Chapter 9 - UNDER THE RIVER
The entrance lay beneath an abandoned pumping station.
Sebastian arrived with Anthony, Chad, and four trusted guards.
No Leo.
No Helena.
No large convoy.
The river moved black beyond the concrete wall.
Three-two-three.
Anthony struck the metal door in the rhythm from Leo’s lullaby.
Nothing.
Sebastian repeated it.
Then said:
“Bird sleeps under water.”
A lock clicked.
Adrian had built the phrase into more than memory.
He had built it into a place.
The door opened.
A narrow tunnel descended beneath the river.
Chad whispered:
“My father came here.”
“How do you know?”
“There.”
A black handprint marked the wall.
Beside it:
P.M.
Paolo Moretti.
They moved deeper.
The tunnel ended at a room lined with old brick.
Chains hung from one wall.
Not decorative.
Chad stared.
“You said Paolo was Shadow.”
Sebastian looked toward him.
“Doesn’t mean he was loved.”
Anthony found dried wax on the floor.
Recent enough to still smell faintly of smoke.
Someone had been there.
A chair stood in the center.
Empty.
On it lay Adrian’s formal jacket.
Sebastian stopped.
He remembered the jacket.
Adrian wore it the night of the council judgment.
Same tear near the cuff.
Same dark lining.
Sebastian picked it up.
Cold.
No blood.
Inside the pocket was Leo’s baby photograph.
Sebastian’s chest tightened.
Adrian had carried it.
Chad looked away.
The reality of fatherhood made his earlier cruelty uglier.
A speaker crackled somewhere above.
A man’s voice.
Distorted.
“Sebastian.”
Everyone raised weapons.
The burned man.
Sebastian looked toward the ceiling.
“Where is Adrian?”
A soft laugh.
“Still asking the wrong question.”
“Then give me the right one.”
“Why did your brother refuse to tell you where he was during the river attack?”
Sebastian said nothing.
The voice continued:
“He was with your son.”
Sebastian froze.
“I don’t have a son.”
Silence.
Anthony slowly looked at him.
The voice laughed.
“Exactly.”
Sebastian’s face became cold.
“Explain.”
“Your father hid many children.”
Sebastian stared.
“Do not play.”
“Adrian knew.”
“Where is he?”
“Closer.”
A metal door opened behind the far wall.
A second chamber.
Inside lay no Adrian.
Only a young man tied to a chair.
Maybe twenty-five.
Bruised.
Alive.
Sebastian did not recognize him.
The speaker said:
“Meet Nicholas Moretti.”
Chad frowned.
“No Nicholas in our branch.”
The young man lifted his head.
His eyes looked like Sebastian’s.
Too much.
The burned voice continued:
“Your son.”
Sebastian felt nothing for one second.
Then anger.
“That is impossible.”
“Is it?”
Sebastian had loved one woman before his marriage.
Rebecca Hale.
Twenty-six years earlier.
She disappeared after Vittorio threatened her family.
Sebastian was told she left the country.
He never saw her again.
The young man spoke weakly.
“My mother’s name was Rebecca.”
Sebastian stopped.
Anthony whispered, “Boss…”
The speaker continued:
“Adrian found Nicholas.”
Sebastian stared at the young man.
“He also found out why Vittorio hid him.”
“Why?”
“Because a boss with a secret son could be controlled.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened.
“And Adrian?”
“Refused to use him against you.”
Of course.
The voice shifted.
“So the Shadow removed Adrian.”
Sebastian’s entire body went still.
“Name.”
“Not yet.”
“Where is my brother?”
The burned man answered:
“Alive when I last saw him.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Chad whispered something.
Sebastian barely heard.
Three months.
Adrian had survived more than a year.
“What do you want?”
“To finish what Paolo started.”
“Meaning?”
“Destroy the Black Table.”
Sebastian looked toward Nicholas.
“By kidnapping my son?”
“By forcing you to discover you have one.”
Sebastian’s voice became lethal.
“You could have knocked.”
The man laughed.
“No one hears truth when it knocks politely in a Moretti house.”
Then the lights died.
Gunfire erupted from the tunnel behind them.
Not toward Sebastian.
Toward the guards.
Someone had followed.
Anthony shouted:
“Move!”
Sebastian cut Nicholas free.
Chad covered the rear.
A figure entered through smoke.
No burned face.
No cane.
A familiar silhouette.
Victor Shaw.
Sebastian’s council treasurer.
The man Adrian had wanted Sebastian to suspect.
Victor raised his weapon.
Then shouted:
“Sebastian, don’t listen to him!”
The speaker crackled.
The burned man laughed.
“Ask Victor what he did with Adrian’s body.”
May you like
Victor’s face changed.
And before Sebastian could ask, Chad fired.
