Chapter 8 - THE CATHEDRALJudge Andrew Kellerman had built his empire beneath a church.
Luca found that appropriate.
Men like Kellerman always needed respectable architecture around their sins.
St. Catherine's stood abandoned beneath a gray noon sky.
Stone angels watched from the roof.
Boarded windows hid broken stained glass.
Luca arrived carrying a black case.
Alone.
Again, only according to appearances.
Elena had wanted to come.
Luca refused.
She came anyway.
She rode with Marco's surveillance team parked four blocks away.
Matteo led a second unit underground through an old storm drain discovered on municipal blueprints.
Before leaving, Luca had given Elena a small earpiece.
“If this goes wrong, you leave.”
“If this goes wrong, I'm coming in.”
“Elena.”
“Four years ago you didn't get a vote.”
He stared.
She softened.
“This time neither of us makes decisions alone.”
He couldn't argue.
Inside the cathedral, dust floated through shafts of pale light.
Kellerman stood near the altar.
Six armed men surrounded him.
Dr. Whitmore was nowhere visible.
Neither were Lily or Sofia.
“You came,” Kellerman said.
“You have my daughter.”
“I have something you value.”
Luca placed the case on a pew.
“And I have what you value.”
Kellerman smiled.
“Open it.”
“Lily first.”
“Not how this works.”
“Then shoot me.”
Kellerman's smile disappeared.
Luca spread his arms.
“You kill me, you never get the encryption key.”
A bluff.
But Kellerman didn't know.
“Encryption?”
“My father wasn't stupid.”
Kellerman studied him.
Then gestured.
A side door opened.
Sofia appeared with Lily.
A man held a gun behind them.
Lily saw Luca.
“Daddy!”
The word tore through him.
“I'm here.”
Elena heard it through the earpiece and began crying silently in the van.
Kellerman said, “Now the case.”
Luca opened it.
Three drives.
Original notebooks.
Photographs.
Enough evidence to bury Kellerman.
Or so it appeared.
Marco's technicians had copied everything overnight.
Encrypted copies had already been distributed to six attorneys and two investigative journalists with timed-release instructions.
If Luca didn't cancel the release within two hours, the evidence would go public.
Kellerman approached the case.
“Vittorio was sentimental.”
“He regretted trusting you.”
“Your father was weak.”
“He finally understood what you were.”
Kellerman picked up the hard drive.
“And what am I?”
“A frightened old man who needed gangsters to feel powerful.”
A guard struck Luca in the ribs.
He remained upright.
Kellerman chuckled.
“You've always had your father's arrogance.”
“No.”
Luca looked toward Lily.
“I inherited his mistakes.”
Kellerman's eyes narrowed.
“Where is the encryption key?”
“Release them.”
“Key first.”
“No.”
For several seconds neither man moved.
Then Kellerman nodded to the guard behind Lily.
The man pressed the gun closer.
Elena ripped off her headphones.
“Marco.”
“No.”
“He's pointing a gun at my daughter.”
“Luca said wait.”
“I don't care.”
Marco blocked the van door.
“Elena.”
She grabbed his weapon.
He caught her wrist.
“I spent four years running. I'm done.”
Something in her face made him release her.
Inside, Kellerman said, “Last chance.”
Luca's pulse remained steady.
“Ask yourself something.”
“What?”
“Why would I bring you originals?”
Kellerman froze.
Luca smiled.
“Exactly.”
Kellerman opened the notebook.
Pages appeared authentic.
Because they were.
But the drives?
Copies.
“What did you do?”
“The evidence leaves my control in one hundred and nine minutes.”
Kellerman's face changed.
“You're lying.”
“Kill me and find out.”
Kellerman pulled a gun.
“Then I'll take your daughter.”
A voice rang from above.
“No, you won't.”
Everyone looked up.
Elena stood on the choir balcony.
Gun in hand.
Luca's face flashed with fury.
Kellerman smiled.
“Ms. Rossi.”
