Chapter 10 - The Last SecretVictor survived.
Richard had anticipated that.
He had rigged the doors with explosives.
He also claimed pressure sensors beneath Rachel’s and Lily’s chairs would detonate if either moved before he received Thomas Carter’s archive.
Daniel stood across the street holding a hard drive copied from the Lake Geneva vault.
Detective Brooks adjusted his vest.
“You go in, keep him talking.”
“No heroics.”
Noah almost smiled.
“You know who you’re talking to?”
Brooks looked at both brothers.
“I mean it.”
Victor stood inside an unmarked police vehicle.
He had refused hospital treatment beyond a field dressing.
“He’ll have an exit route,” Victor said.
“How?”
“Leonard’s funeral home has old service tunnels.”
Daniel looked at Brooks.
“Did police search them?”
“We didn’t know they existed.”
Victor drew a rough map.
“One connects the preparation room to a storm tunnel two blocks east.”
Noah pointed.
“I’ll take it.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
Noah stared at him.
“Again?”
“You almost died on that roof.”
“So did you.”
Brooks interrupted.
“We send tactical officers.”
Victor shook his head.
“Richard will see them.”
“Then you go,” Noah said.
Everyone looked at Victor.
He gave a humorless smile.
“I suppose I owe the family.”
Daniel entered the chapel alone at 6:12 a.m.
The same broken coffin remained near the altar.
Police had left it as evidence before Richard reclaimed the building.
Flowers lay wilted around it.
Rachel and Lily sat ten feet away.
“Daddy!”
Daniel forced himself not to run.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
Lily was crying.
Rachel looked terrified but alert.
Richard stood behind the coffin.
A pistol rested in his right hand.
“Drive.”
Daniel raised it.
“Let them go.”
“After.”
“You don’t need them.”
“I need certainty.”
Daniel walked closer.
“You killed my father for this?”
Richard’s expression tightened.
“Your father could have ruled an empire with me.”
“He wanted to build technology.”
“He was naïve.”
“He trusted you.”
“That was his mistake.”
Daniel glanced at Rachel.
She subtly moved her eyes toward the side wall.
Something was there.
Leonard Price.
Hidden behind a curtain.
Holding a shotgun.
Daniel continued talking.
“What’s on the archive?”
“Evidence that belongs to me.”
“Evidence of treason?”
Richard laughed.
“Such dramatic language.”
“You sold restricted systems.”
“I sold possibilities.”
“To hostile governments.”
“To buyers.”
Daniel set the drive on the coffin.
Richard motioned.
“Open the laptop.”
A computer sat nearby.
Daniel inserted the drive.
Password prompt.
Richard pointed the gun toward Lily.
“Unlock it.”
Daniel’s hands trembled.
“Don’t point that at her.”
“Password.”
Daniel typed.
THOMAS-CARTER.
Denied.
Richard’s face hardened.
“You’re playing games.”
“I don’t know the password.”
“You found the vault.”
“That doesn’t mean Dad told me everything.”
Richard stepped toward Lily.
Daniel raised both hands.
“Wait.”
Lily suddenly spoke.
“Grandpa did.”
Everyone looked at her.
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“What?”
Lily sniffed.
“You told me Grandpa’s favorite sentence.”
Daniel remembered.
His father used to say it whenever a prototype failed.
Build it better tomorrow.
Daniel typed:
BUILD-IT-BETTER-TOMORROW.
ACCESS GRANTED.
Richard smiled.
“There you are, Thomas.”
Files appeared.
Transactions.
Names.
Bank accounts.
Photographs.
Recorded conversations.
Richard’s entire criminal network.
He leaned toward the screen.
And Daniel saw fear cross his face.
“No.”
“What?”
Richard opened a folder.
EMPTY.
Another.
EMPTY.
The visible files were only indexes.
The actual archive had been uploaded elsewhere.
A message appeared.
TRANSFER COMPLETE — FEDERAL EVIDENCE SERVER.
Daniel smiled.
Richard looked at him.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t.”
Thomas had.
The moment the archive was opened outside its vault, it transmitted automatically.
Richard raised the gun.
“You destroyed me.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at him.
“My father did.”
Richard fired.
Daniel dove.
The bullet shattered a pew.
Rachel screamed.
Leonard stepped from behind the curtain.
Noah burst through the side corridor at the same moment.
Victor was behind him.
Chaos exploded.
Leonard fired.
Victor shoved Noah aside.
The shot struck Victor in the chest.
He fell.
“No!”
Daniel tackled Richard.
The gun skidded beneath the coffin.
Noah attacked Leonard.
They crashed into a flower stand.
Rachel pulled Lily close but couldn’t rise from the pressure-sensitive chair.
Daniel and Richard struggled beside the broken coffin.
“You should have died with your father!” Richard snarled.
Daniel punched him.
Richard slammed Daniel’s head against the floor.
Stars burst across his vision.
Richard reached for the gun.
Then Evelyn’s voice came from the chapel entrance.
“Richard.”
Everyone froze.
Evelyn stood there.
Hospital bracelet still around her wrist.
Detective Brooks beside her.
Richard stared as if seeing a ghost.
Evelyn stepped forward.
“You spent seventeen years believing you won.”
Richard raised the gun.
Brooks aimed hers.
“Drop it!”
Richard’s hand shook.
Evelyn kept walking.
“You took my husband.”
“Evelyn—”
“You stole years from my sons.”
“Stop.”
“You put me in a coffin.”
Richard’s face twisted.
“You were supposed to cooperate!”
Daniel saw it then.
The madness beneath Richard’s polished surface.
Not insanity.
Entitlement.
He believed everything belonged to him.
Companies.
Technology.
People.
Lives.
Richard aimed at Evelyn.
Daniel lunged.
Gunshot.
The chapel erupted in screams.
Richard fell.
The bullet had not come from Brooks.
Victor lay on the floor, barely conscious.
Leonard’s dropped pistol was in his hand.
Richard clutched his shoulder.
Brooks rushed forward and kicked his weapon away.
Officers flooded the chapel.
Leonard was arrested.
Bomb technicians disabled the pressure sensors.
Rachel and Lily were freed.
Daniel ran to them.
Lily wrapped both arms around his neck.
“I knew you’d come.”
Daniel broke down.
For the first time since the funeral began, he simply cried.
Behind him, paramedics worked on Victor.
Evelyn knelt beside her husband.
His breathing was shallow.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Evelyn held his hand.
Victor looked at Daniel.
“Don’t let my last thing be the worst thing.”
Then his eyes closed.
The heart monitor went flat.
Paramedics began CPR.
Evelyn screamed his name.
Daniel held Lily against his chest and watched the man he had hated for days being carried toward an ambulance.
He didn’t know whether Victor Hale deserved forgiveness.
But he knew one thing.
May you like
Victor had taken a bullet meant for Noah.
And if he died, the truth about Richard’s network might die with him.
