed him.
“It starts with you.”
Then Gabriel said something from inside the SUV.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“I lied to them.”
“Good.”
“No. About the second archive.”
Salvatore looked at him.
May you like
Gabriel swallowed.
“There really is one.”
