Chapter 12 - ADRIEN WANTED ROMAN ALIVE
Roman was supposed to survive.
That was the brilliance of it.
A dead Roman Bellamy became a martyr.
A living Roman Bellamy became a defendant.
Adrien planned to destroy the evidence warehouse, kill witnesses, plant digital records on Bellamy servers, and ensure Roman was arrested publicly.
The operation would collapse.
Banks would freeze assets.
Partners would disappear.
Union loyalty would fracture.
Then Adrien would step into the vacuum.
Elsie stared at the plan.
“He was going to take everything.”
Roman shrugged.
“He could try.”
It was the most Roman answer imaginable.
Friday night arrived beneath cold rain.
The real dockworkers were sent home with full pay under the excuse of a hazardous-materials inspection.
Federal tactical teams replaced them.
Cameras were hidden inside Pier Nine.
The tunnel entrance beneath Walter’s property was wired for surveillance.
Elsie remained in a command vehicle.
Roman hated even that.
“You should be three miles away.”
“You have mentioned that.”
“Six times.”
“Seven.”
He looked at her.
“You counted?”
She almost smiled.
“My mother raised me.”
At 11:42 p.m., motion sensors activated.
Three men entered the tunnel.
Then five more.
Adrien came last.
Howerin was not with them.
Roman frowned.
“He should be there.”
Elsie felt the trap shift.
Adrien moved through the tunnel carrying a hard case.
Federal agents waited.
The order was to let him reach the warehouse door.
Enough evidence for conspiracy.
Enough to remove doubt.
11:57.
Adrien stopped.
He looked directly toward a hidden camera.
Then smiled.
“He knows,” Elsie whispered.
The feed went black.
Every monitor died.
Roman stood.
“Move teams now.”
Gunfire echoed faintly through radio traffic.
Agents entered.
But Adrien was already retreating through a maintenance branch missing from the plans.
“How?”
Marissa stared at the map.
“I’ve never seen that passage.”
Walter had.
His face drained.
“Old storm drain.”
“Where does it exit?” Roman demanded.
Walter whispered, “Under the church parking lot.”
Saint Leonard’s.
Agents redirected.
Then Elsie’s phone rang.
Adrien.
Roman reached for it.
Elsie answered first.
“You always were curious,” Adrien said.
“Where are you?”
“Ask Roman where his driver is.”
Elsie looked toward the front of the command vehicle.
Empty seat.
Roman’s driver, Tommy, had disappeared.
Roman went cold.
Adrien laughed.
“You never wondered how I knew she left the wedding with him?”
Elsie’s heart dropped.
The black Suburban had been waiting with the rear door already open.
Roman had known where Elsie lived.
The driver knew the route.
Someone inside Bellamy Holdings had been feeding Adrien information too.
Roman whispered, “Tommy.”
Then an explosion lit the night sky.
Not the warehouse.
Not the pier.
Bellamy Holdings headquarters.
Roman stared toward downtown Boston as flames reflected in the clouds.
Adrien had used Friday’s operation as a diversion.
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The evidence he truly wanted to destroy had never been federal.
It was whatever Roman Bellamy had kept hidden inside his own office.
