Chapter 6 - The Betrayal at Midnight
The rescue operation at the Saint Claire Hotel began at 11:30 p.m.
Vincent had 6 men.
Elena had the archive key.
Raymond believed he had control.
Nobody realized he had already activated a second plan.
They entered the hotel through an underground parking structure.
The building had been abandoned for 8 years.
Dust coated the lobby.
A chandelier hung crookedly from the ceiling.
Elise was on the 9th floor.
Vincent led.
Elena followed.
They found her in a locked room.
Her wrists were bruised.
Her hair had turned almost completely silver.
Elena ran into her arms.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Elise whispered:
“I knew you would find me.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I tried to be.”
Elise looked at Vincent.
“You look like your father.”
Vincent stiffened.
“My father helped you?”
“He tried.”
“What happened?”
“Your father discovered that Raymond had infiltrated the Moretti organization.”
Vincent listened.
“He wanted to remove Raymond.”
“But Raymond moved first.”
“Yes.”
“He killed my father?”
Elise looked away.
“Not directly.”
Elena understood.
“What does that mean?”
“He arranged the circumstances.”
Vincent’s face became empty.
“So my father wasn't betrayed by outsiders.”
“No.”
“By Raymond.”
“Yes.”
Vincent looked at Elena.
Now the war was personal.
Elise gave them another warning.
“Raymond doesn't want the archive.”
Vincent frowned.
“What does he want?”
“He wants the original ledger.”
“Why?”
“Because the ledger contains one name that can destroy him.”
“Whose?”
Elise looked toward the door.
“His own.”
The lights went out.
A gunshot sounded.
Vincent pulled Elena down.
Security returned fire.
Someone shouted.
Then the fire alarm began.
Elise grabbed Elena.
“We have to leave.”
They ran through the stairwell.
Halfway down, a hidden door opened.
Raymond stood there.
“You should have listened to your mother.”
Vincent raised his gun.
Raymond laughed.
“Too late.”
He pressed a button.
The hotel doors locked.
Sprinklers activated.
Smoke filled the lower levels.
Elena realized the building was being destroyed.
“Why?”
Raymond smiled.
“To erase the archive's paper trail.”
“You don't have the archive.”
“I have something better.”
He pulled out Elena’s original employment file.
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
“Where did you get that?”
Raymond looked at Elena.
“She never applied to work for you.”
Elena froze.
“What?”
Raymond smiled.
“Your mother arranged it.”
Vincent turned toward Elena.
She looked as shocked as he did.
Raymond continued.
“Two years ago, your mother contacted my people.”
“No.”
“She wanted you close to Vincent.”
“Why?”
“So he could protect you.”
Elena shook her head.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if she knew a war was coming.”
Vincent looked at Elise.
“Did you know?”
Elise nodded.
“I knew Raymond was going to come after the Keeper.”
Vincent stared at Elena.
“You were never my secretary by accident.”
“No.”
Raymond laughed.
“You were placed in Vincent's life.”
Elena looked sick.
“Was any of it real?”
Vincent answered before Raymond could.
“Our first year was work.”
“Our second year?”
He looked at her.
“That stopped being work a long time ago.”
Raymond’s smile faded.
He did not like uncertainty.
That was his weakness.
He needed everyone controlled.
Elena stepped toward him.
“You wanted me to believe my mother used me.”
“I wanted you to understand nobody is loyal.”
“That is where you're wrong.”
She looked at Vincent.
He met her eyes.
Raymond suddenly raised his weapon.
Vincent fired.
Raymond fell.
For a moment, everything stopped.
Then the sprinkler pipes burst overhead.
Elena ran to Raymond.
He was alive.
Barely.
She looked at him.
“You lost.”
He coughed.
“No.”
He smiled.
“You still don't know the last secret.”
“What?”
“Ask your mother why your blood is in the archive.”
Elena looked at Elise.
Her mother closed her eyes.
Vincent noticed.
“Tell her.”
Elise trembled.
“Your father was not the only Moretti connected to the Keeper.”
Vincent went still.
“My mother?”
Elise nodded.
“Vincent’s mother knew me.”
“Why?”
“She helped me disappear.”
Elena looked between them.
“What else?”
Elise whispered:
“You and Vincent were born with the same blood marker.”
Silence.
Vincent frowned.
“Impossible.”
“I mean a hereditary marker from your grandparents.”
Elena stared.
That made the lock make sense.
Not romance.
Not destiny.
Bloodlines.
The old network had been engineered through generations of alliances.
But there was one difference.
Elena had a choice.
She did not have to continue the cycle.
She looked at the dying Raymond.
“What happens now?”
He smiled.
“You decide.”
The hotel shook.
Vincent grabbed Elena's hand.
“We go.”
They escaped moments before the building collapsed.
Outside, rain poured across the street.
Vincent turned toward Elena.
“The past is done.”
She nodded.
“What about the archive?”
“We seal it.”
“And the Tribe?”
“We expose what needs exposing.”
Elise looked at them.
“Then you do what I never could.”
May you like
“What?”
“Build something that doesn't require secrets to survive.”
