Chapter 9 - The Hostage
The abandoned shipping yards at Pier Forty-two were completely shrouded in a heavy, unnatural fog.
Massive rusted cargo containers stacked three stories high created a maze of steel and shadows.
Gabriel parked the sedan at the edge of the lot, turning off the headlights to plunge them into darkness.
“You walk in with me, you do exactly what I say, and you do not look at the cranes,” Gabriel instructed Mara.
He handed her the black leather ledger, its weight feeling incredibly heavy in her hands.
Gabriel held the three ancient iron keys loosely in his left hand, the metal clinking softly together in the quiet night.
They walked slowly out of the shadows and into the center of the illuminated clearing.
Vincent Moretti was waiting for them under the harsh glare of a portable floodlight.
He was an older, sharper version of Gabriel, wearing a tailored suit and a cruel, victorious smile.
Ten heavily armed men stood in a semicircle behind him, their weapons raised and ready.
And in the very center, kneeling on the wet pavement with her hands bound, was Lily.
“Mara!” Lily screamed, struggling against the thick ropes cutting into her wrists.
“Let her go, Vincent,” Gabriel demanded, stopping twenty feet away from his treacherous uncle.
Vincent laughed, a dry, rasping sound that echoed off the steel shipping containers.
“You were always so dramatic, Gabriel,” Vincent sneered.
“Toss the ledger and the keys to my feet, and the girl walks away.”
Gabriel did not hesitate for a second.
He threw the heavy leather ledger onto the wet pavement, followed by the three iron keys.
They landed with a loud metallic clatter right in front of Vincent’s expensive Italian shoes.
Vincent’s eyes gleamed with pure, unadulterated greed as he looked down at his ultimate prize.
He gestured to one of his men with a lazy flick of his wrist.
The guard stepped forward and cut the ropes binding Lily’s hands.
“Run, little bird,” Vincent mocked.
Lily scrambled to her feet and sprinted across the wet pavement, throwing herself into Mara’s open arms.
Mara hugged her sister violently, pulling her securely behind her own body to shield her.
Vincent slowly knelt down, picking up the three keys and gently stroking the leather cover of the ledger.
“Twenty-three years I have waited to hold this book,” Vincent whispered in absolute triumph.
He unclasped the leather cord and opened the cover to read the master account numbers.
But the inside of the book had been completely hollowed out.
Sitting perfectly in the center of the carved pages was a high-grade military flashbang grenade, with the pin already pulled.
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Vincent’s victorious smile instantly vanished into a mask of sheer terror.
Gabriel covered his eyes just as the book detonated with a blinding, catastrophic flash of white light.
