Chapter 7 - Beneath the Factory
The original Cole factory had been abandoned since Nathan was twelve.
His grandfather had manufactured industrial machinery there before the family moved into finance and property development.
Nathan remembered visiting once as a child.
He remembered rusted beams.
Oil-stained floors.
His father telling him that empires always looked ugly before they became respectable.
Now Nathan understood the sentence differently.
Federal agents surrounded the building.
Samuel stood beside an armored SUV.
“You are staying outside.”
Nathan ignored him.
“You said that at the warehouse.”
“And I was right then too.”
Nathan held up the brass key.
“Charles may not be able to open the safe without this.”
Samuel looked at it.
“That makes you useful outside.”
Nathan gave him a look.
Samuel sighed.
“I hate representing rich people.”
Nathan almost smiled.
Almost.
Grace called before he entered.
“Be careful.”
Nathan paused.
“How is Lily?”
“She keeps asking when you’re coming back.”
The words struck somewhere deep.
Nathan leaned against the vehicle.
“Tell her soon.”
Grace hesitated.
“She wants you to read her bedtime story.”
Nathan looked toward the dark factory.
“I’ve never read her one.”
“Then don’t make her wait another five years.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“I won’t.”
Agents entered first.
Nathan followed with Samuel.
The interior smelled like metal and rain.
They reached the old executive office.
A steel door stood open behind a collapsed bookcase.
Stairs descended underground.
One agent called out.
“Movement below.”
They continued.
At the bottom was a concrete archive room.
Charles Harrington stood beside an open wall panel.
He held a pistol.
Nathan stopped.
Charles smiled.
“Richard always did love drama.”
Agents aimed weapons.
Charles pressed the gun beneath his own chin.
“Everyone stays where they are.”
Nathan stared at him.
“You kidnapped my daughter.”
Charles shook his head.
“Victoria did.”
“You created Victoria.”
Something crossed Charles’s face.
Perhaps regret.
Perhaps annoyance.
Nathan could no longer tell the difference.
Charles looked at the key.
“You have it.”
Nathan closed his fingers around it.
“What did my father hide?”
Charles laughed.
“Proof.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
Nathan waited.
Charles continued.
“The fake invoices.”
“The politicians.”
“The judges.”
“The officers.”
“The offshore accounts.”
“And Richard’s participation?”
Charles smiled.
“Especially Richard’s participation.”
Nathan’s stomach tightened.
Charles nodded toward the sealed floor safe.
“You think your father became remorseful?”
“He became afraid I would expose him first.”
Nathan stepped forward.
An agent warned him.
Nathan stopped.
Charles’s eyes glittered.
“Your father wasn’t trying to save Grace.”
“He was trying to purchase forgiveness before dying.”
Nathan hated that the words sounded plausible.
Charles looked at the key again.
“Open it.”
“No.”
“Open it or I pull this trigger.”
Nathan frowned.
“You think threatening yourself works on me?”
Charles smiled.
“No.”
“But threatening your mother might.”
Nathan went still.
Charles pointed toward a security monitor in the corner.
The screen activated.
Margaret Cole appeared.
She sat tied to a chair inside what looked like a wine cellar.
A digital timer counted downward.
18:42.
Nathan’s blood went cold.
Charles raised the pistol.
“The key.”
Samuel whispered.
“Nathan.”
Nathan walked toward the safe.
Charles smiled.
“Good boy.”
Nathan inserted the key.
The safe clicked.
Inside sat three hard drives.
Two ledgers.
And a black recording device.
Nathan lifted one drive.
May you like
Charles’s expression changed to relief.
Then every light in the underground room went out.
