Chapter 10 - The Last Door
“Try DANNY,” Roman said into the radio.
The captain repeated the word through the repeater. A long pause followed.
Then came a harsh metallic clunk.
“Latch released! We've got access!”
Elena covered her mouth. Roman pressed both palms against the cold hood of a rescue truck and breathed for the first time in what felt like an hour.
The firefighters pulled five workers through the doorway, one by one. Three could walk. A woman with an injured leg needed a stretcher. The last man wore a blue work shirt with MORENO stitched over the pocket.
Tomas.
He grabbed Mara's sleeve. “My brother. Did you call Felix?”
“We will. You're safe.”
“No.” Tomas coughed up river water. “We aren't safe. Victor's men are on the other side of the station.”
A crack rang through the rain.
The front windshield of Mara's patrol car fractured. Everyone dropped behind vehicles as another shot hit the floodwall.
“Shooter on the upper walkway!” an officer shouted.
Mara directed the police behind cover and ordered all civilians into the fire trucks. Roman took Elena by the elbow and guided her behind a concrete barrier.
“Get down.”
“You don't have to order me twice,” she snapped.
The gunfire stopped almost as abruptly as it had begun. Someone yelled that a dark SUV was fleeing toward the highway.
By 9:08, the last rescue ambulance had cleared the river road. Firefighters secured the gates in manual mode, preventing a surge into the workers' neighborhood.
Mara came over to Roman. “We've identified the dead accountant. And my team found the signatures they forced those workers to give.”
“Under my name?”
“Under yours and six dead employees. Victor was building a paper trail that made you responsible.”
Roman watched Tomas being loaded into an ambulance. “He needed witnesses gone before they could deny it.”
Elena crossed her arms against the cold. “He also needed someone to take the blame.”
At the mansion, Maisie called on Anika's phone. Roman handed it straight to Elena.
“Mommy?” The girl sounded tiny.
“I'm coming back, sweetheart. I promised.”
“Did you find the other people?”
“We did. You helped us.”
For one moment, everything was ordinary again: a mother talking to her child about coming home.
May you like
Then Mara's own phone rang. She listened, and her expression changed.
“Roman,” she said, “the district attorney has issued a warrant for your arrest. Victor just released a video where you appear to confess to locking those workers underground.”
