Chapter 2 - The Man Who Knew Her Father
The service corridor smelled like bleach, roasted garlic and wet concrete.
Claire moved quickly beside Gabriel while Elias walked behind them.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Then Claire stopped.
Gabriel turned.
“What?”
“You said you knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Gabriel watched her face.
“Because Thomas Bennett saved my life.”
The answer was so simple that Claire almost missed its weight.
Her throat tightened.
“My father was a professor.”
“He was many things.”
“You're saying he worked for you?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Gabriel looked toward the emergency exit.
“We don't have time for the full answer.”
Claire grabbed his sleeve.
That was the first time she touched him.
Gabriel glanced down at her hand.
Claire let go immediately.
“I have spent three years believing I knew my father.”
“You knew the man who came home to you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he spent most of his life keeping dangerous information away from you.”
Claire stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because he loved you.”
A crash echoed from the dining room.
Elias looked over his shoulder.
“They're moving.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Stairwell.”
They turned.
Claire's mind was racing.
“Why did you speak Japanese tonight?”
Gabriel stopped again.
“Because English is useful when you want people to understand you.”
He looked at her.
“Japanese is useful when you want to know who is listening.”
Claire frowned.
“It was a test.”
“Every sentence was a test.”
“For Pike?”
“For everyone.”
Gabriel's voice became quieter.
“People reveal themselves when they think they have an advantage.”
Claire remembered the restaurant.
The jokes.
The arrogance.
The assumption that Gabriel's Japanese was eccentric rather than strategic.
Then she realized something.
“You wanted Pike to think you didn't understand him.”
“Yes.”
“And you understood everything?”
“Every word.”
Claire gave a short, disbelieving laugh.
“So you intentionally let him insult you.”
“Yes.”
“That is insane.”
Gabriel's mouth twitched.
“You answered me in Japanese.”
“I was trying not to get shot.”
“That was also useful.”
She stared at him.
He was impossible.
And somehow, frighteningly, she understood him.
They reached the loading area.
Rain struck the metal roof.
Two black SUVs were parked beyond the alley.
One belonged to federal agents.
The other belonged to Pike.
Elias quietly pulled a key from his pocket.
“Garage is clear.”
They moved toward a dark sedan.
Claire hesitated.
“I can't leave.”
Gabriel turned.
“Why?”
“My things are upstairs.”
“Buy new things.”
“My apartment key, phone, wallet—”
“Your phone can be replaced.”
“My father's notebook is in my apartment.”
Gabriel went completely still.
“What notebook?”
Claire regretted the words immediately.
He crossed the distance between them.
“Claire.”
She stepped back.
“My father left me one after he died.”
“What kind?”
“Black cover. Elastic band. No title.”
“Where is it?”
“At home.”
“What is written inside?”
“I don't know.”
“You've never opened it?”
“I tried.”
“And?”
She swallowed.
“It was written partly in Japanese. Some of it is coded. Some pages have numbers. I didn't understand the references.”
Gabriel looked at Elias.
“Get her home.”
Elias blinked.
“Now?”
Gabriel nodded.
“I'll handle Pike.”
Claire grabbed Gabriel's arm.
“No.”
His gaze dropped to her fingers.
“What?”
“If that notebook matters, you come with us.”
“You don't know what you're asking.”
“I know what happened to my father.”
Gabriel stared at her.
Claire's voice shook.
“Three years ago he told me never to trust men who use polite words for dangerous things.”
A strange sadness passed through Gabriel's eyes.
“He was right.”
“Then come with me.”
For several seconds neither spoke.
Finally Gabriel nodded.
They drove through the city without lights.
Claire sat in the back seat beside Elias while Gabriel drove.
She had expected a chauffeur.
Instead, he drove himself.
It was another tiny detail that didn't fit the myth.
They reached Claire's apartment just after midnight.
The stairwell light flickered.
Claire unlocked the door.
Everything looked normal.
That was what frightened her.
Her apartment was small, neat and painfully ordinary.
A couch.
A narrow kitchen.
Two bookshelves.
A framed photograph of her father.
Gabriel stopped when he saw it.
Thomas Bennett stood beside a younger Gabriel.
Claire had never seen the photograph before.
She looked closer.
Her father was smiling.
Gabriel was twenty-two.
Maybe twenty-three.
They looked nothing like enemies.
They looked like family.
Claire's voice broke.
“Where was this taken?”
“Yokohama.”
“When?”
“Sixteen years ago.”
Claire turned.
“What was my father doing with you?”
Gabriel did not answer.
She walked to the bookshelf and pulled down the black notebook.
The room went silent.
Gabriel looked at it as though he'd seen a ghost.
“That isn't possible.”
“What?”
“That notebook burned.”
Claire frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your father told me he destroyed it.”
“You knew about it.”
“Yes.”
“What's inside?”
Gabriel approached slowly.
“Everything.”
Claire's heartbeat accelerated.
“What does that mean?”
“Names. Payments. Routes. Judges. Police officers. Politicians. Port officials.”
He stared at the notebook.
“And one name he was trying to protect.”
“Whose?”
Gabriel looked directly at her.
“Yours.”
The front door exploded inward.
Claire screamed.
Elias shoved her to the floor.
Gunfire tore across the apartment.
Gabriel fired back.
The room filled with smoke and shattered glass.
A bullet struck the bookshelf.
The notebook fell.
Claire crawled toward it.
She reached beneath the coffee table and grabbed the cover.
Another bullet struck the wall.
Gabriel shouted, “Claire, move!”
She ran toward the bedroom.
Something small struck the floor behind her.
A spent shell.
She froze.
Written on the brass casing were two tiny letters.
T.B.
Thomas Bennett.
Her father's initials.
Claire stared.
Then she understood.
May you like
The men weren't here for the notebook.
They were here because they knew it still existed.
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