Chapter 10 - HARBOR NINEHarbor Nine was not a place listed on modern maps.
Michael hoped he was.
DNA proved otherwise.
Gabriel Cross had fathered another son thirty-nine years earlier.
His name was Jonathan Reed.
Mother: Patricia Reed, a former Cross Industries employee.
Her brother had been Dr. Thomas Reed.
Their mother’s physician.
The man who died in the boating accident.
Everything connected.
Jonathan had grown up believing Gabriel abandoned him.
At nineteen, he joined one of Cross Industries’ security contractors.
At twenty-six, he began working directly for Raymond Voss.
At thirty-two, he disappeared from official records.
Rebecca Voss identified his photograph immediately.
“That’s him.”
Nathaniel stared.
“You know Jonathan?”
“He recruited people for my father.”
“Where is he now?”
“I don’t know.”
Michael looked at the photograph.
Same jaw.
Same eyes as Gabriel.
A younger version of their father.
Nathaniel felt something unexpected.
Not jealousy.
Pity.
“What did Gabriel tell him?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“That you and Michael stole his life.”
Nathaniel laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
The old family weapon.
Divide the sons.
Turn them against one another.
Jonathan had taken control of the Covenant after Samuel aged out.
Unlike the old men, Jonathan understood modern technology.
Cybersecurity.
Private surveillance.
Data brokerage.
He had transformed the Covenant from a network of bribes into something much larger.
Blackmail built from stolen digital records.
Politicians.
CEOs.
Judges.
Journalists.
Thousands of people tracked.
Nathaniel suddenly understood why the church attackers knew exactly where Eli would be.
Why his systems were compromised.
Why executive authorization could be duplicated.
Jonathan had spent years inside the digital walls of Cross Industries.
The hunt became public.
Federal agents issued warrants.
News networks published Jonathan’s photograph.
Then Jonathan responded.
At 8:00 p.m., every digital billboard owned by Cross Media across Boston changed simultaneously.
Nathaniel’s photograph appeared.
Then Michael’s.
Then Evelyn’s.
A message followed:
THE CROSS FAMILY BUILT ITS FORTUNE ON BLOOD. ASK THEM WHO PROFITED.
Nathaniel watched from his office.
Michael stood beside him.
“He’s not entirely wrong.”
“No.”
Nathaniel surprised him.
“We did profit.”
“We didn’t know.”
“Victims don’t care what we knew.”
Michael nodded.
“What do we do?”
Nathaniel looked at the skyline.
“Tell the truth before he tells his version.”
The next morning, Nathaniel Cross held a press conference.
No lawyers beside him.
No carefully prepared corporate statement.
Michael stood on his left.
Sarah and Eli watched privately upstairs.
Nathaniel faced hundreds of reporters.
“My family’s company benefited from crimes.”
Cameras flashed.
“My father participated in corruption. Members of my family concealed violence. Some people who protected Cross Industries committed murder.”
Gasps.
Nathaniel continued.
“I did not know the extent of those crimes.”
He paused.
“But ignorance does not erase benefit.”
Michael looked at him.
Nathaniel announced the creation of a $2.4 billion restitution trust funded from family holdings.
He also announced full cooperation with investigators.
Stock dropped another fourteen percent.
Board members panicked.
Investors demanded his resignation.
Nathaniel expected it.
What he did not expect was what happened next.
Families came forward.
Children of workers killed in unsafe construction projects.
Widows of contractors pressured into silence.
Former employees whose careers had been destroyed.
Nathaniel listened.
For three weeks.
Not through lawyers.
Personally.
Michael joined him.
Some people yelled.
Some cried.
Some refused compensation.
Nathaniel did not defend himself.
The empire changed.
Then Jonathan contacted Eli.
Not Nathaniel.
The boy received a message through an online school account.
A photograph.
Jonathan and Gabriel Cross together.
Under it:
Ask your uncle why his father loved him and hid me.
Eli showed Nathaniel immediately.
Nathaniel’s blood went cold.
“Did you answer?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Eli looked at the photograph.
“Is he my uncle too?”
Nathaniel hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Is he bad?”
Nathaniel sat beside him.
“He has done bad things.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Nathaniel smiled sadly.
Children were difficult that way.
“I don’t know what he is.”
Eli thought.
“Dad says people can stop being what they were.”
Nathaniel looked toward Michael across the room.
“Your dad is annoyingly wise.”
Eli smiled.
Two nights later, Jonathan called Nathaniel.
No distortion.
“You finally learned I exist.”
Nathaniel stood alone in his study.
“I’m sorry.”
Silence.
Jonathan laughed.
“That’s your opening?”
“It’s the truth.”
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
“So easy.”
“No.”
Nathaniel’s voice tightened.
“Not easy.”
Jonathan paused.
“I watched Gabriel take you to baseball games.”
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
“I watched photographs in newspapers. Nathaniel at Harvard. Michael at boarding school. Cross family vacations.”
“What did he tell your mother?”
“That he’d leave Evelyn.”
Nathaniel said nothing.
“He never did.”
“I know.”
“He paid us to disappear.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying that!”
The anger exploded.
Nathaniel waited.
Jonathan breathed heavily.
