Chapter 9 - The Price of a Name
Roman stood in the rain with a phone pressed to his ear and five lives waiting behind steel.
“What do you want?”
Victor's laugh was almost affectionate. “There he is. The nephew I raised. Always straight to the deal.”
“You didn't raise me. My mother did.”
“And she died believing your father was an honorable man. We all carry our little illusions.”
Victor said, “Sign the transfer papers. All your voting shares in Calder Shipping. Send a video admitting the workers acted on your orders.”
“You're asking me to confess to murder you haven't finished committing.”
“I'm asking you to save them. You can choose which description makes you feel noble.”
Elena stepped closer, rain streaming down her bruised face.
“Tell him I know what B-12 means.”
Roman covered the phone. “Do you?”
“Not yet. But I think he'll tell us if he's angry.”
Roman uncovered it. “Elena knows about B-12.”
The silence lasted four seconds.
Victor's voice returned, icy now. “That woman should have stayed in the hole.”
“Then your security team shouldn't have left her alive,” Roman said.
“You think I ordered that because she found the workers? No, Roman. She found the second set of books. The ones with your father's name.”
Mara watched Elena stiffen.
“Your father?” she whispered to Roman.
Roman ignored her. “The code, Victor.”
“Shares first.”
Instead of replying, Roman said, “Danny was eleven when he drowned. You told me the current took him.”
Victor went quiet.
Roman continued. “That floodgate malfunctioned the same day. You filed the maintenance report.”
“Don't you dare bring Danny into this.”
“Did you leave him in the water because he saw something?”
The call ended.
Mara's technician shook his head. The number had bounced through a remote relay.
Inside the tunnel, firefighters hammered at the hydraulic latch. An officer reported less than three feet of clear air behind the door.
Elena stared at the original plan one final time, then pointed to a faded handwritten note beside the lock symbol.
“Roman, the override isn't a number. It's a word.”
“Which word?”
May you like
Elena swallowed.
“Danny.”
