Chapter 10 - VIKTOR’S LAST ORDER
Daniel moved in front of Maya.
Viktor kept the gun raised.
“I said step away.”
“You work for the Crown.”
Daniel’s voice was cold.
Viktor laughed bitterly.
“No.”
“I work for the only person who can stop them.”
“Who?”
Viktor looked at Maya.
“Sarah.”
Maya stared at him.
“My mother?”
Viktor lowered the weapon slightly.
“Sarah knew the phone was planted.”
“She knew the Crown would eventually come for Maya.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“That makes no sense.”
“She used the phone to trace them.”
“She has been building a case for years.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?” Maya asked.
“Because children cannot reveal what they do not know.”
Daniel grabbed Viktor by the collar.
“You murdered me.”
“I shot you.”
“I believed you were dead.”
“And when you learned I wasn’t?”
Viktor said nothing.
Daniel pushed him against the wall.
“You knew.”
Viktor’s eyes filled with shame.
“Two years ago.”
“You knew for two years?”
“I tried to get you out.”
“Valentina discovered it.”
“She threatened Sarah and Maya.”
“So you stayed loyal to her?”
“I stayed close enough to keep them alive.”
Daniel struck him.
Viktor fell to one knee.
The transfer reached eighty-seven percent.
Maya looked at the screen.
“Stop fighting.”
Neither man moved.
“The files are almost gone.”
Daniel returned to the console.
Viktor wiped blood from his mouth.
“There is a physical relay beneath the mansion.”
“Where?”
“Inside the chapel.”
Daniel stared at him.
“The wedding chapel?”
“The Crown installed it during the renovation.”
“If Roman destroys the relay before the transfer finishes, the files remain here.”
Maya grabbed the phone.
She called Roman.
No signal.
Viktor pointed toward a narrow tunnel.
“That leads to the chapel.”
Daniel pulled the chain around his ankle.
“I can’t go.”
Maya looked at the lock.
The metal key still rested in her palm.
She pressed it against the chain mechanism.
Nothing happened.
Viktor fired at the lock.
The chain broke.
Daniel grabbed Maya’s hand.
They ran.
The tunnel narrowed.
Dust fell with every burst of gunfire above.
The transfer feed appeared on Daniel’s wrist monitor.
Ninety percent.
They reached a ladder.
Viktor climbed first.
He opened a trapdoor beneath the chapel altar.
The chapel was empty.
White flowers covered the pews.
Blood stained the aisle.
One of Roman’s guards lay unconscious near the doors.
The relay box was hidden beneath the organ.
Daniel tore away the wooden panel.
A white crown glowed on the machine.
Ninety-four percent.
Viktor examined the wires.
“It has a fail-safe.”
“What kind?”
“If we cut the wrong line, the server sends everything publicly.”
Maya crouched beside him.
Five wires ran into the relay.
Black.
Red.
Blue.
White.
Gold.
Ninety-six percent.
Daniel looked at Viktor.
“Which one?”
“I don’t know.”
Maya noticed a dust mark near the white wire.
Someone had touched it recently.
She looked at the old phone.
The white crown symbol flashed again.
Then she remembered the voicemail.
Static.
A cart rolling over tile.
Elena’s voice.
And a faint bell beneath it.
The chapel bell.
The phone had not recorded the wine cellar corridor.
It had recorded this room.
Maya looked beneath the relay.
A tiny microphone blinked.
“They’re listening.”
Viktor looked around.
Maya leaned toward the microphone.
“Elena failed.”
“Valentina failed.”
“And you’re going to fail too.”
A man’s voice came through the relay speaker.
“No, Maya.”
“You did exactly what we needed.”
Daniel froze.
He recognized the voice.
Maya looked at him.
“Who is that?”
Daniel whispered the name.
May you like
“Roman’s father.”
The transfer reached ninety-nine percent.
