Chapter 9 - THE FATHER AT THE DOOR
Victor Mercer did not enter like a fugitive.
He entered like a king returning to his house.
Black coat.
Silver hair.
Two armed men behind him.
Adrian stared at the man he had buried twelve years earlier.
Victor smiled.
“You’ve grown harder.”
“You’ve grown older.”
Victor almost laughed.
“Still disrespectful.”
“You killed Daniel Vale.”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Natalie’s breath caught.
Adrian’s expression became lethal.
“Why?”
“Because he mistook morality for power.”
Natalie stepped forward.
“He was your friend.”
Victor looked at her.
“For a time.”
“You murdered him.”
“I prevented him from destroying thousands of people.”
“You mean criminals.”
“I mean institutions.”
Evelyn raised her weapon.
“You always did enjoy making evil sound administrative.”
Victor’s smile vanished.
“Evelyn.”
“Victor.”
“You should have stayed dead.”
“So should you.”
Adrian stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Victor looked at him.
“Come with me.”
“No.”
“You don’t understand what Daniel built.”
“I understand enough.”
“Then you understand releasing those files will implicate judges, senators, federal officials, corporate executives, police commanders.”
“Good.”
Victor’s expression tightened.
“It will create chaos.”
“It will create consequences.”
Natalie looked at Adrian.
He sounded nothing like the feared man newspapers described.
Victor noticed too.
“She’s changing you.”
“No.”
Adrian looked at Natalie.
“She reminded me I can change myself.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Sentimental weakness.”
Natalie almost smiled.
Adrian did.
Then Victor drew a gun.
Everything happened at once.
Evelyn fired.
Victor’s men scattered.
Adrian pulled Natalie down.
A bullet tore through the wall.
Gabriel suddenly appeared from the rear hallway with Mercer security.
He had found them.
The shooting lasted less than thirty seconds.
When it ended, Victor was gone.
One of his men lay wounded.
The other had surrendered.
Evelyn cursed.
“He’ll go underground.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Why?”
Gabriel held up a phone.
“Victor’s driver was arrested ten minutes ago.”
“And?”
“He had tomorrow’s route.”
Evelyn’s face changed.
“Where?”
“Federal Plaza.”
Natalie frowned.
“Why would Victor go near federal offices?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Because someone inside is destroying Daniel Vale’s evidence tomorrow morning.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“The network.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Gabriel unlocked a photograph.
A man leaving the Department of Justice building.
Natalie recognized him immediately.
She had seen him at family dinners when she was a child.
Her godfather.
Robert Harlan.
Now the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Natalie whispered:
“Uncle Robert.”
May you like
Evelyn looked at her sadly.
“He was the man who gave Victor your father’s location the night Daniel died.”
