Chapter 9 - THE MAN WHO WANTED HER INSIDE GALLAGHER TOWER
Seamus denied hiring Norah.
Technically true.
He had not signed the employment offer.
Declan had.
But executive audit logs showed Seamus opened her application before Declan ever saw it.
Then sent a message to HR:
STRONG CANDIDATE. ENSURE CEO REVIEW.
Declan stared at his uncle.
“You put her in front of me.”
Seamus said nothing.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas asked me to.”
Norah froze.
“What?”
Seamus looked old for the first time.
“Your father contacted me fourteen months ago.”
Every person in the room went still.
“Dad is alive.”
Seamus did not answer immediately.
Norah’s voice broke.
“Is my father alive?”
“He was fourteen months ago.”
The room shifted.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You spoke to him.”
“Encrypted call.”
“What did he want?”
“You inside Gallagher Tower.”
Norah laughed in disbelief.
“Why?”
“He said Blackbird had restarted.”
“So he put me in the company where people wanted him dead?”
“He said you were safer where Declan could see you.”
Norah turned toward Declan.
He looked equally furious.
“You used me.”
Seamus’s jaw tightened.
“I did what Thomas asked.”
“Without telling her.”
“Yes.”
“Without telling me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas trusted neither of you with enough history to behave naturally if you knew.”
Norah felt rage rise.
Again.
Protection through ignorance.
Men treating people like chess pieces because they called secrecy strategy.
“What happened after I was hired?”
Seamus looked at the table.
“Thomas contacted me twice.”
“When?”
“Three months after.”
“And?”
“He said the transfer pattern was moving through Norah’s reporting chain.”
She stared.
“He knew someone would frame me?”
“He suspected.”
“Why not warn me?”
“He said warning you might force them to change method.”
Norah laughed bitterly.
“So I was bait.”
Seamus did not deny it.
Declan stood.
“You let her sit at that desk while somebody cloned her credentials.”
“I didn’t know that part.”
“Now.”
Seamus flinched.
The same late knowledge.
Then Declan asked:
“Did you sabotage the elevator?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your credential was used.”
“My token went missing yesterday afternoon.”
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
For once, Seamus sounded exhausted rather than powerful.
Then he placed one final item on the table.
A burner phone.
“Thomas sent this three days ago.”
Norah stopped.
“Message?”
One audio clip.
Thomas Bennett.
Older now.
But unmistakable.
“Seamus, Blackbird is moving again.”
Norah covered her mouth.
Her father.
Alive three days ago.
Thomas continued:
“Keane is compromised.”
“The tower elevator system is not.”
Not?
Then:
“If Declan comes back injured, it means the warehouse failed.”
Norah looked at Declan.
Thomas had predicted even that.
“Do not let him take Norah through the executive elevator.”
Seamus closed his eyes.
Norah whispered:
“You knew.”
“I got the message too late.”
“When?”
“12:11.”
They entered the elevator around midnight.
Too late.
Or perhaps intentionally late?
Nobody knew.
Thomas continued:
“The person controlling Blackbird has access to Patrick’s old security credential.”
Not Seamus’s.
Patrick’s.
Declan’s dead father.
Maeve searched elevator logs again.
They had assumed the credential belonged to Seamus because both used legacy executive access.
Detailed cryptographic identifier:
P.GALLAGHER-01.
Patrick.
Declan stopped breathing.
Someone used his dead father’s active credential to drop the elevator.
Then Thomas’s message ended:
“Norah turns thirty in three weeks.”
“If they cannot discredit her before then, they will try to control her.”
“Do not let her sign anything.”
“Do not let her marry anyone connected to Gallagher holdings.”
“And if Patrick appears…”
Static.
Then:
“…run.”
The clip ended.
Declan stared at his uncle.
“You knew my father survived.”
Seamus looked at him.
“I knew Thomas believed it.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No.”
A long pause.
“I saw Patrick once.”
Norah felt cold.
“When?”
“Eight years after the crash.”
“Where?”
“Montreal.”
“What did he say?”
Seamus’s eyes filled.
“He told me never to contact him again.”
“Why?”
“Because Blackbird had become bigger than the family.”
Declan’s voice hardened.
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
Seamus looked away.
“Yes.”
That confession hurt more than anger could show.
Then Maeve’s phone buzzed.
Chicago police had found Celia Warren.
Alive.
At a hotel near the airport.
She wanted immunity.
And she had one thing to trade.
The name of the person who ordered Declan and Norah into the elevator.
Not Keane.
Not Seamus.
Not anyone currently listed as a Gallagher executive.
May you like
Her statement contained two words:
PATRICK GALLAGHER.