Then whispered:
“He came to see me once.”
“When?”
“I was twelve.”
Nathaniel’s chest tightened.
“He gave me a watch.”
“What kind?”
“Cross family crest inside.”
Nathaniel knew the watch.
Their grandfather had owned three matching pieces.
Nathaniel had one.
Michael had another.
The third had supposedly been lost.
“He told me someday my brothers would know me.”
Jonathan laughed bitterly.
“He lied.”
Nathaniel looked down at his watch.
“Meet me.”
“No police?”
“I won’t promise that.”
Jonathan laughed.
“At least you’re honest.”
“Meet me anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because whatever Gabriel did to us doesn’t have to decide what we do next.”
Jonathan went silent.
Nathaniel thought the call had ended.
Then Jonathan said:
“St. Matthew’s.”
Of course.
“Tomorrow. Six.”
The church again.
Michael wanted to come.
Nathaniel refused.
“You have a wife and son.”
“And you’re my brother.”
“So is he.”
Michael stared.
Nathaniel continued.
“If Jonathan sees both of us, he sees what Gabriel told him he could never have.”
“That might help.”
“Or destroy him.”
Michael understood.
Nathaniel entered St. Matthew’s alone the next evening.
Jonathan stood near the altar.
No guards.
No gun visible.
He resembled Gabriel so strongly Nathaniel almost stopped.
Jonathan looked at him.
“So this is the great Nathaniel Cross.”
Nathaniel sat in the third pew.
“No. This is an old man tired of family secrets.”
Jonathan smiled despite himself.
Nathaniel removed his watch.
Placed it on the pew.
Jonathan stared.
“Grandfather’s.”
“Yes.”
“You knew there were three.”
“I was told the third was lost.”
Jonathan touched his own watch.
For several seconds, neither man spoke.
Then Jonathan said:
“You want me to surrender.”
“Yes.”
“You think prison fixes this?”
“No.”
“You’ll go home to billions.”
“Less billions than last month.”
Jonathan laughed.
Nathaniel continued.
“You should answer for what you did.”
“And Samuel?”
“Jail.”
“Voss?”
“Jail.”
“Thomas?”
“Cooperating.”
Jonathan’s smile disappeared.
“Michael?”
“Alive.”
“And you?”
Nathaniel looked at him.
“I spend the rest of my life repairing what I inherited.”
Jonathan shook his head.
“You always get the noble role.”
“No.”
Nathaniel stood.
“You can have it.”
Jonathan frowned.
Nathaniel stepped closer.
“Help expose the Covenant. Name everyone. Release every blackmail file to investigators.”
“And then?”
“Then accept whatever sentence comes.”
Jonathan laughed.
“That’s noble?”
“No.”
Nathaniel looked directly at him.
“That’s expensive.”
“In what way?”
“You lose freedom. Power. Revenge. Maybe years of your life.”
Nathaniel paused.
“But you stop becoming Gabriel.”
Jonathan’s face changed.
That was the wound.
Nathaniel saw it.
“I am nothing like him.”
“You built a system to control people through fear.”
Jonathan’s eyes hardened.
“He abandoned me.”
“And you made strangers pay.”
Silence.
Nathaniel’s phone vibrated.
He ignored it.
Jonathan’s eyes shifted toward the church entrance.
Then Nathaniel heard a click.
A rifle safety.
Jonathan’s face changed.
He shouted:
“DOWN!”
Nathaniel dropped.
A bullet shattered stained glass above him.
Jonathan grabbed Nathaniel and pulled him behind a stone column.
Another shot.
“Who is that?” Nathaniel demanded.
Jonathan looked genuinely terrified.
“The Covenant.”
“You control it.”
“Not anymore.”
A red laser moved across the wall.
Jonathan pulled a gun.
Nathaniel stared.
“You brought a weapon.”
“I’m not stupid.”
Footsteps entered the church.
Three armed men.
Jonathan whispered:
“I told them I was surrendering.”
“And?”
“They decided Gabriel’s sons were all liabilities.”
Nathaniel almost smiled.
“Finally something unites us.”
Gunfire erupted.
Jonathan fired toward the entrance.
Nathaniel crawled toward the side stairwell.
He called Marcus.
No signal.
Jammed.
Jonathan followed.
They descended into the same basement where Nathaniel had escaped weeks earlier.
At the old tunnel door, Jonathan stopped.
“Go.”
Nathaniel looked at him.
“What?”
“They want me more.”
“No.”
Jonathan laughed.
“You barely know me.”
“You’re still my brother.”
Jonathan stared.
For the first time, anger left his face.
Then footsteps approached.
Jonathan pushed Nathaniel through the door.
“Tell Michael I’m sorry.”
The door slammed.
Nathaniel heard gunfire.
Then silence.
He tried reopening the door.
Locked.
“Nathaniel!”
Marcus’s voice came from the alley.
Security officers rushed forward.
They breached the church minutes later.
The basement was empty.
Blood marked the floor.
Jonathan was gone.
Whether taken alive or killed, nobody knew.
But beside the blood lay his grandfather’s watch.
May you like
And beneath it, written with shaking fingers in blood:
HARBOR 9.
