Chapter 6 - The Ransom
"Sophie!" Camille screamed, her hands frantically searching the dark floorboards of the moving van.
Alessandro felt a wave of absolute, blinding panic unlike anything he had ever experienced in his entire life.
During the chaos of the sniper fire, someone had snatched the little girl through the sliding door.
"If you hurt one single hair on her head, I will burn your entire empire to ashes," Alessandro roared into the phone.
"She is perfectly safe, for now," his uncle replied smoothly.
"What do you want?" Alessandro demanded, his voice dropping to a terrifying, deadly octave.
"I want you to sign over your remaining legal corporate assets, the shipping ports, and the real estate trusts."
His uncle was trying to drain the last of Alessandro's legitimate power before killing him.
"You will meet me at the old shipping warehouse on Pier 44 in exactly one hour," the old man ordered.
"Come alone, bring the transfer documents, or I will drop the child into the river."
The line went dead, leaving a suffocating silence inside the armored van.
Camille grabbed Alessandro's collar, her eyes wild with a fierce, maternal terror.
"You get my daughter back, do you hear me?" she cried, her tears mixing with the blood on her shoulder.
"I will bring her back to you, Camille," he promised, pulling her gently into his arms.
He instructed Dante to drive to a secure underground medical clinic to patch Camille's wound.
While the underground doctor worked, Alessandro accessed a hidden server on Dante's laptop.
He quickly drafted the legal transfer documents his uncle demanded, but he buried a digital trojan horse deep within the code.
"You cannot go there alone, it is a suicide mission," Dante argued as Alessandro loaded his weapons.
"I am not going alone, you are going to take the roof," Alessandro instructed his loyal friend.
They drove to the desolate industrial district bordering the freezing waters of the East River.
Alessandro walked through the rusted gates of Pier 44, holding the leather briefcase tightly in his left hand.
The massive warehouse doors were already open, a single spotlight illuminating a small wooden chair in the center of the room.
Alessandro stepped into the light, his eyes frantically searching the shadows for his daughter.
The chair in the center of the room was completely empty.
A small walkie-talkie taped to the chair crackled to life.
"You really are a sentimental fool, Alessandro," his uncle's voice echoed through the empty warehouse.
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Alessandro looked down and noticed a thick bundle of C4 explosives wired directly beneath the wooden chair.
The digital timer attached to the bomb was reading exactly three seconds.
