Chapter 8 - Pier Seventeen
Saint Lucia Harbor had been abandoned long enough for the ocean to begin reclaiming it.
Salt covered the broken windows.
Rust crawled across steel doors.
Old shipping cranes rose into the night like giant skeletons.
Blue birds.
Liana understood Beatrice’s message the moment she saw them.
Matteo stopped the SUV two blocks away.
Rafe checked the perimeter through binoculars.
“No visible movement.”
“That means nothing.”
Gabriel said.
Matteo opened a case.
Inside were weapons.
Liana stared.
“I thought Sofia said daylight.”
“She also said keep Nico alive.”
Matteo checked a magazine.
Liana looked at him.
“Try not to confuse the two.”
His eyes flicked toward her.
“I’m trying.”
It was the closest thing to a promise she expected.
They split into two groups.
Gabriel and Rafe approached from the western side.
Matteo and Liana took the waterfront.
The original ledger remained locked inside the SUV.
What Matteo carried was a nearly perfect copy.
They entered the cannery through a loading door.
Inside, the darkness smelled of salt, machine oil, and rotting wood.
A single light glowed ahead.
Beatrice sat tied to a chair.
Nico’s portable crib stood beside her.
Liana’s heart jumped.
“Nico.”
She moved.
Matteo grabbed her arm.
“Wait.”
Nico looked toward them.
His face crumpled.
Then he began crying.
Liana’s body moved before her brain.
She rushed forward.
“Liana!”
Matteo hissed.
She reached the crib.
Nico lifted both arms.
Liana picked him up.
He clung to her neck.
She checked behind his ear.
No fresh punctures.
“Thank God.”
Beatrice looked at her.
“Get him out.”
Matteo cut the ropes.
“Where is Damian?”
Beatrice’s eyes filled with fear.
“Not here.”
Matteo stopped.
“What?”
“It was a trap.”
A loud metallic sound came from behind them.
Steel doors slammed shut.
Lights exploded on.
Matteo turned.
Men appeared along the catwalks.
Six.
Eight.
Ten.
Liana held Nico close.
A voice echoed from a speaker.
“Hello, cousin.”
Damian.
Matteo’s face hardened.
“Come down.”
“No.”
Damian laughed.
“You spent your whole life walking into rooms where everyone else was afraid.”
He continued.
“I wanted you to experience the opposite.”
Matteo looked toward the catwalks.
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“You’ll get it after we leave.”
“No.”
Damian’s voice turned colder.
“I know Sofia made copies.”
Matteo froze.
“How?”
“I knew her better than you think.”
Liana saw something in Matteo’s face.
“What does that mean?”
He whispered.
Damian laughed again.
“Did she never tell you how many times she came to my office?”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“She was investigating you.”
“She was begging me.”
“For what?”
“To help her convince your father to stop.”
The speakers crackled.
“Your wife believed I could still be saved.”
Damian said.
“She was wrong.”
Beatrice whispered.
“Don’t listen.”
Damian continued.
“Give me the original ledger and the encryption keys to every copy.”
Matteo said nothing.
“You have ten minutes.”
“And then?”
“One of the people in this building doesn’t leave.”
Liana looked down at Nico.
Damian laughed softly.
“Relax, Miss Graves.”
Her blood ran cold.
“I’m not talking about the baby.”
Matteo looked around.
“Who?”
Damian’s voice lowered.
“You.”
Silence.
Liana held Nico tighter.
Matteo stepped in front of her.
“No.”
“That’s the trade.”
Damian said.
“The ledger and Liana.”
“Why her?”
“Because her daughter’s case is the one thing we can’t clean.”
“What does that mean?”
Liana demanded.
Damian paused.
“Ava lived longer than expected.”
Liana stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Most enzyme-positive subjects deteriorated within hours.”
Damian said.
“Your daughter survived two days.”
Liana’s knees nearly failed.
“So?”
“So Dr. Vale took additional samples.”
