Chapter 5 - The Night the House Went Dark
Gabriel pulled Chloe behind the marble staircase.
Glass exploded across the floor.
Beatrice dropped beside them.
Another shot struck the wall.
Gabriel drew his weapon.
“Stay down.”
Chloe could barely hear him over the alarm now screaming from a backup battery.
Beatrice could not hear any of it.
That realization terrified Chloe.
She touched Beatrice's shoulder and signed quickly.
Stay low.
Someone is shooting from outside.
Beatrice nodded.
Gabriel looked toward the dark hallway.
“Emergency lights should be on.”
“They're not.”
“I noticed.”
He took out his phone.
No service.
“Jammer.”
Chloe stared at him.
“What?”
“Someone is blocking the signal.”
A door opened upstairs.
Footsteps thundered toward them.
Gabriel raised his weapon.
“Mr. Costello?”
A man's voice.
Gabriel lowered the gun slightly.
“Anthony?”
“Yes.”
A broad man appeared carrying a shotgun.
Blood ran down one side of his face.
“West gate is compromised.”
“How many?”
“Don't know.”
“Where's Nico?”
Anthony hesitated.
“Haven't seen him.”
Gabriel's expression turned cold.
Another shot shattered a window.
Anthony crouched.
“Safe room.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Move.”
The safe room was behind the library.
Beatrice moved slower than the others.
Chloe stayed beside her.
Gabriel covered the hallway.
They reached the library.
Anthony pulled a hidden latch.
A steel door opened.
Gabriel motioned Beatrice through.
Then Chloe.
The instant Chloe stepped inside, Beatrice grabbed her hand.
Wait.
Beatrice pointed toward the hallway.
A shadow moved.
Chloe shouted.
“Gabriel!”
A man emerged from behind the curtains.
Gabriel turned.
The attacker rushed him.
They crashed into a bookcase.
Anthony fired toward another figure appearing behind them.
Chloe pulled Beatrice into the safe room.
Gabriel struck the attacker twice.
The man fell.
Gabriel kicked away his weapon.
Then he dragged Anthony inside.
The steel door slammed shut.
Silence.
Real silence.
Thick walls swallowed everything outside.
Gabriel's breathing was hard.
Blood covered one cuff.
Chloe looked at him.
“Are you hurt?”
“Not mine.”
Beatrice signed.
Anthony?
Anthony's shoulder was bleeding.
Chloe translated.
“He's hit.”
Gabriel examined the wound.
“Through the muscle.”
Anthony grimaced.
“I've had worse.”
“Everybody in your world says that.”
Chloe grabbed the first-aid kit.
“You're all very irritating.”
Anthony actually smiled.
Gabriel looked toward the security monitor.
Most cameras were black.
One still worked.
The east hallway.
A figure appeared.
Nico.
Chloe's stomach dropped.
He walked calmly through the dark mansion.
No weapon visible.
No urgency.
Gabriel stepped closer to the screen.
Nico stopped outside the library.
He looked directly toward the hidden door.
Then another man joined him.
Victor.
Beatrice closed her eyes.
Gabriel did not move.
Victor was in his sixties.
Elegant.
Silver-haired.
The kind of man strangers would trust immediately.
He carried no weapon either.
They spoke.
No sound came through the monitor.
But Beatrice stepped toward the screen.
Her eyes narrowed.
Chloe understood before Gabriel did.
“Your mother can read their lips.”
Gabriel turned to her.
Beatrice focused.
Victor said something.
Nico answered.
Beatrice signed.
He says they should have done this months ago.
Gabriel's face hardened.
Nico spoke again.
Beatrice watched.
He says Gabriel was supposed to be at the restaurant longer.
Victor answered.
Beatrice's hands shook.
They were going to take me tonight.
Chloe translated.
Anthony swore.
Gabriel did not.
That frightened Chloe more.
Nico continued speaking.
Beatrice leaned closer.
Chloe watched her hands.
What?
Beatrice paused.
Then signed again.
“He says Brennan ruined everything.”
Gabriel went still.
Chloe's voice lowered.
