Chapter 4 - The Decryption
Maso slammed his foot on the gas pedal, throwing the heavy sedan through a dangerous red light.
The armored van matched our speed effortlessly, its massive steel grill looming in the rearview mirror.
I braced my hands against the dashboard as Maso violently swerved into a narrow, twisting alleyway.
The van tried to follow, but its wide frame scraped violently against the brick walls, sparking brilliantly.
The momentary delay gave Maso exactly enough time to lose them in the morning traffic.
We eventually pulled into the underground parking garage of an abandoned, foreclosed hotel.
Maso led us up the concrete stairs to a dusty, forgotten maintenance office on the fourth floor.
He locked the heavy steel door, slumped against the wall, and finally allowed himself to wince in pain.
I tore a strip of fabric from Elena's ruined dress to tightly bandage Maso's bleeding shoulder.
He thanked me quietly and pulled a rugged, encrypted laptop from his tactical duffel bag.
I placed the tiny microchip onto the desk and inserted it into the computer's specialized port.
The screen flickered to life, requiring a complex twelve-digit alphanumeric password.
I stared at the blinking cursor, feeling completely helpless against the digital lock.
Elena stepped forward gently, her bruised fingers flying across the dirty keyboard with practiced speed.
The screen flashed green, instantly unlocking hundreds of highly classified financial documents.
I scrolled through the files, my eyes widening at the sheer magnitude of Ruggero's betrayal.
Ruggero had secretly siphoned millions of dollars from the commission to fund a massive private army.
He was planning to assassinate the heads of the five families and crown himself the undisputed king.
I found a specific folder labeled with high-priority targets marked for immediate execution.
My name was at the very top of the list, marked with a massive bounty.
I scrolled down and saw the second name, expecting to read Elena's official courier alias.
Instead, the document listed her true identity, complete with her authentic birth certificate.
I looked up from the glowing screen and stared at the shivering girl in the silver dress.
I asked her why Ruggero's files referred to her as Elena Romano.
She wiped a tear from her cheek and confessed the secret she had sworn to take to her grave.
She was not just a hired courier, and she had never slept with my husband.
Elena was Alessandro's secret younger half-sister, hidden away at birth to protect her from the mob.
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Maso suddenly cocked his weapon and pointed it directly at the locked steel door.
The heavy sound of combat boots echoed loudly from the concrete hallway right outside our room.
