Chapter 14 - THE EMPTY CRIB
Matteo stopped being human for several seconds.
Elena saw it happen.
The phone.
The message.
The understanding.
His face emptied.
Not panic.
Not grief.
Something colder.
More dangerous.
Agent Keene grabbed his arm.
“Do not do anything stupid.”
He looked at her.
She released him immediately.
“Where is Sofia?”
Elena asked.
Keene called New York.
No answer from the first security line.
No answer from the second.
Mrs. Kovac finally picked up.
Crying.
“They took her.”
Elena’s knees weakened.
“How?”
“A medical transport.”
“Who authorized it?”
“Dr. Beck.”
Elena’s blood turned cold.
“No.”
“He arrived with two men.”
“Where is Beck now?”
“Gone.”
Matteo grabbed the phone.
“Was Sofia breathing?”
“Yes.”
“Was she hurt?”
“No.”
“Did they give her anything?”
“I don’t know.”
His hand shook.
Elena took the phone before he crushed it.
“Mrs. Kovac, listen to me.”
The woman sobbed.
“Think.”
“Did Sofia cry?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“Elena…”
“Was she alert?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“What clothing?”
“Pink sleeper.”
“Anything else?”
“Her bracelet.”
“What bracelet?”
Silence.
“The silver one Nadia gave her.”
Elena looked at Matteo.
He understood instantly.
The bracelet contained a tracker.
“Can you trace it?”
“Yes.”
“Why haven’t you?”
Matteo was already calling his analyst.
The tracker had gone offline twenty minutes after Sofia was taken.
Last location.
JFK cargo district.
Elena’s stomach dropped.
“They’re moving her out of the country.”
Keene shook her head.
“Not necessarily.”
Matteo looked at Mercer’s phone.
“He came to Rome.”
Elena understood.
“Decoy.”
“Yes.”
“He wanted us here while Sofia stayed there.”
“Yes.”
Keene cursed.
Mercer had not come for Elena’s signature.
Not really.
He had come to remove the adults protecting Sofia from the board while his people took the child.
“Next flights?”
Elena asked.
Keene was already searching.
Private medical charters.
Cargo flights.
International humanitarian flights.
Then Elena remembered something.
“The foundation.”
Matteo looked at her.
“What?”
“Medical aid.”
The Volkov Foundation operated international medical flights.
A kidnapped baby could move beneath a humanitarian exemption with the right paperwork.
Keene called New York.
One flight had filed a route.
JFK to Halifax.
Then onward to Reykjavik.
Then Helsinki.
Departure in forty-eight minutes.
Matteo turned toward the stairs.
“We need a plane.”
Keene grabbed him.
“You’re in Rome.”
“Then fix physics.”
“No.”
Elena stared at the route.
Something felt wrong.
Mercer knew Matteo had aircraft.
Knew law enforcement could stop an identified plane.
The medical flight was too obvious.
“Not the plane.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What?”
“He wants us to find that flight.”
Matteo frowned.
“Why?”
“Because the tracker went dark at cargo.”
“Yes.”
“That tells us where the bracelet stopped.”
Not where Sofia went.
Elena looked at the timeline.
Mrs. Kovac had said Sofia wore a pink sleeper.
A baby kidnapped from a secure house.
Mercer’s people would need speed.
Not an airport.
Not immediately.
A vehicle.
Somewhere close enough to disappear.
“What does Mercer control near JFK?”
Keene searched.
Warehouses.
Clinics.
A shipping company.
Then one location appeared.
Saint Anne Children’s Relief Center.
Matteo stared.
“The foundation.”
“Yes.”
A small medical warehouse twelve minutes from the airport.
Keene called New York tactical teams.
Elena felt helpless.
An ocean away.
Her body physically ached.
Milk letdown.
Her body expecting Sofia.
The cruelty of it nearly broke her.
Matteo noticed.
He looked at her shirt.
Then away immediately.
