Chapter 9 - THE SECOND SONThe federal agent’s name was Aaron Pike.
Tommy tied his hands anyway.
“You expect us to trust you because you carry a badge?” Tommy asked.
“No,” Pike replied. “I expect you to trust the bullet hole in my windshield. Lane’s people have been shooting at me since Cleveland.”
The motorboat moved through the darkness without navigation lights. Ice cracked against the hull. Celia sat beside Leo, holding the ventilator steady while Margaret’s injured leg rested across a bench.
Tommy steered.
Pike sat near the front with his wrists secured to a metal rail.
“Who is the second son?” Celia asked.
Pike looked toward Tommy.
“He knows.”
Tommy did not turn around.
“I know rumors.”
“Tell us.”
“Anthony Romano took in a teenager after the boy’s father died. Raised him inside the organization. Educated him. Trusted him more than his own blood.”
“What was his name?”
“Gabriel Vale.”
Margaret inhaled sharply.
“You know him?” Celia asked.
“I met him once. He attended Elena’s funeral.”
Tommy nodded.
“Gabriel managed the Romano companies after Anthony became ill. When Anthony died, Gabriel disappeared.”
Pike laughed.
“He did not disappear. He became a federal informant, then used the government to eliminate everyone who could expose him.”
“Rebecca Lane works for him?” Celia asked.
“She is his wife.”
Tommy looked back.
“That is impossible.”
“Why?”
“Lane’s husband died six years ago.”
“According to records Gabriel created.”
Celia thought of the FBI surrounding Vincent’s penthouse minutes after the attack.
“How powerful is he?”
Pike looked toward the Chicago skyline beginning to appear far across the water.
“Powerful enough to direct federal investigations, criminal organizations and private intelligence contractors without any group realizing they serve the same man.”
“And Simon?”
“Simon believes he’s using Gabriel to remove Vincent.”
“But Gabriel is using Simon,” Celia said.
“To open the vault.”
Margaret touched the hidden key.
“What is really inside?”
Pike hesitated.
“I’ve spent four years trying to learn that.”
“You said there were people.”
“Witnesses, protected families, defectors. Anthony collected human leverage. When someone became dangerous, he didn’t always kill them. He imprisoned them beneath the city and convinced the world they were dead.”
Celia felt sick.
“For how long?”
“Some may have been there for decades.”
“That’s impossible. They would need food, medical care, guards.”
Pike nodded toward Tommy.
“Romano-controlled contractors maintain restricted utility spaces beneath Union Station. Supplies go in as emergency equipment. No one inspects them.”
Tommy’s face hardened.
“I never knew.”
“Maybe Vincent didn’t either.”
The boat reached the opposite bank.
A dark van waited beneath an overpass.
Tommy raised his gun as two people approached.
One was Evelyn Park.
The other was a gray-haired man wearing a heavy coat.
Margaret nearly collapsed with relief.
“Evelyn!”
Evelyn hurried toward her.
“I thought they took you,” Celia said.
“They tried.”
She pointed toward the gray-haired man.
“This is Judge Nathan Cross.”
Tommy swore.
Judge Cross had served on the Illinois Supreme Court before disappearing during a sailing accident eight years earlier.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” Tommy said.
“So are many people beneath Chicago,” Cross replied.
Pike stared at him.
“You escaped the vault?”
“Six months ago.”
“How?”
“Daniel Jace built a secondary maintenance shaft.”
Everyone looked at Celia.
Her father had done more than discover the vault.
He had created an escape route.
Judge Cross stepped closer.
“Daniel knew Anthony would kill him eventually. He secretly altered the construction plans so anyone imprisoned below could escape if they found the correct passage.”
“Why didn’t they use it?” Celia asked.
“The route requires two keys. You have one. Elena hid the other.”
“The memory card,” Margaret said.
Cross nodded.
“The card contains a digital sequence needed to unlock the inner doors.”
Vincent had it.
Celia looked toward Chicago.
“We need to reach him.”
“Communication is still disrupted,” Evelyn said. “His shutdown has divided the city into isolated zones.”
“That was the point,” Tommy replied.
“It may also get thousands of people hurt. Hospitals are reporting delayed deliveries. Emergency vehicles are trapped in traffic.”
Celia turned toward him.
“Vincent needs to end it.”
“Simon will escape.”
“Then find another way.”
Tommy’s phone had been destroyed, but Evelyn carried a secure radio.
She tried several channels.
Only static answered.
Judge Cross examined Leo.
“How much time does he have?”
The paramedic checked the monitor.
“Less than thirty minutes without the antitoxin.”
Cross looked at the train lines above them.
“Simon will bring Sterling to the vault. He needs the doctor alive.”
“Why?” Celia asked.
“Anthony used chemical restraints on prisoners. Sterling developed reversal agents for some of them. Simon cannot remove witnesses without the doctor.”
They loaded Leo into the van.
Judge Cross unfolded an old paper map.
“We enter through a maintenance station south of Union Station. Daniel’s escape route connects to the lower tunnels.”
Celia looked at her mother.
“You’re injured.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Margaret’s eyes flashed.
“I lost my husband and my best friend to this secret. I will not sit in a van while you walk into it.”
Celia knew the argument was over.
They drove through streets clogged with abandoned vehicles. Sirens echoed from every direction. News alerts blamed cyberattacks, union disputes and organized crime.
Chicago had not entirely stopped.
It had become trapped inside itself.
At an intersection, hundreds of commuters stood outside buses and taxis, staring toward raised bridges. Police officers tried to direct traffic without functioning signals.
“This is Vincent’s protection?” Celia asked.
Tommy said nothing.
They reached a fenced maintenance entrance beneath elevated tracks.
Judge Cross used an old access card.
The gate opened.
Inside, the air smelled of oil and wet concrete.
They descended three levels on foot. Tommy and Evelyn carried Leo’s stretcher while Celia supported Margaret.
Pike remained tied but guided them toward an abandoned platform.
A train roared overhead, shaking dust from the ceiling.
Then a voice echoed through the tunnel.
“Celia Jace.”
Simon stood on the opposite platform.
Dr. Sterling knelt beside him with a gun pressed against his head.
Behind them, Rebecca Lane held Vincent at gunpoint.
Vincent’s face was bruised, and blood stained his shirt.
Celia stared at Tommy.
“You said he was going after Simon.”
“He was.”
Simon smiled.
“And he walked directly into Gabriel’s hands.”
A man stepped from the shadows behind Vincent.
He was tall, elegantly dressed and almost entirely ordinary-looking.
That made him more frightening.
Gabriel Vale smiled at Celia.
“You have your father’s eyes,” he said.
May you like
Then he looked toward Margaret.
“And you have something that belongs to me.”
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