Chapter 8 - The Man Who Came to Finish the Fire’s Work

Nathan Cole’s death changed the rules.

Dominic stopped asking whether there was a traitor close to him. The only question left was how many.

He ordered every internal system separated. Guards no longer received full schedules. Drivers learned destinations only after passengers entered the car. Carmine created parallel teams whose members did not know one another’s assignments.

Sadie called it paranoia.

Dominic called it Tuesday.

Rosa remained in the cardiac unit for observation. Sadie visited the next morning under a false name, wearing a baseball cap and an oversized coat Carmine had chosen because, in his words, “You look less like yourself.”

“I look like I sell stolen concert tickets,” Sadie said.

“That works too.”

Inside Rosa’s room, the older woman was furious about being kept in bed.

“They keep trying to kill me,” she told Sadie, “and everyone reacts by taking away my coffee.”

“That is medical cruelty.”

Rosa smiled.

Dominic stood near the window, reading messages.

Sadie watched him. He had become even quieter since Nathan’s death. The evidence against Victor was growing, but Dominic still had not confronted his uncle.

Rosa noticed too.

“Your father waited too long,” she said.

Dominic looked up.

“To do what?”

“To admit his brother might hate him.”

“He didn’t hate Dad.”

Rosa’s expression turned sad. “Love and resentment can live in the same room for years.”

A crash sounded in the corridor.

Dominic moved instantly.

The door opened.

A hospital orderly pushed a supply cart inside.

“Wrong room,” Dominic said.

The orderly looked up.

Sadie saw the gun first.

Not because she was trained to see weapons, but because his right hand remained too close to the towel stack while his left pushed the cart.

“Dominic!”

The orderly fired.

Dominic shoved Rosa’s bed sideways as the round shattered a monitor. Sadie dropped behind a chair. The second shot struck the wall.

Dominic drew a pistol from beneath his jacket.

The orderly abandoned the cart and ran.

Dominic followed.

“Stay with my mother.”

Sadie had no intention of doing otherwise.

Then she smelled something sweet and chemical.

She looked at the cart.

A metal cylinder hissed beneath the towels.

“Rosa, get up.”

“What?”

“Now.”

Sadie yanked the oxygen tubing from Rosa’s face and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. The cylinder continued leaking a pale vapor.

The attacker had not simply brought a gun.

He had brought a way to turn the room itself into a weapon.

Sadie pulled the emergency alarm and dragged Rosa toward the bathroom.

A nurse appeared in the doorway.

“Don’t come in!” Sadie shouted. “Chemical leak!”

Hospital staff began evacuating the hall.

Sadie wet towels in the sink and pressed one over Rosa’s mouth while the building ventilation shut down.

Minutes later, Dominic returned with Carmine.

“The shooter got to the stairwell,” Dominic said. “Security caught him on level four.”

Sadie pointed toward the cart.

Carmine’s face changed.

The cylinder contained an industrial solvent that could cause respiratory collapse in someone with damaged lungs.

Rosa stared at her son.

“Whoever this is,” she said, “they are very tired of me surviving.”

Dominic’s phone rang.

He answered.

His expression slowly hardened.

“What?”

Carmine waited.

Dominic lowered the phone.

“The attacker had a wallet.”

“Real ID?”

“No. But he carried a union access card.”

“For where?”

Dominic looked toward Rosa.

“Pier 17.”

The Castile-controlled freight pier.

Carmine swore.

Pier 17 was one of Victor’s domains. He had managed its labor contracts for fifteen years.

Dominic finally stopped resisting what the evidence kept telling him.

“Set a meeting with Victor,” he said.

Rosa shook her head. “Not alone.”

“I won’t be.”

Sadie looked at him. “You’re going to confront him?”

“No.”

“Then why meet?”

“Because I want him to believe I still trust him.”

That frightened Sadie more than anger would have.

“What are you going to tell him?”

“The truth, selectively.”

Dominic moved closer to her.

“You and my mother are leaving this hospital through the service tunnel in twenty minutes. Carmine will take you to a location Victor does not know exists.”

Sadie narrowed her eyes. “And you?”

“I’m going to ask my uncle for help finding the man who keeps trying to kill my mother.”

“You think he’ll expose himself?”

“No.”

Dominic’s gaze turned cold.

“I think he’ll make another move.”

Rosa reached for his sleeve.

“Dominic.”

He covered her hand.

“I know.”

“No revenge.”

He did not answer.

Rosa held his eyes.

“No revenge before truth.”

After a long moment, Dominic nodded.

Sadie watched him leave.

For the first time, she understood that the most dangerous decision Dominic could make was not to pull a trigger.

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It was to wait.

Before leaving, Sadie looked once more at the abandoned supply cart. Victor, Bellini, or whoever commanded the attackers had chosen a method tailored to Rosa’s injured lungs. That required medical information, planning, and confidence that the killer could enter a hospital unnoticed. The enemy was not improvising. He was studying them.