Her stomach twisted.
“What samples?”
“Blood.”
“Where are they?”
“At the primary lab.”
“Where?”
Damian ignored her.
Matteo’s expression became deadly.
“You want Liana because her DNA can connect Ava to stored evidence.”
“Now you’re thinking.”
Damian said.
“If prosecutors ever compare Ava’s samples to her mother, the records become much harder to dismiss.”
Liana stared into the darkness.
“You kept part of my daughter in a laboratory.”
No answer.
“You kept her blood.”
Her voice broke.
Damian replied.
“Science keeps samples.”
Liana closed her eyes.
Matteo looked ready to kill everyone in the building.
She grabbed his arm.
“No.”
He looked at her.
She whispered.
“That is what he wants.”
A shadow moved above.
One of Damian’s men raised a weapon.
Matteo pushed Liana down.
Gunfire erupted.
Rafe fired from the western catwalk.
Lights shattered.
Gabriel had reached the control room.
Darkness returned.
Matteo pulled Liana behind machinery.
“Stay down!”
Nico screamed.
Liana shielded his head.
Beatrice crawled beside them.
More shots.
Metal sparks.
Someone shouted.
Then Gabriel’s voice came through a radio.
“East exit open!”
Matteo grabbed Beatrice.
“Move!”
They ran.
Liana held Nico against her chest.
His scream echoed through the cannery.
A man stepped from behind a steel column.
Matteo hit him before he could aim.
The gun fell.
Liana kicked it away.
They reached the east corridor.
Rafe met them.
“Go!”
They burst outside.
Gabriel followed.
A shot cracked.
Gabriel stumbled.
“Gabriel!”
Matteo caught him.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
“Through and through.”
Gabriel grunted.
“Move.”
They reached the SUV.
Matteo opened the door.
Then stopped.
The original ledger case was gone.
“No.”
Rafe checked the vehicle.
“Tracker.”
He ripped a small device from beneath the bumper.
“They knew exactly where we parked.”
Damian had never planned to make the exchange.
He had used the cannery to pull them away from the car.
Liana looked at Matteo.
“He has the ledger.”
Matteo’s phone buzzed.
A message.
THANK YOU.
Then another.
NOW LET’S SEE HOW MANY COPIES SOFIA REALLY MADE.
Gabriel pressed a hand against his bleeding shoulder.
“He can’t stop the timed release.”
Matteo stared at the screen.
“He doesn’t know that yet.”
Liana looked down at Nico.
The baby’s crying had slowed.
Then she noticed something caught inside the cuff of his pajama sleeve.
A folded piece of paper.
She pulled it free.
Beatrice stared.
“I didn’t put that there.”
Liana unfolded it.
A handwritten address.
And beneath it, two words.
FROM GRACE.
Grace had slipped the note into Nico’s clothing sometime before the kidnapping.
Matteo looked at the address.
“Do you know it?”
Rafe did.
His face changed.
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“An old Varric shipping property.”
Matteo frowned.
“It closed years ago.”
Rafe shook his head.
“Not the building listed here.”
He pointed.
“That’s underneath it.”
Liana looked at him.
“Underneath?”
“Cold storage tunnels.”
Matteo stared at the note.
Gabriel whispered.
“The primary lab.”
Liana’s heart began pounding.
Ava’s samples could be there.
So could the rest of the evidence.
And perhaps Grace.
Matteo looked toward the horizon.
Dawn was beginning to gray the sky.
Sofia had been dead eight months.
Ava had been dead twenty-two days.
But their voices were still guiding them.
One through a hidden letter.
The other through the mother who refused to stop looking.
Matteo opened the SUV door.
“Hospital first.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No time.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“I’ve bled before.”
Matteo glared.
Gabriel smiled weakly.
“You really did become Father.”
Matteo’s face hardened.
Then he looked at Nico.
“No.”
He whispered.
May you like
“That ends tonight.”
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