Chapter 4 - The Man With Marcus's Face
Gabriel Vale had been declared dead twenty years earlier.
At least, that's what Marcus believed.
We found his records.
Military service.
Criminal charges.
Missing-person reports.
Then nothing.
Until six months ago.
Gabriel had resurfaced.
And he was working for Elias.
Marcus looked destroyed.
“I should've known.”
I shook my head.
“You couldn't have.”
“He looks like me.”
“That's exactly why they used him.”
The plan became clear.
Gabriel could impersonate Marcus.
He had access to everything.
He could give orders.
He could manipulate security.
He could walk into places Marcus could enter.
And he had been helping Elias for months.
But why Noah?
We searched Caleb's files.
There it was.
A handwritten note.
The boy knows about the cabin.
Samuel read it.
His face went pale.
“What cabin?”
Noah looked up.
“The red door.”
Samuel froze.
“What?”
Noah whispered:
“Dad took me there.”
I knelt.
“What happened?”
“I saw men.”
“What men?”
“They were fighting.”
“About what?”
“Money.”
Noah looked frightened.
“Then Dad told me to forget.”
I looked at Samuel.
“What cabin?”
Samuel swallowed.
“My family's old hunting cabin.”
“Where?”
“North ridge.”
Marcus immediately grabbed a map.
The cabin was less than ten miles from where I had been buried.
We moved before dawn.
The cabin was abandoned.
Inside, we found blood.
Old photographs.
Weapons.
And a hidden room.
On the wall was a map of my organization.
Names.
Locations.
Operations.
Everything.
Elias had been planning my death for years.
Then Noah pointed at a small box.
“That was Dad's.”
Inside was a recording.
Caleb's voice.
“If anything happens to me, Noah must never remember what he saw.”
The recording continued.
“I found out who Elias really works for.”
I looked at Marcus.
“Who?”
Caleb's voice answered.
“The man above him.”
Then the recording ended.
There was only one clue.
A symbol.
A black crown.
Marcus stared at it.
“That's not Elias.”
“Who is it?”
He looked at me.
“Someone we've been fighting for twenty years.”
I knew the symbol.
Everyone in our world did.
The Black Crown belonged to Vincent Rook.
The man believed to be dead.
The man who had once tried to destroy my entire empire.
May you like
The man I had personally defeated.
Or so I thought.
