Chapter 9 - The Son of Two EnemiesSmoke filled the control room.
Emergency alarms began sounding.
Carlo's voice came through the speakers.
“You've always been curious, Victor.”
Victor looked at the camera.
“Show yourself.”
“Not yet.”
Matteo stepped forward.
“Why did you lie to me?”
Carlo laughed.
“You mean Teresa?”
Matteo stared at the monitor.
“I mean everything.”
“You were useful.”
“That's it?”
“You were family.”
Matteo clenched his fists.
“Family doesn't do this.”
Carlo's response was quiet.
“Family does worse.”
Victor searched the room.
He noticed a maintenance panel.
“There.”
Daniel and Matteo forced it open.
Behind it was a manual release.
Victor pulled the lever.
The door unlocked.
They escaped into another tunnel.
The tunnel led upward.
When they emerged, they found themselves inside the family chapel.
It was empty.
Blood stained the floor.
Victor found Isabella alive.
“Where's Carlo?”
“Gone.”
“Teresa?”
“Gone.”
“Gabriel?”
Isabella looked at him.
“Taken.”
Victor's jaw tightened.
“Who took him?”
“We don't know.”
Elena suddenly pointed toward the altar.
A note lay there.
Victor opened it.
COME ALONE.
Beneath it was a photograph of Gabriel tied to a chair.
Victor stared.
Daniel grabbed the note.
“No.”
“I’m going.”
“You'll be killed.”
Victor looked at Elena.
“She'll be killed too if I don't.”
Elena stepped forward.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“You don't get to decide that.”
Victor paused.
She was right.
Matteo looked at both of them.
“I'm coming too.”
Victor stared.
“You're the target.”
“Exactly.”
They followed the coordinates.
The meeting point was an abandoned train station beneath Chicago.
Gabriel was tied to a chair.
Carlo stood behind him.
Teresa stood beside Carlo.
Victor raised his weapon.
Carlo smiled.
“Three generations of betrayal in one room.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Let Gabriel go.”
Carlo shook his head.
“Not until the ledger.”
Elena pulled it from her coat.
“You want this?”
Carlo nodded.
“Give it to me.”
She held it up.
“First, tell me about my mother.”
Carlo looked at her.
“She betrayed Daniel.”
Daniel shouted:
“Liar!”
Carlo ignored him.
“She tried to steal the ledger.”
Elena's mother suddenly spoke.
“She did.”
Everyone turned.
She had appeared from the shadows.
Elena stared.
“Mom?”
Her mother looked at Daniel.
“I did steal it.”
Daniel's face collapsed.
“You were working with Carlo.”
“For a while.”
Elena shook her head.
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
“You could have told me.”
“Then Carlo would have found you.”
Carlo laughed.
“She still doesn't understand.”
He nodded toward Elena.
“Your mother didn't save you.”
“What do you mean?”
Carlo's eyes hardened.
“She was the one who sold your location to us.”
Silence.
Elena looked at her mother.
“Is that true?”
Her mother began crying.
“Yes.”
Elena stepped back.
“No.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always had a choice.”
Carlo smiled.
“Now you know why I kept her alive.”
Victor looked at Elena.
She was shaking.
Then he noticed something.
Her mother wasn't looking at Carlo.
She was looking at the floor.
At the exact place where Gabriel was tied.
Victor followed her gaze.
A tiny red light blinked beneath Gabriel's chair.
A transmitter.
Not a bomb.
A recording device.
Elena's mother whispered:
“Now.”
Victor understood.
He fired at the ceiling.
Everyone ducked.
Isabella's men stormed the station from both sides.
Carlo disappeared through a service tunnel.
Teresa followed.
Gabriel was freed.
Elena's mother remained frozen.
Daniel approached her.
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“Because I was never working for Carlo.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
She whispered:
“I was working against him.”
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And then she revealed the name of the person who had hired her.
Anthony Russo.
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