Chapter 14 - Blackout

Emergency lights turned the hospital corridor red.

Luca pulled Elena behind the bed.

Camille drew her weapon.

Dominic reached for the call button.

Nothing happened.

“Power cut to the floor,” Vanessa said.

“Backup should have engaged,” Camille answered.

“It did. Someone killed local circuits.”

Gunfire sounded near the elevators.

Luca moved to the door.

Elena grabbed his shirt.

“Don't.”

“I need to see.”

“You need to stay alive.”

He looked at her.

For once, he listened.

A nurse appeared at the far end of the corridor, running.

“Security!”

A masked man stepped from a stairwell and raised a weapon.

Camille fired first.

He dropped.

Then two more appeared.

Luca returned fire.

The hospital erupted in screams.

Elena crouched beside Dominic.

“Whoever tracked the index knew exactly where we were.”

Dominic's breathing was shallow.

“Destroy the drive.”

“No. It is our map.”

“It is their map too.”

Vanessa took the laptop from a bag.

“It was offline.”

Marisol's message arrived again.

THE FILE CONTAINED A DELAYED BEACON IN FIRMWARE.

Vanessa swore.

“They anticipated air-gapping.”

Mateo stared at his phone.

“How would Marisol know?”

Elena understood.

“Because she helped build it.”

Mateo looked at her.

“No.”

Another message.

DAD, I'M SORRY.

Mateo went pale.

Camille said, “Ask what she did.”

He typed with shaking hands.

Marisol replied almost immediately.

DOMINIC ASKED ME TO VERIFY THE INDEX. I USED A FEDERAL FORENSIC TOOL. SOMEONE INSIDE DOJ COPIED THE IMAGE.

Dominic closed his eyes.

“Not her.”

Mateo whispered, “I told you.”

Luca fired toward the stairwell.

“Celebrate later.”

Police sirens approached outside.

The attackers retreated.

Camille ordered officers to seal every exit.

One captured gunman was alive.

He carried no ID.

But his phone contained a single recent contact.

A Justice Department number.

Mateo stared at it.

“Marisol's office.”

Elena's chest tightened.

“Not necessarily her.”

The phone rang.

Camille put it on speaker.

A man's voice said, “Status.”

Nobody answered.

“Status.”

Camille spoke.

“Failed.”

Silence.

Then the line disconnected.

Marisol called Elena directly.

“Elena, listen. The number belongs to Deputy Attorney General Conrad Voss's secure task line.”

Camille frowned.

“Voss?”

“He supervises organized crime coordination.”

Luca laughed bitterly.

“Of course he does.”

Marisol continued.

“I checked access logs. Voss pulled Samuel Warren's sealed file yesterday before I did.”

Elena looked at Camille.

“He knew we would discover Samuel.”

Camille nodded slowly.

“And he knew the index could expose current federal assets.”

Dominic whispered, “Voss.”

Luca turned.

“You know him?”

“He was a junior federal prosecutor when Hale took the Ferryman seat.”

Camille said, “Was he network?”

Dominic looked exhausted.

“I never proved it.”

Marisol's voice became urgent.

“I did.”

She sent a photograph.

A current succession memo.

Not from Arturo's index.

From a classified federal informant file.

HALE TO VALE — TEMPORARY TRANSFER.

VALE TO VOSS — UPON PORT MERIDIAN ACTIVATION FAILURE.

Elena read it twice.

“Voss was designated successor.”

Dominic nodded weakly.

“Hale planned to hand him the seat.”

“So when you took it instead—”

“I disrupted the succession.”

Camille's face hardened.

“And Voss started cleaning up.”

Daniel.

The sniper.

The burned drives.

The hospital attack.

Vanessa whispered, “He has federal access. He can see warrants, witnesses, evidence transfers.”

Elena looked at Mateo.

“He knew about Thomas.”

Mateo nodded.

“And Daniel.”

Luca said, “Then we stop using law enforcement channels.”

Camille bristled.

“Careful.”

“You know I'm right.”

She did.

Elena asked Marisol, “Can Voss block the evidence package?”

“If it goes through DOJ, yes.”

“Can he block the press?”

“No.”

“State prosecutors?”

“Not all.”

“Private trustees?”

“No.”

Elena looked at Luca.

“Daylight.”

He nodded.

Camille said, “If we release everything publicly, we could compromise cases and innocent people.”

“We don't release everything.”

Elena turned to Vanessa.

“We release enough to prove the network and force independent custody of the rest.”

Vanessa nodded.

“Names already supported by multiple records.”

Mateo added, “And place the original evidence with a court-appointed special master.”

Camille thought.

“That could work.”

Dominic opened his eyes.

“Voss will come for the ledger.”

Elena looked at him.

“Good.”

Everyone stared.

She continued.

“We know the Ferryman's pattern. He destroys records and people before they reach independent custody.”

Luca understood first.

“You want him to think the ledger is moving.”

“Yes.”

Camille smiled without humor.

“A controlled transfer.”

Vanessa said, “A trap.”

Camille checked the hallway, then looked back at Elena.

“If this trap works, Voss may still claim everything he did was a national-security operation.”

“Then we do not give him only one kind of evidence,” Elena said.

Mateo nodded. “Financial records, witness testimony, property records, and his own communications.”

Vanessa added, “And the public-trust filing. It proves motive. He loses the corridor the moment Elena signs.”

Luca looked at Elena.

“You realize signing it means you never get control back.”

“That is the point.”

He held her gaze for a moment.

Then nodded.

“No secret escape clause.”

“No secret anything.”

Elena looked at Dominic.

“You said the network survives because everyone believes someone else is closer to the center.”

He nodded.

“Then we stop chasing the center.”

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She turned to Camille.

“We make the center chase us.”