Chapter 6 - I Entered the Harbor Where My Daughter Was Held, Guided Only by Sound, and Discovered Annie Had Been Recording Her Captors the Entire TimeThe harbor was almost empty.
Rain.
Chains.
Metal.
Water.
Wind.
Perfect.
Darkness had been my enemy.
Now it was an advantage.
I moved through the warehouse by sound.
Footsteps ahead.
Four men.
One smoker.
One limped.
Two spoke quietly.
Clara followed.
Marco covered the rear.
We reached the ship.
I heard Annie.
Crying.
But controlled.
That made me proud.
She wasn't begging.
She was waiting.
I entered.
A guard approached.
I heard his breathing.
Then the metallic click of a gun.
I moved before he fired.
The struggle was brief.
Marco took the second.
Clara found the third.
We reached the lower cabin.
Annie was there.
Bound.
But alive.
“Daddy?”
I dropped to my knees.
She wrapped both arms around me.
I held her.
“You're safe.”
“I knew you'd come.”
I kissed her hair.
“Of course.”
She whispered:
“I listened.”
“To what?”
“Everything.”
She pointed to her shoe.
Inside was a tiny recorder.
“I recorded them.”
I froze.
She had captured conversations.
Names.
Locations.
Orders.
The identity of everyone involved.
She had recorded Raffaele.
Vittorio.
Julian.
And one more voice.
My mother's.
I couldn't breathe.
“My mother?”
Annie nodded.
“She talked to them.”
I listened to the recording.
My mother's voice.
“Don't hurt him.”
Another voice:
“I can't stop this.”
“Then help me.”
My mother had been trying to protect us.
She wasn't working with them.
She had infiltrated them.
She had been feeding them false information.
But there was another recording.
Julian.
“He'll surrender.”
Vittorio laughed.
“Blind men always surrender eventually.”
Annie whispered:
“I don't like him.”
I smiled.
“You don't have to.”
We escaped the ship.
Then received another message.
BRING THE KEY TO THE BLACK CHAPEL.
I knew the place.
An abandoned chapel at the edge of the city.
Raffaele's favorite location.
We had to go.
But before we did, Annie handed me the recorder.
“Dad.”
“Yes?”
“There was one more thing.”
“What?”
“The man who brought me here wasn't Uncle Julian.”
I froze.
“Who?”
She whispered:
“The man with the silver cane.”
My blood went cold.
My father.
Impossible.
My father had been in the clinic.
But the sound of a cane was distinct.
Could someone have copied it?
Then I remembered Raffaele.
He used a silver cane.
Annie had heard him.
May you like
He had been at the harbor.
And now he was waiting.
Related Stories