“Let Lily go.”
“You should have stayed hidden.”
“I tried that.”
The guard beside Lily aimed upward.
Luca moved.
Everything happened at once.
He drove his shoulder into Kellerman.
A gunshot exploded.
Elena ducked.
Marco's team stormed the side entrance.
Matteo's men emerged from beneath the floor through the crypt.
Sofia threw herself over Lily.
Gunfire echoed through the cathedral.
Luca wrestled Kellerman behind the altar.
The judge was older but desperate.
He fired.
Bullet struck stone.
Luca slammed his wrist down.
The gun skidded away.
Kellerman grabbed a ceremonial brass candleholder and struck Luca's shoulder.
Luca fell.
Kellerman ran toward a hidden stairwell.
“Elena!” Luca shouted.
She saw him.
She followed.
Below the cathedral was another world.
Metal corridors.
Server rooms.
Shelves of hard drives.
Hundreds.
Maybe thousands.
The Cathedral archive.
Kellerman reached a control station.
Elena appeared behind him.
“Stop.”
He turned.
“Do you understand what this archive contains?”
“Enough.”
“Presidents. Judges. Police commissioners. CEOs.”
“And criminals.”
“Everyone is a criminal if you record them long enough.”
Elena kept the gun steady.
“You destroyed people.”
“I controlled chaos.”
“You kidnapped me.”
“To protect an institution.”
“You threatened a child.”
“To protect thousands.”
“That's what cowards always say.”
Kellerman reached toward a button.
Elena fired into the console.
Sparks erupted.
He jerked back.
“Next one isn't going into the computer.”
Luca reached them.
Blood ran from his shoulder.
“Elena.”
Kellerman laughed.
“Beautiful.”
Neither responded.
“The gangster and the ballerina.”
He looked between them.
“Do you think this ends happily?”
Luca moved closer.
“Yes.”
“You'll go to prison.”
“Maybe.”
“Your organization will collapse.”
“Maybe.”
“Your daughter will grow up knowing what you are.”
Luca glanced at Elena.
Then answered.
“That's her choice.”
Kellerman frowned.
“What?”
“I don't get to hide truth from her because I'm afraid she'll judge me.”
Elena understood.
Luca wasn't only speaking about himself.
He was speaking to her too.
Kellerman stepped backward.
“You think honesty makes you better than me?”
“No.”
Luca looked at the thousands of files.
“What I do next might.”
Sirens sounded above.
Kellerman froze.
Police.
Federal agents.
Elena looked at Luca.
“You called them?”
“Not exactly.”
Matteo had.
One honest federal prosecutor identified in Vittorio's files as having repeatedly refused Kellerman's influence.
Kellerman whispered, “You idiot.”
Luca smiled.
“For once, probably.”
Kellerman lunged toward Elena.
Luca intercepted him.
They crashed against a railing.
Kellerman slipped.
For one second he hung over the lower server level.
Luca caught his wrist.
Kellerman stared up at him.
“You should let go.”
Luca considered it.
Four years stolen.
Elena tortured.
His father murdered.
His daughter threatened.
One movement and justice could become revenge.
Elena whispered, “Luca.”
He looked at her.
Then pulled Kellerman back.
Federal agents burst into the room.
“Hands!”
Luca released him.
Kellerman stared in disbelief.
“Why?”
Luca stepped back.
“Because Lily deserves a father who knows when to stop.”
Kellerman was handcuffed.
Upstairs, Lily ran into Elena's arms.
Then Luca's.
For a few seconds, the three of them held one another beneath the broken stained-glass windows.
It should have been the ending.
It wasn't.
Because while federal agents catalogued the Cathedral, Matteo opened one file.
A file created only three months earlier.
Inside was a surveillance photograph of Lily.
Another of Elena.
And another of Luca.
Across the top were two words:
SUCCESSION PLAN.
May you like
At the bottom was a name none of them expected.
CASSANDRA VALE.
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