Chapter 12 - A Gun Against Victor’s Heart
By morning, Victor Gallow was the most discussed businessman in America.
News helicopters hovered around Gallow Tower.
Reporters filled the sidewalks.
Every business channel displayed his photograph beside phrases such as:
FREIGHT EMPIRE UNDER FEDERAL SCRUTINY
SECRET NETWORK EXPOSED
GALLOW HOLDINGS SHARES PLUNGE
Victor stood in his office watching silently.
Harper entered holding two coffees.
“Before you ask, no, neither cost six dollars.”
Victor looked at her.
She handed him one.
“Drink.”
He obeyed.
Harper stared at the screens.
“Can they prove anything?”
“Some.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
Victor turned the television off.
Harper watched him.
“Are you afraid?”
“No.”
“That was too fast.”
Victor looked at her.
“Of losing the company?”
She nodded.
“No.”
“Really?”
“Thirty-three days ago, yes.”
Harper understood.
“And now?”
Victor walked toward her.
“Now I've already decided what I'm unwilling to lose.”
Her eyes softened.
“That sounds romantic.”
“It wasn't intended that way.”
“It still counts.”
Arthur entered.
“The board voted.”
Victor turned.
“And?”
“Temporary suspension pending investigation.”
Harper inhaled.
Victor remained calm.
“You're no longer CEO,” Arthur said.
“For now.”
“They also froze your executive credentials.”
Victor smiled faintly.
“Good.”
Arthur looked confused.
“Good?”
“Vane thinks losing access makes me weaker.”
Victor looked toward the city.
“It makes me unpredictable.”
They spent the next six hours identifying what Vane wanted from the ledger.
Money wasn't enough.
Power wasn't enough.
There had to be a final objective.
Harper noticed the pattern first.
“The names.”
Victor looked up.
“What?”
She had printed photographs of public figures implicated in preliminary leaks.
“These people all connect to redevelopment projects.”
Arthur leaned closer.
“Along the river.”
“Yes.”
Victor understood.
“Freight property.”
Harper nodded.
“Vane isn't trying to expose them.”
“He's pressuring them.”
“To transfer control.”
Arthur checked corporate records.
Several companies named in the ledger had suddenly sold logistics assets to newly created entities.
Vane was using the ledger as leverage.
“He's rebuilding Route Seventeen,” Victor said.
“Bigger,” Harper added.
Arthur's phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“Samuel contacted me.”
Victor looked at him.
“Where?”
“He wants to meet.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Trap?”
“Probably.”
Harper smiled weakly.
“At least everyone is consistent.”
They met Samuel beneath an abandoned station after midnight.
He arrived alone.
Arthur stared at his father.
Seventeen years of anger stood between them.
Samuel looked older than his years.
“I don't expect forgiveness.”
“Good,” Arthur said.
Samuel accepted it.
Victor stepped forward.
“Why did you disappear?”
“To protect Arthur.”
Arthur laughed bitterly.
“You protected me by making me think you were dead?”
“Vane would've used you to reach me.”
Harper looked at Victor.
The similarity wasn't subtle.
Victor noticed too.
Samuel continued.
“Elias Gallow wasn't innocent. Neither was Vane. Neither was I.”
“What was Route Seventeen?” Victor asked.
“A system designed to create leverage.”
“The ledger?”
“One copy.”
Victor frowned.
“One?”
Samuel nodded.
“The ledger Vane took isn't complete.”
Harper's eyes widened.
“There's another.”
“Not another ledger.”
Samuel looked at Victor.
“A recording archive.”
“Where?”
Samuel hesitated.
“Inside Gallow Tower.”
Victor stared.
“We searched.”
“You searched rooms.”
Samuel looked toward the building visible through a broken station window.
“You didn't search the elevator.”
Harper froze.
“The private elevator?”
Samuel nodded.
Elias Gallow had installed the original executive lift shaft beneath the old freight headquarters before Gallow Tower was constructed around it.
Inside the control housing existed an analog storage compartment.
The very elevator Harper had entered.
The place where everything began.
Arthur stared.
“Vane doesn't know?”
“He suspects.”
Victor turned immediately.
“We go now.”
Samuel stopped him.
“No.”
Victor looked back.
“Why?”
“Because Vane has people inside the tower.”
“We know.”
“Not employees.”
Samuel's face tightened.
“Federal agents.”
Silence.
Arthur frowned.
“Which agency?”
“I don't know.”
Harper whispered, “So we can't trust the investigation either.”
Samuel nodded.
Victor smiled coldly.
“Then we don't.”
At 2:40 a.m., Victor, Harper, and Arthur entered Gallow Tower through an underground service garage.
Samuel refused to join them.
Arthur said nothing.
The private elevator waited.
Victor opened the maintenance panel.
Harper illuminated the interior.
Behind the primary control board sat a metal cylinder.
Victor removed it.
Inside were dozens of miniature data reels.
Arthur breathed out.
“Evidence.”
Harper smiled.
“We have him.”
A voice behind them said, “No.”
Victor turned.
Richard Hale stood at the garage entrance.
Gun raised.
This time he wasn't alone.
Three men in federal jackets stood beside him.
Hale smiled.
“Thank you for finding it.”
Victor moved subtly in front of Harper.
Hale aimed directly at his chest.
Again.
Harper watched the barrel press against Victor's heart.
Hale's voice lowered.
“Mr. Vane said you would eventually bring us exactly what we needed.”
Victor remained calm.
“You work for him.”
Hale smiled.
“We all work for whoever holds the evidence.”
Harper's eyes moved toward the elevator panel.
Then toward Victor.
He understood her look.
She had an idea.
That terrified him.
Hale held out his hand.
“The archive.”
Victor didn't move.
Hale shifted the gun.
Toward Harper.
Victor immediately handed him the cylinder.
Harper closed her eyes.
Hale smiled.
“Still predictable.”
Then Harper pressed the elevator emergency button.
Steel doors slammed.
The lights went out.
And Victor heard Harper whisper in the darkness:
May you like
“Not anymore.”
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