Chapter 13 - THE DEAD PROSECUTOR'S ROAD
The first bullet struck the hard case.
Metal spun across the floor.
Rafe tackled Marian behind the Geneva.
Daniel pulled Evelyn down beside an engine block.
More shots tore through the boathouse walls.
Wood splintered above them.
The attackers were not trying to enter.
They were trying to erase everything inside.
"Back door?" Rafe shouted.
Marian pointed toward the water.
"Boat channel."
"Frozen?"
"Not completely."
Daniel looked at the Geneva.
"Does it run?"
Marian gave him an offended stare.
"I am seventy years old, not dead."
Rafe crawled to the hard case.
A bullet had punched through the lid.
One drive was shattered.
Two remained intact.
He stuffed them into his coat with the affidavits.
"Go."
Marian tore the canvas cover from the boat.
The Geneva was an old mahogany launch, beautifully maintained beneath the dust.
Daniel opened the fuel line.
Rafe fired toward the west windows.
Evelyn climbed aboard.
"Please tell me this is not another maybe."
Marian turned the key.
The engine coughed once.
Twice.
Then roared.
"Never insult an old boat in front of its owner."
Rafe cut the mooring line.
The Geneva shot through the rear channel as bullets struck the water behind them.
Ice cracked beneath the bow.
The lake opened ahead like hammered steel.
Wind hit Evelyn hard enough to steal her breath.
Daniel pulled her down behind the windshield.
"Stay low."
"I am getting tired of hearing that."
A black SUV raced along the shoreline road parallel to them.
A man leaned from the rear window with a rifle.
Rafe fired from the stern.
The SUV swerved.
Marian drove toward a line of moored sailboats.
"Hold on."
She cut sharply between two docks.
The SUV lost sight of them behind a marina building.
"Where are we going?" Evelyn asked.
"Old Coast Guard ramp."
"There is a truck there."
Daniel looked at Marian.
"You planned an escape route."
"I spent twenty years being dead."
"Planning exits becomes a hobby."
They reached the ramp seven minutes later.
A battered pickup waited beneath a tarp.
Marian had keys.
Of course she did.
They abandoned the Geneva and drove south with no lights for the first mile.
Evelyn sat between Daniel and Marian in the rear cab.
Rafe drove.
The surviving drives rested inside his coat.
Lorenzo was somewhere in federal custody that was not federal custody.
Evelyn could think of nothing else.
"How do we find him?"
Rafe kept his eyes on the road.
"Shaw's motorcade disappeared near the Eisenhower."
"Traffic cameras went dark for eleven minutes."
"That was deliberate."
Daniel leaned forward.
"What federal facilities are near the blackout zone?"
"Official ones?"
"None."
Marian said quietly.
"There is one unofficial one."
Everyone looked at her.
"Shaw used it in 2014."
"An old postal inspection warehouse near Kedzie."
Daniel went rigid.
"The place they took me after the safehouse attack."
Marian nodded.
"I thought it was closed."
"Janus does not close things."
Evelyn looked at the road ahead.
"It replaces the sign."
They changed vehicles twice before reaching the west side.
At 11:40 p.m., they parked three blocks from the postal warehouse.
The building looked like a municipal storage depot.
No federal seal.
No marked cars.
But Rafe counted six security cameras and two rooftop figures.
"That is not a warehouse."
Daniel studied the perimeter.
"Underground loading bay on the east side."
"We used to enter through a freight tunnel."
Evelyn looked at him.
"You were held here?"
"For nine months."
"You never mentioned nine months."
"There are many things I have not mentioned."
"I noticed."
Marian opened the second surviving drive on an air-gapped laptop in the truck.
Folders filled the screen.
One directory was labeled SHAW.
Rafe clicked it.
Inside were route maps, account statements, and photographs.
Then he found a spreadsheet of Janus emergency sites.
Site 4 matched the warehouse address.
Status: ACTIVE.
Primary use: CONTROLLED DETENTION.
Evelyn felt a grim satisfaction.
"He is there."
Daniel pointed to another field.
"Look."
Authorized personnel listed A. SHAW and S. MORETTI.
Salvatore Moretti.
Lorenzo's uncle.
"You said Salvatore was in protective detention," Evelyn said.
Daniel nodded.
"He was."
"Then Shaw released him."
Marian's voice was quiet.
"Or Salvatore was never a prisoner."
Rafe scrolled farther.
A security still appeared.
Timestamp from thirty minutes earlier.
Alexander Shaw entered Site 4 beside an older man with silver hair and a cane.
Salvatore Moretti.
Evelyn had seen him in old society photographs.
He looked thinner now.
Still dangerous.
"Two heads of Janus in one building," Rafe said.
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
"Salvatore built it."
"Shaw inherited it."
"If they are together now, one of them is about to remove the other."
Evelyn thought of the replacement lists.
"Janus does not tolerate two successors."
Marian looked at her.
"Exactly."
Inside Site 4, Lorenzo sat handcuffed to a steel table.
He had lost track of time after agents removed his watch.
The room had no windows.
One camera watched from the corner.
A glass of water sat untouched in front of him.
