Chapter 10 - The Father Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
For several seconds, Clara could not move.
Her father had died 8 years earlier.
She had attended his funeral. She had watched Daniel lower a white rose onto the coffin. She had returned to the family house afterward and burned every letter she could find because reading his handwriting hurt too much.
Now Samuel Vale stood on a monitor in a warehouse, thinner and older but unmistakably alive.
“Dad?”
The image flickered.
Samuel stepped closer to the camera.
“Clara, listen to me.”
Victor raised a finger.
The screen went silent.
Clara pulled against her restraints.
“Turn the sound back on!”
Victor regarded her calmly.
“You have an extraordinary talent for making demands.”
“Why did you tell us he was dead?”
“Because a dead man is easier to hide.”
Leo stared at the screen.
“How long have you been holding him?”
“Eight years,” Victor replied. “Long enough for him to regret refusing my offer.”
“What offer?”
“The same one your father refused. A position in the organization. Access to money. Protection for his family.”
Victor smiled.
“He preferred prison.”
Samuel looked into the camera with an expression of exhausted defiance.
Clara's voice trembled.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Her father closed his eyes.
The audio returned.
“Because every person who knew I was alive became a target. I thought if I disappeared, you and Daniel could live ordinary lives.”
“Ordinary?” Clara laughed bitterly. “Daniel vanished. I changed my name. I spent years sleeping with a knife beneath my pillow. What part of that was ordinary?”
Samuel's face crumpled.
“I'm sorry.”
Victor switched off the audio again.
“Touching,” he said. “But we have more urgent matters.”
Leo took a step toward him.
“You're going to release all 3 of them.”
Victor shook his head.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you want the archive. And the only people who know how to open it are standing in this room.”
Victor's smile faded slightly.
Leo continued.
“Daniel discovered the location. Clara has the key. Samuel knows the original security sequence. If you kill any of them, you lose access.”
Victor looked at Arthur.
“Has he always been this dramatic?”
“Only when he's angry.”
“Then he's going to have a difficult evening.”
Victor reached into his jacket and removed a small device.
He placed it beside the ring.
A red light blinked on its surface.
“Your father built a very clever system,” he said. “The original archive is hidden beneath the Chicago River, inside a waterproof chamber connected to an abandoned utility tunnel. The ring contains one decryption key. The final sequence is encoded in your father's letter.”
He looked at Leo.
“You have the letter.”
Leo kept his expression blank.
Victor's eyes narrowed.
“Arthur told me everything.”
“Then why do you need me?”
“Because the final sequence requires a second authorization.”
He turned toward Clara.
“Your father designed it so no single person could open the archive. A Rossi must enter the first code. A Vale must verify the second.”
Leo understood.
His father had not simply hidden the evidence.
He had locked it behind the two families he feared most.
A Rossi and a Vale.
A criminal heir and the daughter of the man who had tried to expose him.
Neither family could access the archive alone.
Victor had spent 17 years trying to force them together.
“You need us alive,” Leo said.
“For now.”
“And once the archive is open?”
Victor's expression became almost gentle.
“Then you'll learn how little the truth matters when the people holding it have nothing left to lose.”
A loud crash came from outside the warehouse.
Everyone turned.
A second later, gunfire erupted.
The lights flickered.
Arthur seized the opportunity.
He drove his shoulder into Victor, knocking him against the table. Leo rushed forward, grabbed Clara's chair, and dragged it behind a stack of crates as bullets shattered the windows.
“Who is that?” Clara shouted.
Leo cut the restraints around her wrists.
“I don't know.”
Arthur wrestled Victor's guard to the floor.
The monitor went black.
Then Daniel's voice rang from the speakers.
“Clara! The west door!”
Clara grabbed the ring from the table and ran toward the rear of the warehouse.
Leo followed.
They reached a steel door just as it burst open from the other side.
Marco stood in the doorway, bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow.
“Boss!”
Leo grabbed his arm.
“You were shot.”
“Grazed.”
“You're bleeding.”
“I'm aware.”
Marco looked at Clara.
“Are you the one who keeps making everyone's life difficult?”
“Apparently.”
He gave a humorless laugh.
“Good. We need someone like you.”
They fled through the service corridor as gunfire continued behind them. The passage ended at a concrete staircase leading to the riverfront.
Clara stopped halfway down.
“Daniel and my father are still inside.”
“We'll get them,” Leo said.
“You don't understand.”
She held up the ring.
“The archive isn't the only reason Victor needs me. He knows my father designed the system. He needs me because I'm the only person who can activate the failsafe.”
Leo stared at her.
“What failsafe?”
“The archive has a dead-man protocol. If it's opened incorrectly, every file is transmitted to an external server.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Who receives it?”
“Anyone whose device is connected to the network.”
Leo looked at Marco.
Marco's face drained of color.
“My phone is connected to the security system,” he said.
Leo's own phone vibrated.
Then another.
Then another.
A series of encrypted notifications appeared on the screen.
One by one, the messages revealed names, bank accounts, and transaction records. The original archive was waking up.
Clara stared at the ring.
“No.”
Leo looked at her.
“What is it?”
“The ring wasn't supposed to activate anything until the code was entered.”
A final notification appeared.
ARCHIVE ACCESS REQUESTED.
Below it was a name.
LEO ROSSI.
He had not entered any code.
He had not touched the archive.
But someone had just attempted to open it using his identity.
Then Clara's phone rang.
She answered.
A distorted voice whispered, “Thank you for bringing us the key.”
Clara froze.
“Who is this?”
The voice laughed.
“You've done exactly what we needed, Clara.”
The call ended.
Leo looked at the screen.
A location appeared beneath the final notification.
CHICAGO RIVER. ACCESS POINT 03.
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And below it, another message.
THE DOOR IS OPEN.
