Chapter 4: The Memory Trigger
Dante folded the photograph.
“Can you walk?”
Mara nodded.
They moved through the cavern, waist-deep in freezing water.
Behind them, the tunnel collapsed again.
“They’re sealing the exits,” Dante said.
“They’re trapping us.”
A narrow passage opened ahead.
Rusted ladders climbed toward the surface.
Dante started up first.
Halfway up—
A flashlight beam hit his face.
“Stop!”
A rifle appeared above them.
Mara reacted before Dante could.
She climbed three rungs in a burst of speed, grabbed the rifle barrel, and twisted.
The guard lost his balance.
He fell backward.
The rifle clattered across the concrete.
Dante stared at her.
“That wasn’t luck.”
“I don’t know how I did it.”
“You disarmed him in two seconds.”
“I’ve never held a gun.”
“You’re lying.”
“No!”
She looked terrified.
More footsteps echoed down the corridor.
Dante grabbed the rifle.
“Run.”
They sprinted through an abandoned maintenance station.
Broken monitors.
Old generators.
A steel door marked EXIT.
Locked.
Dante fired twice.
The lock exploded.
They burst into the forest behind the Moretti estate.
Rain hit them instantly.
Black SUVs roared through the trees.
Headlights swept across the road.
“They found us.”
Dante shoved Mara behind a stone wall.
A convoy stopped fifty yards away.
Men in tactical gear poured out.
Not Armand soldiers.
Moretti soldiers.
“What are your own men doing here?” Mara whispered.
Dante’s expression darkened.
“I never called them.”
The soldiers spread out.
“Boss!”
Dante stepped into the open.
Their commander froze.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Who sent you?”
The commander hesitated.
“You did.”
Dante walked closer.
“I’ve been underground for the last hour.”
Silence.
The commander slowly lowered his weapon.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because we received your direct order.”
He pulled out a secure satellite phone.
The screen displayed a recorded voice command.
Dante listened.
It was his own voice.
Identical.
“Secure Vault 7.”
“Terminate all witnesses.”
“Especially the maid.”
Mara looked at him.
Dante looked at her.
Neither of them spoke.
Someone had copied his voice perfectly.
The commander swallowed hard.
“There’s something else.”
He handed Dante a sealed envelope.
“It was delivered to the estate this afternoon.”
Dante opened it.
Inside was a death certificate.
Name: Mara Ellison.
Date of death: Fifteen years ago.
Cause: House fire.
Mara’s hands began shaking.
“That can’t be real.”
Dante turned the paper over.
A second document was attached behind it.
Adoption records.
The child rescued from the fire had been renamed.
Original name:
Lucia Bellori.
Before either of them could react, a sniper round tore through the envelope.
The paper exploded.
The commander’s head snapped backward.
Blood sprayed across the rain.
“Sniper!”
The forest erupted with gunfire.
Dante dragged Mara toward the SUVs.
The surviving soldiers returned fire into the trees.
A second shot shattered a windshield.
A third struck the engine block.
“Get in!”
Mara reached the vehicle.
The rear door was already open.
Inside sat a woman in a black coat.
Elegant.
Calm.
Holding a suppressed pistol.
Celeste smiled.
“I told you the engagement wasn’t over.”
May you like
She fired.
The bullet hit Dante in the chest.
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