“Nico says the doctor panicked.”
Beatrice continued.
“He wanted to confess.”
Gabriel stared at the screen.
Victor said something.
Beatrice's expression changed.
“He says the accident solved that.”
Anthony looked at Gabriel.
“So Brennan was killed.”
Gabriel's face became stone.
Outside the safe room, Victor and Nico walked away.
Gabriel turned toward Anthony.
“How long until outside teams realize something's wrong?”
“Ten minutes.”
“No.”
Anthony shook his head.
“They changed tonight's rotation.”
Gabriel looked sharply at him.
“Who changed it?”
Anthony already knew the answer.
“Nico.”
Gabriel walked to a locked cabinet.
He removed two additional weapons.
“Then we leave through the service tunnel.”
Chloe stared.
“You have a tunnel?”
Gabriel handed Anthony ammunition.
“My grandfather disliked government raids.”
“Of course he did.”
Beatrice signed.
Garage?
Gabriel understood that one.
“No.”
He signed slowly.
Not safe.
Beatrice corrected his hand position.
Even now.
Chloe almost laughed.
Gabriel gave his mother an annoyed look.
She smiled.
The tunnel entrance opened behind a shelving unit.
Gabriel went first.
Anthony followed.
Beatrice and Chloe came next.
The passage smelled of stone and damp earth.
Emergency lights glowed weakly along the floor.
They had gone perhaps fifty yards when Beatrice suddenly stopped.
Chloe turned.
“What?”
Beatrice pointed toward the ground.
A thin wire stretched across the passage.
Gabriel froze.
Anthony whispered.
“Don't move.”
The wire was connected to a device fixed beneath a pipe.
Gabriel stared at it.
“They knew about the tunnel.”
Anthony crouched.
“Looks improvised.”
“Can you disable it?”
“Maybe.”
Chloe looked at Beatrice.
“How did you see that?”
Beatrice shrugged.
Because I look.
Gabriel watched the exchange.
“What did she say?”
Chloe told him.
Something shifted in his face.
He looked at his mother differently now.
Not as someone fragile.
Not as someone to protect from information.
As someone who might save all of them.
Anthony cut the wire.
Nothing happened.
They continued.
The tunnel ended inside an old maintenance building beyond the estate wall.
Three vehicles waited outside.
Gabriel stopped.
“They shouldn't be here.”
Anthony raised his weapon.
One vehicle's door opened.
A man stepped out.
Nico.
Chloe's blood went cold.
He held no gun.
He raised both hands.
“Gabriel.”
Gabriel aimed at his chest.
“Give me one reason.”
Nico looked toward Beatrice.
Then Chloe.
“Because Victor thinks I'm with him.”
Gabriel's expression did not change.
“You are.”
“No.”
“I watched you stand beside him.”
“I needed him to believe me.”
“Brennan is dead.”
Nico's face tightened.
“I know.”
“You knew he was going to die.”
“No.”
“Mother read your lips.”
Nico looked at Beatrice.
For the first time, guilt showed.
“Then she knows I said the accident solved Victor's problem.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“That doesn't help you.”
Nico slowly reached inside his coat.
Anthony raised his weapon.
“Careful.”
Nico removed a flash drive.
“I copied Victor's accounts.”
Gabriel stared.
“Why?”
“Because I have been trying to build enough evidence to bury him for two years.”
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
“Without telling me?”
“I didn't know who around you was compromised.”
Gabriel laughed once without humor.
“You compromised everyone around me.”
Nico looked at Chloe.
“Ask Mrs. Costello what else she read.”
Beatrice frowned.
Nico signed.
Badly.
But understandably.
Victor said girl knows too much.
Chloe stared.
Nico continued signing.
Tonight.
Take waitress alive.
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
Nico switched back to speech.
“Victor doesn't want her dead.”
“Why?”
Nico's eyes stayed on Chloe.
“Because Beatrice told her something Victor desperately needs to know.”
Chloe felt her stomach tighten.
“What?”
May you like
Nico looked toward Beatrice.
“The location of the original Costello trust.”
