Chapter 10 - The Mirror Shatters
Dominic's finger tightened fractionally on the trigger.
"My father didn't build you," he snarled.
"The Syndicate did."
"Where is my sister?"
The woman identical to Nora stood up slowly, keeping her hands perfectly visible.
She moved with an elegant, calculated grace that Nora completely lacked.
"Your father gave Emily to the Syndicate to pay his debts," the woman said smoothly.
"They used her DNA to map the facial reconstruction for the Ghost Protocol."
She looked at Nora, her cold eyes analyzing the scar on her cheek.
"You were a failed attempt," the woman noted with mild disgust.
"A flawed vessel they discarded in Chicago."
Nora felt a surge of terrifying anger.
"If I'm the flaw, what are you?" Nora demanded.
The woman smiled, picking up the heavy leather ledger.
"I am the perfection."
"I have Emily's face, her voice, and all the memories they implanted to make me believable."
"I was supposed to return to your father and act as a sleeper agent for the Russians."
Dominic stepped closer, the barrel of his gun unwavering.
"Then why did you steal the ledger?"
The woman's smile vanished, replaced by a look of profound, icy hatred.
"Because they made a mistake," she hissed.
"When they implanted Emily's memories into my mind..."
"They also implanted her rage."
She slammed the ledger down on the desk with shocking force.
"I remember what your father did to her, Dominic."
"I remember every second of the torture, the fear, the branding."
"I am not Emily."
"But I carry her pain."
"And I decided that neither your family nor the Syndicate deserves to survive."
Suddenly, the heavy roar of engines echoed outside the metal office.
Tires screeched on the frozen concrete of the shipping yard.
Dominic risked a quick glance out the dirty window.
Three black SUVs had surrounded the building.
Dozens of Rourke's heavily armed enforcers were pouring out, weapons drawn.
"Rourke tracked us," Dominic cursed, turning back to the woman.
"Give me the ledger."
"It's the only way any of us make it out of here alive."
The woman laughed, a harsh, terrifying sound.
"I don't intend to make it out alive, Dominic."
She reached beneath the desk and pulled out a heavy, blocky detonator.
"The ledger is rigged with enough C-4 to level this entire building."
Nora froze, the blood draining completely from her face.
"You're going to kill us all?" she whispered.
"I am going to erase the Vale legacy," the woman corrected coldly.
She raised her thumb, hovering over the red firing button.
Dominic didn't hesitate.
He lunged forward, not to shoot her, but to grab the detonator.
He tackled her over the desk, the ledger crashing to the floor between them.
The woman fought with terrifying, superhuman strength.
She struck Dominic hard in the jaw, sending him crashing into a filing cabinet.
Nora scrambled forward, desperately grabbing for the fallen detonator.
Her fingers brushed the cold plastic just as the office door was kicked completely off its hinges.
Mason Pike stood in the doorway, his arm heavily bandaged, holding a suppressed submachine gun.
"Nobody moves," Mason snarled, his eyes sweeping the room.
He looked at Nora on the floor, then at the identical woman standing over Dominic.
Mason blinked in pure confusion.
"What the hell is this?"
The woman with Emily's face took advantage of his hesitation.
She didn't grab the detonator.
Instead, she snatched Dominic's dropped pistol from the floor.
But she didn't aim it at Mason.
And she didn't aim it at Dominic.
She pressed the barrel directly against her own flawless temple.
"Tell Rourke he loses," she whispered.
She pulled the trigger.
The gunshot was deafening in the small room.
The woman collapsed backward, dead before she hit the floor.
Mason stared in absolute shock, his gun lowering slightly.
Dominic recovered instantly, drawing his backup weapon and firing two rounds into Mason's chest.
Mason dropped, dead in the doorway.
Dominic grabbed the ledger, scooped up the detonator, and hauled Nora to her feet.
"We have to go!" he yelled over the sound of Rourke's men charging up the stairs.
They sprinted to a back window and scrambled down a rusted fire escape.
They hit the icy concrete running, dodging bullets as they bolted toward the muscle car.
Dominic threw the car into gear, smashing through a chain-link fence to escape the shipping yard.
They roared onto the highway, leaving Rourke's men scrambling in the dust.
Nora collapsed against the seat, her heart hammering against her ribs.
They had the ledger.
The bomb hadn't gone off.
They had survived.
Dominic gripped the steering wheel, his breathing ragged.
"It's over," he gasped, glancing at the leather book on the console.
"We can use this to buy our lives back from Nikolai."
Nora slowly sat up, her eyes drawn to the heavy, blood-spattered ledger.
Something felt wrong.
She reached out and carefully opened the thick leather cover.
The pages inside were completely blank.
Every single one.
She looked up at Dominic, her stomach dropping into a bottomless void.
"Dominic," she whispered in terror.
"This isn't the ledger."
Dominic slammed on the brakes, pulling the car onto the shoulder.
He grabbed the book, flipping wildly through the empty pages.
A small, folded piece of paper slipped from the binding and fluttered onto Nora's lap.
She picked it up with trembling fingers and unfolded it.
It was a handwritten note.
You always were so easy to fool, little brother.
Nora looked at Dominic, whose face had gone completely, terrifyingly pale.
"Dominic," Nora asked softly.
"If that woman wasn't Emily..."
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"And she didn't have the real ledger..."
"Then who is in the Tribeca penthouse?"
