THE LAST FAVOR

The side door opened six inches.

Ramos fired once into the concrete beside it.

The door stopped.

A voice outside shouted, “Police!”

Ramos answered, “Then show a badge!”

Another suppressed shot punched through the metal door and struck the far wall.

Gabriel grabbed Sofia by the shoulder and pulled her behind a forklift.

She ripped free.

“Stop touching me.”

“Stop standing where bullets are traveling.”

“Both of you stop,” Matteo snapped.

Daniel killed the laptop screens.

Darkness swallowed the warehouse except for gray daylight leaking through high windows.

Ramos crouched beside a steel support.

“How many exits?”

Daniel whispered, “Three.”

“Which one won’t get us killed?”

“Ask me after we use it.”

The main loading door rattled.

Someone was trying to raise it from outside.

Matteo moved to Sofia.

“Leo?”

“In Ramos’s car with Ma.”

His face tightened.

“You left them outside?”

“Two blocks away.”

“That was before people found us.”

Sofia’s stomach dropped.

She reached for her broken phone, then remembered it barely worked.

Ramos pulled out his.

“No signal.”

Gabriel looked toward the ceiling.

“Jammer.”

Matteo swore.

Daniel opened a floor panel beneath the table.

Sofia stared down at a narrow metal ladder.

“Another tunnel?”

Daniel said, “Your family invested heavily in cowardice.”

Gabriel replied, “Survival.”

“Same architecture.”

The side door burst inward.

A man in dark tactical clothing entered low.

Ramos hit him with the warehouse door before he could clear the frame. The man fell backward into another attacker.

“Move!” Ramos shouted.

Daniel went down the ladder first.

Matteo followed.

Sofia turned toward Gabriel.

“You.”

He shook his head.

“After you.”

“I am not leaving you behind with the key.”

“You don’t trust me.”

“Correct.”

“Healthy.”

Another impact shook the door.

Sofia climbed down.

Gabriel came behind her.

Ramos dropped last and pulled the floor panel shut overhead.

They entered a brick utility corridor just tall enough to stand in.

Daniel switched on a small flashlight.

“The tunnel exits under the fish market.”

“How far?” Ramos asked.

“Three hundred yards.”

Sofia said, “My mother and son are the other direction.”

Matteo stopped.

“We go back for them.”

Daniel shook his head.

“Not through the warehouse.”

Matteo stepped toward him.

“I didn’t ask.”

Gabriel said, “There’s a drainage access halfway down. It opens near the east pier.”

Daniel looked at him.

“How do you know?”

Gabriel gave him a flat look.

“I helped build it.”

Sofia stared.

“Of course you did.”

They moved fast.

Above them, faint boots crossed the warehouse floor.

Leo’s face stayed in Sofia’s mind.

His coat folded over his knees.

His question: You said you weren’t disappearing.

She pushed harder.

At the halfway junction, Gabriel found a corroded wheel valve and turned it.

Nothing happened.

He turned harder.

Still nothing.

Matteo shoved him aside.

“You’re seventy.”

Gabriel looked offended.

“I mentioned arthritis earlier.”

Matteo gripped the wheel and forced it loose.

The hatch opened into a storm drain beneath the pier.

Cold river air rushed in.

Ramos climbed first.

He looked around, then waved.

They emerged behind stacks of shipping pallets.

Sofia could see the unmarked sedan down the block.

Its rear door stood open.

Her heart stopped.

“Leo.”

She ran.

Matteo caught her arm.

“Wait.”

She spun on him.

“Let go.”

“Look.”

The car was empty.

But on the pavement beside it lay Teresa’s handbag.

Sofia pulled free and sprinted.

Ramos followed.

The driver’s window was shattered.

No blood.

No bodies.

No Teresa.

No Leo.

Sofia picked up the handbag.

The revolver was gone.

Matteo arrived beside her.

“Ma took the gun.”

“Or someone took it from her.”

Gabriel crouched near the rear tire.

He picked up something small.

A tomato.

It had split on the pavement.

Sofia looked at him.

“Why is there a tomato?”

Gabriel’s eyes moved toward an alley.

“Because your mother leaves markers when she thinks someone is following her.”

Matteo stared.

“She still does that?”

Gabriel said, “Apparently.”

Ramos pointed.

Another tomato lay near a storm grate twenty yards away.

Then another at the corner.

Sofia almost laughed from relief.

“She had groceries in the trunk.”

Matteo was already moving.

They followed the trail.

At the third corner, the tomatoes stopped.

A delivery van idled beside an abandoned seafood restaurant.

Ramos raised his weapon.

The van’s passenger door opened.

Teresa leaned out.

“Would you all hurry?”

Sofia exhaled so hard her knees weakened.

She ran to the van.

Leo was inside wearing her coat.

He looked annoyed.

“You took forever.”

She climbed in and hugged him.

He groaned.

“Mom.”

“Optional breathing.”

“I know.”

Teresa shut the door.

Ramos looked at the driver.

A young man in a fishmonger’s apron raised both hands.

