Chapter 4 - The Man Inside the Syndicate
Three men descended the cellar stairs.
Tatum recognized Adrian Vale immediately.
He no longer looked like Declan's loyal security chief.
He looked like what he had apparently always been.
A man waiting for the right price.
Declan positioned his wheelchair beside the wine racks.
Tatum stood near him.
Vale smiled.
"Declan."
Declan couldn't hear him.
Tatum could.
Vale knew that.
So he looked directly at her.
"Tell him it's over."
Tatum didn't move.
"Go ahead."
She signed to Declan.
He says it's over.
Declan's response was immediate.
Tell him he was always terrible at lying.
Tatum translated aloud.
Vale's smile disappeared.
For the first time, Tatum understood the advantage Declan possessed.
Everyone assumed his deafness made communication harder.
But with Tatum beside him, Vale couldn't control what Declan understood.
And Declan could speak to her without Vale understanding a word.
Vale raised his weapon.
Tatum's pulse jumped.
Then every light in the cellar went black.
Chaos followed.
Tatum heard bodies moving.
A crash.
A shout.
Then the emergency lights returned.
Two of Vale's men were on the floor.
Three men in dark suits stood behind them.
Declan's people.
Vale was gone.
He had escaped through the kitchen corridor.
Declan's lieutenant, Marcus Hale, entered seconds later.
He immediately began signing.
Fast.
Fluent.
Tatum realized Declan had never actually been isolated.
His organization had adapted around him.
Many of his closest people signed.
Briggs had simply managed to remove the right people for a short window.
Marcus reported that Maya was secure.
But there was another problem.
Briggs had called an emergency gathering of the Collective's senior leadership.
He was claiming Declan had murdered Vale after discovering Vale planned to expose him.
A lie.
But a clever one.
If enough people believed it, Declan's own organization could fracture before sunrise.
Tatum thought about the envelope she'd seen.
The exchange at table seven.
She had witnessed proof of Vale's betrayal.
But her word alone wouldn't be enough.
Then she remembered something else.
Delvecio's security cameras.
Yousef complained constantly that the owner monitored employees through them.
There was a camera facing table seven.
If the footage still existed, it would show Vale taking Briggs' envelope.
Tatum told Declan.
Within minutes they were moving upstairs.
The restaurant was almost empty now.
Briggs had vanished.
Yousef was hiding in the manager's office.
When Tatum entered, he nearly cried.
"I'm sorry."
She looked at him.
"For what?"
"I knew Briggs wanted to embarrass Morrow. I didn't know this was anything more."
Tatum believed him.
Mostly.
"Security footage."
Yousef pointed toward the office computer.
They searched.
Table seven.
10:42 p.m.
Nothing.
The file had been deleted.
Tatum's heart sank.
Then Yousef remembered the backup system.
The owner didn't trust employees.
Every camera automatically uploaded copies to a private server.
They opened it.
There.
Vale.
Briggs.
The envelope.
But something else appeared in the footage.
A third man joined them.
Tatum leaned closer.
Declan became motionless.
Marcus swore.
The third man was Councilman Nathan Cole.
One of the city's most respected public officials.
And one of Declan's supposed allies.
The footage showed Cole giving Briggs a small flash drive.
Now the conspiracy was larger than any of them expected.
Tatum asked what was on the drive.
Nobody knew.
Then Yousef quietly spoke.
"Maybe I do."
Everyone looked at him.
Earlier that night, Briggs had asked him to print several documents from a USB drive.
Yousef had done it without reading them.
But the restaurant printer automatically retained temporary copies.
He opened the printer archive.
There were twelve pages.
Bank transfers.
Shipping manifests.
Names.
Payments.
Bribes.
Enough evidence to destroy half the men involved.
Tatum felt hope for the first time.
Until she reached the final page.
There was a list titled CONTINGENCIES.
Names appeared beside dates.
Some were crossed out.
Declan's name was near the bottom.
So was Marcus'.
Then Tatum saw another name.
MAYA REED.
Beside it was tomorrow's date.
Tatum couldn't breathe.
Declan read the page.
His face became colder than she had ever seen it.
Tatum signed:
Why is my daughter on their list?
Declan didn't answer immediately.
Marcus looked away.
That was when Tatum understood.
They knew something she didn't.
She stepped between them.
Tell me.
Declan finally did.
Maya wasn't on the list because of Tatum.
She was there because of Lena Reed.
Tatum's mother.
Before Lena died, she had hidden something.
Something Briggs had been searching for ever since.
May you like
And according to Declan, Maya was the only person who might know where it was.
---
