Chapter 38 - The nurse’s veil
Richard didn't look down at the dossier immediately. In the underworld, looking away from a target for even a fraction of a second was a death sentence.
"Viktor," Richard said softly.
Viktor stepped forward, his sidearm trained on Julian while his left hand flipped open the leather cover. Viktor scanned the first page, his eyes darting across the high-resolution documents, and then he stopped. The color drained from the veteran soldier's face faster than if he had taken a bullet to the chest.
"Boss..." Viktor breathed, his voice cracking. "This... this can't be."
"Read it aloud, Viktor," Julian commanded with venomous delight. "Tell the great Don Richard Bellacorte how blind he has become in his old age."
Viktor’s throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. "Subject: Sarah Jenkins. Real name: Elena Rossi. Daughter of Don Carmine Rossi. Recruited seven years ago into the Italian Secret Service before being embedded into Arthur's medical enterprise under deep cover."
The name struck the room like a lightning strike. *Rossi.*
The Rossi family was the blood syndicate Richard had dismantled twenty years ago to claim absolute dominance over the eastern seaboard. Carmine Rossi had died in a federal penitentiary, cursing the Bellacorte name with his dying breath.
"Arthur didn't hire her by accident," Julian laughed, the sound echoing madly through the stone arches. "Elena infiltrated Arthur's syndicate to find where the Rossi gold had been hidden after the war. She knew Noah was my son. She wasn't saving him at Pier 44, Father! She was using him as her ticket straight into your inner sanctum! She let you believe she was an angel so you would bring her past your automated defenses, past your vaults, straight into the heart of the Bellacorte bloodline!"
Richard felt a cold chill spread through his veins, but he forced his expression to remain stone-cold. "Where is she now, Julian?"
Julian checked his gold wristwatch, the second hand ticking steadily toward the top of the hour. "Right now, your three retired SEALs in Maine are already dead. Elena’s private cell from the Rossi remnants breached the perimeter twenty minutes ago. She took Noah. But she didn't take him to protect him. She took him to the exchange point in Zurich, where the Vatican board will liquidate the final trust fund under the Rossi banner."
Julian stepped away from the table, raising his arms wide in open defiance.
"You lost, Father. You killed Arthur. You hunted me down across the globe. And while you were playing the avenging patriarch, the daughter of your greatest enemy walked out the front door with your fortune, your grandson, and your future."
A dead silence hung in the banquet hall, broken only by the crackle of the wax candles.
Richard slowly lowered his gun.
Julian’s smile widened, thinking he had completely broken the old man’s spirit. "What's the matter, Don Richard? No words of ancient wisdom? No threats of vengeance?"
Richard looked up, his green eyes locking onto Julian’s with an intensity so terrifying, so absolute, that Julian’s triumphant grin began to falter.
"You really don't understand, do you, Julian?" Richard said, his voice dropping to a gravelly, chilling whisper.
"Understand what?" Julian snapped, his confidence suddenly wavering.
"I didn't trust Sarah when she carried Noah out of Pier 44," Richard said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small, encrypted satellite transmitter. "I didn't trust Arthur. And I certainly didn't trust a five-year-old child whose eyes looked too much like yours."
Richard tapped the red button on the transmitter.
A sharp, digital chirp echoed through the silent hall.
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"What did you do?" Julian demanded, taking a step back, his eyes darting toward the stone doorways.
"I didn't send Noah to Maine," Richard revealed, the grim corners of his mouth lifting into a cold, terrifying smirk. "The three SEALs you just slaughtered were dummy decoys. Noah has been thirty feet beneath this fortress for the last three hours, locked in my submersible boat in the sea cave."
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