“You’re hurting.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“Your daughter is missing.”
“And you are in pain.”
“That is not important.”
“It is to me.”
The words landed too heavily.
Elena looked at him.
He looked just as shocked that he had said them.
Agent Keene pretended to be fascinated by her phone.
Elena whispered.
“Find Sofia.”
“We will.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“Promise me you do not become stupid.”
Matteo almost laughed.
“Difficult promise.”
“Matteo.”
His face softened.
“I promise.”
The New York team entered the relief center eighteen minutes later.
Empty.
Almost.
One nurse.
Tied to a chair.
Alive.
One pink baby sleeper.
On the floor.
No Sofia.
Elena turned away.
Matteo punched the wall.
Once.
His knuckles split.
“Promise lasted eighteen minutes.”
Elena whispered.
He almost apologized.
Then Keene’s phone rang.
The rescued nurse had seen the baby.
Alive.
Held by a man in a paramedic jacket.
They left in an ambulance.
Vehicle number captured on camera.
The ambulance crossed the Verrazzano Bridge.
Then disappeared into Staten Island industrial roads.
Matteo went still.
“Harbor.”
Elena looked at him.
“What?”
“My father had warehouses there.”
“Still yours?”
“No.”
“Whose?”
Matteo’s face darkened.
“Mercer’s shell company.”
Agent Keene started making calls.
Matteo looked toward Elena.
“I am going back.”
“To New York?”
“Yes.”
“You can’t arrive before morning.”
“I know.”
Elena looked at the map.
Warehouses.
Ferry terminals.
Private docks.
Then she noticed something.
A charity ship.
The Saint Helena.
Registered to the foundation.
Scheduled to leave for Europe before dawn.
“Elena.”
Keene said quietly.
She had noticed too.
The ship had refrigerated medical storage.
Staff cabins.
A small clinic.
And diplomatic cargo clearances through several countries.
Perfect.
Matteo stared at the screen.
“That’s where he’s taking her.”
Keene nodded.
“Likely.”
Matteo’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A baby cried.
Sofia.
Matteo stopped breathing.
Mercer’s voice came next.
“You have six hours.”
Matteo’s face hardened.
“For what?”
“Sign over the proxy authority.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Elena does.”
Both looked at her.
Mercer continued.
“Bring her to Pier Fourteen.”
“No law enforcement.”
“No tracking.”
“No games.”
Matteo’s voice became lethal.
“If you hurt her—”
Mercer laughed softly.
“I need her alive.”
“For now.”
The line ended.
Elena looked at Matteo.
“No.”
He stared.
“You are not trading yourself.”
“He needs my signature.”
“I said no.”
“You told me I had a choice.”
His jaw tightened.
“This is different.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Nadia told you to give me a door.”
“This door leads to a man who murdered your family.”
“Then maybe I’m exactly the person who should walk through it.”
Matteo looked furious.
Terrified.
Helpless.
Just like the first time she saw him holding his starving daughter.
Elena stepped closer.
“We make him believe he won.”
“How?”
“We give him what he wants.”
“I will not.”
“Not really.”
She looked at Agent Keene.
“Can you create documents that look valid long enough to fool him?”
Keene stared.
“Yes.”
Matteo shook his head.
“No.”
Elena ignored him.
“Can you hide a transmitter in paper?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Matteo repeated.
Elena turned.
“Your daughter is alive.”
“I know.”
“She needs you thinking.”
“I am thinking.”
“No.”
Elena touched his bleeding knuckles.
“You are afraid.”
His eyes met hers.
“Yes.”
It was the first time he admitted it without resistance.
Elena softened.
“So am I.”
For one moment, they stood together in the ruined archive beneath Nadia’s hotel.
Then Elena said the words Matteo had said to her on the plane.
“Trust me.”
He closed his eyes.
When he opened them, the answer was there.
May you like
“I do.”
And that frightened both of them.