Alexander Shaw entered without a jacket.
He carried a folder.
"Mr. Moretti."
Lorenzo looked at him.
"Alexander."
"We have never met."
"You stood at Matteo's funeral."
Shaw's face did not change.
"Your mother told you."
"My mother told me many things too late."
Shaw sat across from him.
"Families are inefficient that way."
"They protect secrets until the secrets become more dangerous than the truth."
Lorenzo looked at the camera.
"Is this where you tell me you are saving Chicago?"
"No."
Shaw folded his hands.
"This is where I tell you Chicago does not care who saves it."
"It cares that the trains run, contracts get signed, garbage gets collected, unions negotiate, judges appear, and violence stays away from tourist districts."
"Janus exists because personalities are unstable."
"Systems survive them."
Lorenzo almost smiled.
"You built organized crime with better stationery."
Shaw did not react.
"Your father understood eventually."
"My father tried to destroy you."
"Your father wanted control without admitting he wanted control."
"That made him sentimental."
"You are sentimental too."
Lorenzo's eyes hardened.
"About what?"
"The waitress."
Shaw opened the folder.
Photographs of Evelyn slid across the table.
Her apartment.
The Obsidian.
Hawthorne.
Cermack.
"She changed your behavior in less than forty-eight hours."
"That is remarkable."
"You changed my behavior by kidnapping me."
"Less remarkable."
Shaw smiled.
"You think humor makes you unpredictable."
"No."
Lorenzo leaned back.
"I think your need to explain yourself makes you predictable."
The door opened.
Salvatore Moretti entered.
He leaned on a black cane.
Lorenzo stared at the man he had not seen in seven years.
"Uncle."
Salvatore smiled.
"You look like your father when he was angry."
"You look like a corpse with a tailor."
Shaw sighed.
"Family reunions."
Salvatore sat beside him.
"Where is the Carter girl?"
"I do not know."
"You always were a bad liar."
"Daniel said that too."
Salvatore's smile disappeared.
"Daniel is alive?"
Lorenzo saw it.
Real surprise.
Shaw had not told him everything.
The two architects of Janus were already lying to each other.
Good.
"Apparently your system has reporting problems."
Salvatore looked at Shaw.
"You said Cermack was clean."
Shaw's voice remained calm.
"It was until Celeste lost control."
"Celeste never had control."
Salvatore turned back to Lorenzo.
"That was the lesson."
"Children believe the chair gives them power."
"Adults understand power belongs to whoever can remove the chair."
Lorenzo thought of Celeste.
For the first time, he saw her not beside him at the engagement table but beneath an invisible hand that had arranged both their lives.
That did not absolve her.
It made the trap larger.
Shaw pushed a document across the table.
"Sign."
Lorenzo looked at it.
Asset transfer.
October 17 moved forward to tonight.
"You want my companies."
"We want continuity."
"Your death without signatures creates litigation."
"Your signature creates order."
"And after I sign?"
Shaw looked at him.
"You attempt to escape."
Lorenzo smiled.
"Of course."
Salvatore leaned closer.
"The girl does not need to die."
That caught Lorenzo's attention.
Salvatore saw it.
"Daniel's daughter has value."
"Marian may surface for her."
"We can give Evelyn a new identity."
"Money."
"A life."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
Salvatore smiled.
"I expect you to believe I prefer useful people alive."
Shaw looked at him.
It was a tiny glance.
But Lorenzo saw irritation.
There was the fracture.
Salvatore wanted Evelyn alive.
Shaw wanted variables erased.
Lorenzo lowered his eyes to the contract.
"I need a pen."
Shaw relaxed by less than an inch.
Salvatore smiled.
Outside, three blocks away, Evelyn was studying the same building through binoculars.
Rafe had found the freight tunnel entrance.
Daniel had found the old power schematic.
Marian had found something more valuable.
A direct line to Celeste.
The phone rang once before Celeste answered.
"Mother?"
Marian closed her eyes.
"Yes."
Silence stretched.
Then Celeste began to cry.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
A single broken breath through the phone.
Marian nearly broke with her.
"I am sorry."
Celeste whispered.
"You are alive."
"Yes."
"You left me with him."
"I know."
"You left me with all of them."
"I know."
Marian's voice shook.
"And I was wrong."
Evelyn watched her.
No excuse.
No protection story.
Just wrong.
Celeste was silent for a long time.
Then her voice changed.
"Where are you?"
Marian looked at Evelyn.
"Near Site 4."
Celeste inhaled sharply.
"Shaw has Lorenzo."
"We know."
"Salvatore is there too."
"We know that."
Celeste whispered.
"Then you do not know the worst part."
Evelyn leaned closer.
"What?"
Celeste heard her.
"Evelyn."
"What is the worst part?"
A pause.
"Site 4 is wired for demolition."
"Shaw is going to destroy it before dawn."
"Everyone inside becomes evidence of a Moretti bomb lab."
Evelyn looked at the warehouse.
"How long?"
"Forty-seven minutes."
Rafe checked his watch.
Evelyn picked up a flashlight and the surviving drive.
May you like
"Then we stop talking."