“I don’t know these people.”

Teresa said, “He does now.”

“What happened?” Sofia asked.

“Two men came toward the car. I broke the window myself.”

Ramos stared at her.

“Why?”

“So it would look like they took us.”

Leo said proudly, “Then Grandma stole this van.”

Teresa corrected him.

“I borrowed it.”

The driver said, “You pointed a revolver at me.”

“Politely.”

Sofia looked at her mother.

“Ma.”

“He agreed.”

“I was afraid,” the driver said.

“Agreement can have many motivations.”

Gabriel climbed in last.

The driver looked at the number of armed adults entering his van.

“I’m definitely losing my job.”

Ramos showed his badge.

“I’ll explain.”

“That makes me feel worse.”

Matteo closed the doors.

Sofia looked at him again.

Six years.

He was sitting ten feet from Leo.

Leo stared openly.

“So you’re Uncle Matteo.”

Matteo smiled nervously.

“That’s what they tell me.”

“You tried to fake-kidnap me.”

The smile vanished.

“Yes.”

“That was dumb.”

“Yes.”

“Mom hit you?”

“Three times.”

Leo nodded.

“Good.”

Matteo looked at Sofia.

“You raise him well.”

“Don’t.”

“Okay.”

The van pulled away.

Ramos sat beside the driver and directed him toward the old industrial district.

“Where?” Sofia asked.

“Police safe house.”

Gabriel said, “Absolutely not.”

Ramos turned.

“I wasn’t asking you.”

“Your commissioner is in the ledger.”

“I know.”

“Then every departmental property database is potentially compromised.”

Ramos hesitated.

Gabriel looked at Sofia.

“Your father kept an apartment above Saint Agnes funeral home.”

Teresa stared.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“He promised me he sold it.”

“He promised you many things.”

Teresa’s face went cold.

“That is not a defense of him.”

“I know.”

Sofia asked, “Why a funeral home?”

Gabriel shrugged.

“Your father liked irony.”

Ramos sighed.

“Fine. Funeral home.”

The apartment above Saint Agnes had not changed since the 1990s.

Brown carpet.

Heavy curtains.

A kitchen table covered in dust.

A crucifix over every door.

Leo walked in and whispered, “This place is haunted.”

Teresa said, “Only by bad decorating.”

Gabriel locked the stairwell door.

Daniel arrived ten minutes later by a separate route with the laptops in a canvas bag.

Sofia pointed at him.

“You knew where we were?”

“No. Gabriel texted me from a burner.”

Sofia stared at Gabriel.

“When did you get a burner?”

He removed a tiny phone from his sock.

Ramos looked offended again.

“Do all of you have hidden phones?”

Teresa said, “I have two.”

Leo raised his hand.

“I have a tablet.”

“No one asked you,” Sofia said.

Daniel put the laptops on the table.

“We have maybe a few hours before they connect this place to Vittorio.”

“Who attacked the warehouse?” Ramos asked.

Daniel shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

Gabriel said, “They used police-grade jammers and private tactical gear.”

“That narrows it to half the city,” Ramos muttered.

Matteo opened one laptop.

“We need the originals from First Harbor Trust.”

Sofia looked at Gabriel.

“And he has access.”

Gabriel nodded.

Ramos asked, “Where is this secret vault?”

“Under the old customs house.”

“The federal customs house?”

“The old one.”

“Which is now City Hall annex.”

“Yes.”

Ramos laughed once.

“Of course the criminal ledger is under City Hall.”

Daniel sat.

“Vittorio chose it because the vault predates the building above it. First Harbor leased the basement for private storage after the original bank closed.”

Sofia said, “How do we get in?”

Gabriel looked at Matteo.

“With the brass key, my signature, and a phrase Vittorio gave me.”

“What phrase?”

Gabriel’s expression became unreadable.

“That is part of the last favor.”

Sofia slammed both hands on the table.

“Enough.”

Leo jumped.

She lowered her voice.

“Sorry.”

Then she looked at Gabriel.

“I am done earning pieces of the truth. Tell me what Dad asked you to do.”

Gabriel sat slowly.

Teresa remained standing.

Matteo folded his arms.

Daniel looked toward the curtained window.

Gabriel said, “Your father knew he was dying before he told any of you.”

Teresa’s eyes hardened.

“I knew.”

“He knew you knew.”

She looked away.

“He asked me to meet him at the bakery after midnight. He brought the ledger key and the deposit documents.”

Sofia said, “And?”

Gabriel rubbed his thumb over the edge of the table.

“He said the family business had survived too long. Too many people depended on it. Too many respectable men had learned to use us while pretending we were the disease.”

Matteo said, “That sounds like him.”

Gabriel continued.

“He asked me for one last favor.”

Sofia’s voice dropped.

“What?”

Gabriel looked directly at her.

“Keep you and Matteo out of the empire, no matter what it cost.”

Silence.

Sofia frowned.

“That’s it?”

“No.”

Gabriel’s eyes moved toward Leo.