Chapter 10 - The Boy Victor Took
Eli was twenty-three years old and still called his mother every night after shift.
That was the first thought that entered my mind when I saw his badge.
Not the blood.
Not Victor.
His mother.
She lived in Ohio. She thought he was in New York studying for nursing school and working at a community clinic because he wanted "experience." She did not know our clinic treated people who sometimes arrived with bullets in them.
She definitely did not know he had been kidnapped because of me.
"We go now," I said.
Gabriel took the note from my hand.
"No."
I rounded on him.
"Do not start."
"Victor chose Pier Nine because he controls the terrain."
"Eli is there."
"Which is why walking in blind gets him killed."
"And waiting doesn't?"
Gabriel did not answer immediately.
That silence almost broke me.
"He is alive," Mateo said. "The blood on the badge is probably theater."
"Probably?"
"Victor needs leverage. A dead hostage has none."
I hated that logic.
I hated more that it made sense.
We had three hours before the deadline written beneath the note.
PIER NINE. MIDNIGHT. BRING THE DRIVE. COME WITH ROSSY.
For the next ninety minutes, Gabriel planned like a man rebuilding a war from scraps.
No large crew. Too many compromised people.
Mateo brought only two men he had known since childhood. I contacted Miriam Cole from a pay phone using the number my father had written in an old address book.
She answered on the third ring.
"Cole."
"My name is Norah Hayes."
Silence.
Then a breath.
"Jonathan's daughter."
"I need to know whether you're bought."
Another silence.
"That's a hell of an opening."
"Stephen Kline is taking Gray Meridian money. If you tell him I called, a young man dies tonight."
Her voice changed.
"Where are you?"
"Not telling you."
"Good. Your father taught you something."
My throat tightened.
"Did he trust you?"
"Enough to give me a sealed statement three days before he died. Not enough to tell me where his evidence was."
"Do you still have it?"
"Yes."
"Then meet me tomorrow if we survive tonight."
"Norah—"
I hung up.
At 11:42 p.m., we approached Pier Nine from the river.
A fishing boat carried us beneath the dark warehouse lights. Rain had started again, because apparently every terrible event in my life required weather.
Gabriel sat across from me wearing body armor beneath a black coat.
"You stay on the boat until Mateo confirms Eli's location."
"No."
"We discussed this."
"You discussed it. I listened and disagreed."
"Norah."
"Eli is there because he works for me."
"He is there because Victor took him."
"And Victor took him because of me."
Gabriel leaned forward.
"Listen carefully. Guilt is not the same thing as responsibility. Victor wants you to confuse them."
The words landed harder than he knew.
Because for years, I had done exactly that with my father.
If I had pushed him to leave St. Vincent sooner.
If I had called the night he died.
If I had noticed how frightened he had become.
Guilt wears responsibility's clothes very well.
I nodded once.
"Fine. I wait for Mateo's signal."
Gabriel looked suspicious.
"You mean that?"
"Mostly."
"I hate mostly."
"Now you know how I feel about your medical compliance."
He almost smiled.
Then he stepped onto the dock.
The warehouse was dark except for one row of lights.
Victor stood beneath them.
Eli sat in a chair twenty feet away, hands bound, tape over his mouth. He looked terrified but upright.
Alive.
My knees weakened with relief.
Gabriel walked toward Victor carrying a metal case containing one copy of the drive.
"Let him go."
Victor looked toward the shadows where I waited.
"The nurse comes out first."
Gabriel stopped.
"No."
Victor sighed.
"Still choosing badly."
"You took a civilian."
"You made her relevant."
"You did that when you killed her father."
Victor's expression barely changed.
"Jonathan Hayes was a problem."
I recorded every word on a tiny device tucked beneath my collar.
Gabriel continued.
"You altered my father's order."
"Your father was weak at the end."
"He told you to frighten Jonathan."
"And Jonathan kept digging."
"So you murdered him."
Victor looked almost bored.
"I corrected a risk."
My hands started shaking.
Mateo's voice sounded through my earpiece.
"We have Eli. Ten seconds."
I forced myself to stay still.
Victor pointed toward the case.
"Drive."
Gabriel set it on the floor and kicked it halfway across the concrete.
Victor smiled.
"And now the nurse."
"No."
"Then the boy dies."
He drew a pistol and aimed at Eli.
My body moved before my mind did.
I stepped from the shadows.
"Stop."
Gabriel turned sharply.
"Norah."
"I'm here. Let him go."
Victor's smile widened.
"There she is."
"You wanted me. You have me."
"Norah, get back," Gabriel said.
I ignored him.
"Eli walks first."
Victor laughed.
"You negotiate like a Rossy."
"Don't insult me."
Even Eli's eyes widened at that.
Victor came closer.
"Your father had the same mouth."
"You killed him."
"He killed himself by believing evidence mattered more than power."
"It matters now."
I tapped the device beneath my collar.
Victor's gaze dropped.
Too late.
Mateo killed the warehouse lights.
Darkness.
A gunshot.
Someone grabbed me and pulled me behind a steel column.
Gabriel.
"Are you hit?"
"No."
"Stay down."
Across the warehouse, Mateo cut Eli's restraints.
Victor shouted orders.
Then emergency lights flickered on.
I saw him running toward the river exit.
Gabriel raised his gun.
Victor turned and fired.
Gabriel jerked.
For one impossible second, nothing happened.
Then blood bloomed across his shoulder.
I screamed his name.
He went to one knee.
Victor disappeared through the exit.
I crawled to Gabriel.
"Look at me."
"I'm fine."
"You are bleeding. That phrase is revoked."
The bullet had gone through the upper shoulder, missing the chest.
Painful. Dangerous. Survivable.
I pressed gauze from my pocket against the wound.
Eli stumbled toward us with Mateo.
"Norah—"
I grabbed him with one arm.
"You're okay."
He started crying.
So did I.
Gabriel looked at us, pale but conscious.
Mateo held up the metal case.
"Victor took the drive."
Gabriel managed a thin smile.
"Let him."
Mateo frowned.
"What?"
"That copy is fake."
I looked at him.
"You gave him a fake drive?"
"You told me to develop survival instincts."
Despite everything, I laughed.
Then Gabriel's face changed.
"Norah."
"What?"
"The recording."
I touched the device beneath my collar.
Still there.
Victor had confessed.
Not everything.
But enough.
May you like
And for the first time, we had something that did not belong only in shadows.
We had his own voice.
