Chapter 14 - The FallThe night the powerful finally became afraid
The bullet struck the judge's shoulder.
He fell.
Agents rushed forward.
Diane dropped the weapon.
She didn't run.
She simply stood there.
“Take me too,” she said.
Marianne cuffed her.
Judge Avery was dragged into custody.
Thomas Reed surrendered twenty minutes later.
The network began collapsing before sunrise.
Accounts were frozen.
Buildings were raided.
Records were seized.
Twenty-seven arrests were made in the first forty-eight hours.
But Gabriel Voss was still missing.
That frightened Dad.
“Men like Voss don't disappear,” he told me.
“They relocate.”
Three days passed.
Robert survived surgery.
He was under guard in the hospital.
I never visited alone.
When I entered his room, he didn't look at me.
“You came.”
“Yes.”
He swallowed.
“I don't expect anything.”
“I know.”
“I don't expect forgiveness.”
“I know.”
He looked at the ceiling.
“I was wrong.”
I sat beside the window.
“Yes.”
His eyes filled.
“I ruined your life.”
“You did.”
Silence.
Then I stood.
“I came because there's something you need to hear.”
He looked at me.
“Your confession helped save forty-three people.”
His eyes closed.
For the first time, he looked relieved.
Then Dad entered.
He placed a file on the table.
“We found Voss.”
Robert sat up.
“Where?”
“Gone.”
I frowned.
“Then you didn't find him.”
Dad looked at Robert.
“We found where he went.”
He opened the file.
A photograph.
An airport.
A private plane.
A woman walking toward it.
Diane.
Except the photograph had been taken that morning.
I stared.
“She escaped.”
Dad shook his head.
“No.”
He pointed to the second photograph.
Voss was standing beside her.
Then the third.
A young girl between them.
Maya.
My blood ran cold.
“They took Maya.”
Robert tried to stand.
Dad stopped him.
“You're not going anywhere.”
“We have to get her back.”
Dad looked at him.
“We will.”
“But how?”
Dad pulled out a passport.
Maya's name.
Then another.
Frank Sullivan.
Then another.
Mine.
I stared at him.
“Why do I have a passport?”
Dad looked at me.
“Because you're going with me.”
“Where?”
He opened the final page of the file.
A shipping route.
One destination circled in red.
Sicily.
Voss wasn't running from America.
He was returning home.
And at the bottom of the page was a handwritten message.
FROM THE MAN WHO STARTED IT.
Dad read it aloud.
“Bring the daughter.”
I whispered:
“Why?”
May you like
Dad's eyes were hard.
“Because Voss wants you to witness the end.”
