Chapter 3 - The Ghost of the Fourth Floor
The silence in the subterranean vault was suffocating,
broken only by the soft,
uneven breathing of little Lily.
Gideon stood motionless in the center of the room,
his hands clenched into fists so tight his knuckles turned white.
For a whole year,
he had believed his daughter had died in the emergency room surrounded by doctors.
He had believed the hit-and-run driver was just a drunk monster who had fled the scene.
Every tear he had shed,
every lonely night he had spent in his empty estate,
had been built on a foundation of wicked lies.
He picked up his fallen chair,
setting it back upright with forced composure.
He took the small leather notebook from Clara’s shaking hands,
flipping through the water-damaged pages.
Inside were neat columns of financial transfers,
offshore bank account numbers,
and dates that matched the exact timeline of Ren's death.
On the final page,
written in dark blue ink,
was an address:
4400 South River Road,
Fourth Floor.
Gideon closed the book with a heavy snap,
stuffing it securely into his inner suit pocket.
"You did well,
Clara,"
Gideon said,
his voice hollow and cold as ice.
"You saved your sister,
and you brought me the truth."
He walked out of the safe room,
locking the door securely behind him before ascending to his main office.
He picked up his desk phone and pressed a single speed-dial button.
Within seconds,
the sharp voice of Elena Rostova,
his head of intelligence and shadow operations,
came through the speaker.
"Gideon,"
Elena said quickly,
"I saw the perimeter alarm logs.
Are you alright?"
"Gather Lucas and Marcus immediately,"
Gideon commanded without answering her question.
"Meet me in the war room in five minutes."
Five minutes later,
Gideon stood at the head of a long mahogany conference table in the basement of his mansion.
To his right sat Lucas Miller,
his face bruised and covered in soot from the courtyard fight.
To his left sat Marcus Vance,
his long-time financial strategist and close personal advisor.
Marcus was Viktor Vance’s distant cousin,
but he had served Gideon faithfully for over fifteen years.
Elena stood at the end of the table,
tapping rapidly on her encrypted laptop to bring up live satellite imagery.
"What is this about,
Gideon?"
Marcus asked,
adjusting his gold-rimmed spectacles with nervous fingers.
"Viktor's men just attacked our gates,"
Marcus added,
"we should be calling a meeting with the waterfront commission,
not hiding down here."
"Viktor Vance killed my daughter,"
Gideon announced plainly,
watching every reaction around the table.
Lucas gasped,
his hand slamming onto the table in shock.
"What?"
Lucas shouted.
"It was a hit-and-run,
boss!
The police report—"
"The police report was bought and paid for,"
Gideon interrupted coldly.
"Ren was murdered because Viktor wanted control of the shipping docks."
"And there is a facility,"
Gideon continued,
his eyes fixing on Marcus’s pale face,
"located at 4400 South River Road."
"The old meatpacking plant?"
Elena asked,
her fingers freezing over her keyboard.
"That building has been abandoned for over seven years,"
she noted.
"It’s not abandoned,"
Gideon stated firmly.
"The fourth floor is an active underground medical center run by Viktor’s black-budget syndicate."
"They kept Ren there after the crash,"
Gideon whispered,
the words tearing at his throat.
"And tonight,
we are going to burn that facility to the ground."
Marcus cleared his throat nervously,
taking a sip of water from a glass on the table.
"Gideon,
listen to reason,"
Marcus urged softly,
his voice trembling slightly.
"If you strike Viktor’s main research site directly,
it will spark an all-out mob war across all five boroughs."
"Hundreds of people will die,"
Marcus warned,
leaning forward.
"Then let them die,"
Gideon replied without a second of hesitation.
"Lucas,
prepare twelve of our best assault operatives."
"Heavy armor,
silenced weapons,
and thermite explosives,"
Gideon ordered.
"We move in thirty minutes."
As Lucas left the room to assemble the strike team,
Marcus slowly reached under the table,
tapping a hidden button on his encrypted cell phone.
Gideon caught the slight movement of Marcus’s shoulder,
but said nothing.
May you like
The war had begun,
and the blood was about to spill.
