Chapter 3 - The Man Behind the Translation
Charles never reached the airport.
Dominic's men found his vehicle abandoned three miles away.
No Charles.
No luggage.
No phone.
But inside the vehicle was a single envelope.
Dominic opened it.
There was a photograph.
A woman.
Mave recognized her immediately.
Her mother.
The photograph showed Melissa Vance standing beside a much younger Dominic's father.
Mave's breath caught.
"Where did you get this?"
Dominic stared at the image.
"I don't know."
"Your family knew my mother."
"Apparently."
Mave took the photograph.
On the back was a handwritten sentence.
MAVE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE.
Her hands went cold.
Dominic saw it.
"What does it say?"
She showed him.
His face hardened.
"Who wrote that?"
"I don't know."
Daniel entered.
"We found Charles."
Dominic looked up.
"Where?"
"France."
Mave's eyes widened.
"He fled?"
"Looks like it."
"Bring him back."
"Already arranging it."
Dominic looked at the photograph.
Then at Mave.
"We're going to Marseille."
She stared.
"No."
"You know the language."
"I haven't been there in years."
"You know the people."
"That's exactly why I don't want to go."
Dominic leaned closer.
"You said your sister disappeared there."
"Yes."
"Then someone in Marseille knows why."
Mave stared at him.
She hated that he was right.
The flight was arranged before dawn.
Mave spent the entire journey staring through the airplane window.
Dominic sat across from her.
He didn't sleep.
Neither did she.
Finally he asked, "What happened to Eva?"
Mave took a long breath.
"She was sixteen."
"What year?"
"Eight years ago."
"She was helping at the processing center."
"Yes."
"Then?"
"One night she didn't come home."
"You reported her missing."
"Immediately."
"What did police say?"
"That she had probably run away."
"Did you believe them?"
"No."
Mave's voice became quiet.
"Eva never left without telling me."
Dominic looked at her.
"You found evidence."
"I found one thing."
"What?"
"A voice message."
Mave closed her eyes.
"She said someone at the center was using refugees to transport information."
Dominic's expression darkened.
"Information for whom?"
"I don't know."
"But your mother did."
Mave nodded.
"She wouldn't tell me."
When they landed, Dominic's people met them.
Marseille looked exactly as Mave remembered.
Same harbor.
Same narrow streets.
Same old buildings.
Different life.
They went directly to the refugee center where Mave had worked.
An old woman at the reception desk recognized her.
"Mave?"
Mave almost cried.
"Madame Elise."
They embraced.
Then Elise looked toward Dominic.
"You brought them back."
Mave froze.
"What?"
Elise's expression changed.
"I shouldn't have said that."
"Who?"
But Elise walked away.
Dominic watched her.
"She knows something."
They followed.
Mave stopped in a hallway.
A familiar sound drifted from a nearby room.
Someone speaking Russian.
Then Georgian.
Then Romani.
Mave whispered, "That's impossible."
Dominic looked at her.
"What?"
"That voice."
She opened the door.
A young man stood inside.
He turned.
It was Eva's childhood friend.
Jonas.
Mave rushed to him.
"Jonas!"
He hugged her.
Then he whispered.
"Eva is alive."
Mave broke down.
Dominic stepped closer.
"Where is she?"
Jonas looked at him.
"She'll come to you."
"Why?"
"Because the person hunting her is the same person hunting you."
Dominic's expression hardened.
"Charles?"
Jonas shook his head.
"Charles works for him."
"For whom?"
Jonas looked at Mave.
"Her father."
Mave felt the world tilt.
"My father?"
Jonas nodded.
The man Mave had been told died when she was eleven.
The man whose name had been erased from every document.
The man her mother refused to discuss.
"Who was he?"
Jonas whispered.
"Armand Vance."
Dominic frowned.
The name meant something.
"Armand Vance was a Rossy courier."
Mave looked at him.
"My father worked for your family?"
"Yes."
Jonas nodded.
"He disappeared after stealing something."
"What?"
"A list."
"Of what?"
"Names."
Mave's stomach twisted.
"What names?"
Jonas looked at Dominic.
"People inside the Rossy organization who were working with the Bellinis."
Dominic's face hardened.
"The Bellinis."
The Rossy's oldest rivals.
The family everyone believed had been destroyed five years earlier.
Mave suddenly understood.
This wasn't a new war.
It had never ended.
And her family had been caught inside it.
Then the lights went out.
A gunshot cracked through the building.
Jonas fell.
Mave screamed.
Dominic grabbed her.
"Down!"
More shots.
Dominic shielded her.
Daniel's security team returned fire.
After a minute, silence returned.
Jonas was alive.
Barely.
Mave knelt beside him.
He grabbed her wrist.
"Eva."
"Where is she?"
"Church."
"What church?"
"Saint..." He coughed.
"Saint Marceau."
Mave understood.
The abandoned church near the harbor.
Dominic stood.
"Let's go."
Before they left, Mave looked down.
Jonas had something in his hand.
A tiny metal key.
He gave it to her.
"Your father."
She stared at it.
"What does it open?"
May you like
Jonas whispered one final word.
"Basement."
