Chapter 9 - The Fall of Adrien ViscariThe city turned against Adrien before dawn.
News stations played security footage of him entering warehouses connected to trafficking routes. Bank records showed transfers from Viscari companies to shell organizations controlled by Cross. Anonymous witnesses claimed Adrien had ordered murders to keep the network secret.
Some of the evidence was real.
That made the lies more convincing.
“He did enter those warehouses,” Marco admitted as we drove from Saint Orison.
“Why?”
“To remove people and records before Cross could destroy them.”
“And the payments?”
“Tracking funds.”
“Without warrants, police reports, or independent witnesses.”
“Adrien does not work with police.”
Crane looked back from the front seat.
“That decision may bury him.”
My mother sat beside Vincent, who was pale from blood loss and exhaustion. Dr. Bell had gone with officers to a secure hospital.
I kept watching my phone.
No call from Adrien.
No message.
Nothing.
“Where would they take him?” I asked.
Marco’s hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“If Caterina was working with Cross, she may know all his safe locations.”
“She saved us.”
“She also spent years beside Cross.”
Sofia shook her head.
“She turned because Adrien was there.”
“Then Cross will punish her through him.”
We reached an apartment hidden above an old bookstore in Queens.
Marco locked the doors and covered the windows.
Crane contacted federal agents he believed were outside Cross’s influence.
No one trusted anyone.
I sat at a small kitchen table while Vincent drank water.
He watched me quietly.
“Ask me.”
“What?”
“The question you’ve been carrying since the cemetery.”
I looked at him.
“Why didn’t you find me after the second escape?”
“I was shot outside your home.”
I remembered the scar along his face.
“Who saved you?”
“Caterina.”
Everyone turned.
Vincent continued.
“She pulled me into a car and told me that if I approached you again, Cross would kill you.”
“Why would she help you?”
“She wanted the ledger.”
“Did you give it to her?”
“I gave her false access codes.”
Sofia almost smiled.
“That sounds like you.”
His expression softened.
For a moment, I saw the people they had been before fear separated them.
Then Marco’s phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
A photograph of Adrien tied to a chair.
His face was bloodied. One eye was swollen shut.
Caterina knelt beside him with a gun against her head.
The message read:
LENA COMES ALONE. EXCHANGE AT 6:00 A.M. BRING ORIGINAL SERVER DRIVE.
“No,” Marco said immediately.
“What original drive?” I asked.
Vincent looked toward my necklace.
“The server in the cemetery was only a relay.”
“Where is the original?”
“Inside the pendant.”
I touched the crescent.
“The pendant is too small.”
“The metal contains a microscopic storage wafer.”
Sofia removed the pendant carefully and pressed a hidden seam.
A sliver of black glass emerged.
The final copy.
Every name.
Every victim.
Every crime.
Cross wanted the one object that could prove which files were authentic.
“I’m going,” I said.
Marco stood.
“Absolutely not.”
“He will kill them.”
“He will kill you too.”
“Then follow me.”
“The message says alone.”
“That does not mean I have to obey honestly.”
Vincent looked at the photograph.
“Cross chose the old federal courthouse.”
“How do you know?”
I enlarged the image.
Behind Adrien was a carved stone eagle.
Vincent touched the screen.
“That courtroom has been closed since the flood ten years ago. The tunnels connect to City Hall.”
Crane stood.
“We can enter through the records basement.”
Marco looked at him.
“Your badge has been suspended.”
“I still know the building.”
We prepared quickly.
Sofia gave me a small microphone hidden inside a button.
Marco placed a tracking device in my shoe.
Vincent handed me the original drive.
“Do not let him connect this to any machine.”
“What happens if he does?”
“He can erase the authentication signatures and replace them with false ones.”
The entire truth could be rewritten.
At five fifty-eight, I entered the abandoned courthouse alone.
Rainwater dripped through the cracked ceiling. Dust covered the benches. The city seal hung crooked behind the judge’s chair.
Adrien sat in the witness box, wrists tied.
Caterina knelt beside the jury seats.
Cross stood at the judge’s bench wearing a bulletproof vest.
Two armed men guarded each entrance.
“Lena,” Adrien said.
His voice was rough.
His good eye found mine.
“You should not be here.”
“I’m tired of people saying that.”
Cross held out his hand.
“The drive.”
“Release them first.”
He smiled.
“You still believe you can negotiate.”
“I believe you need this more than you need me.”
Caterina looked at me.
“Do not give it to him.”
Cross struck her across the face.
Adrien surged against the restraints.
“If you touch her again—”
“You will do what?” Cross asked. “Bleed on me?”
I held up the drive.
“Let Caterina walk toward me.”
Cross considered it.
Then he gestured.
One guard cut the rope around her ankles.
Caterina stood unsteadily and moved toward me.
Halfway across the courtroom, Cross raised his gun.
“Stop.”
She froze.
“Now throw the drive.”
I looked at Adrien.
He gave the smallest shake of his head.
Trust me.
I did not know whether he meant trust him or refuse Cross.
I threw the drive.
It flew across the courtroom.
Cross reached for it.
Caterina spun and caught it first.
She ran toward the side door.
A guard fired.
The bullet struck her back.
Adrien roared.
Marco’s team burst from the records entrance.
Gunfire exploded.
I dropped behind a bench.
Cross grabbed Caterina by the hair and tore the drive from her hand.
Adrien broke one side of the witness box, pulling the wooden rail loose with his bound wrists.
He struck a guard and seized the fallen gun.
Cross ran toward the underground tunnel.
I followed.
“Lena!” Adrien shouted.
But I could not let Cross escape with the truth.
I chased him down the courthouse stairs.
The tunnel beneath City Hall was dark and flooded ankle-deep.
Cross reached a steel door.
I tackled him from behind.
The drive flew from his hand and slid across the water.
He struck me in the ribs.
Pain blinded me.
Then his hands closed around my throat.
“You should have died with your mother.”
I clawed at his face.
My lungs burned.
A gunshot echoed.
Cross jerked.
Blood appeared on his chest.
He fell beside me.
Adrien stood at the end of the tunnel.
His wrists were still tied.
Smoke curled from the gun in his hands.
For one second, I believed it was over.
Then police lights filled the opposite entrance.
Officers rushed toward us.
“Drop the weapon!”
Adrien placed the gun on the ground.
Cross smiled weakly through blood.
With his final strength, he whispered, “Now they’ll think he killed me to hide everything.”
His head fell back.
Dead.
The officers forced Adrien onto his knees.
I tried to stand.
“He saved me!”
No one listened.
They pulled his arms behind him and placed him in handcuffs.
Adrien looked at me as they dragged him away.
“Find the drive.”
May you like
I searched the dark water.
It was gone.
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