Chapter 9 - The Trap in Blue Leather

I did not touch the notebook.

Gabriel kept his gun on Mercer.

“Where is the real ledger?” I asked.

Mercer laughed. “Your father asked better questions.”

“Mine are getting there.”

Gabriel glanced at me. “We need to leave.”

“Not without something useful.”

“Mara.”

“Everybody keeps saying my name like it is an evacuation alarm.”

Mercer’s smile vanished when I moved toward the supply closet.

That told me more than his words had.

I opened it.

Inside were cleaning chemicals, spare paper products, a vacuum, and a locked gray cabinet that did not belong to our company.

Mercer said, “Stop.”

I looked at Gabriel.

“You have his gun covered?”

“Yes.”

I took the heavy ring of service keys from my belt.

None fit.

Mercer relaxed slightly.

Then I pulled a flat screwdriver from the cart.

Cleaning crews fix more than people realize.

The cabinet latch popped after three hard twists.

Inside sat a portable signal jammer, two burner phones, and a stack of shipping labels.

No ledger.

But one label had a destination printed on it.

Tacoma cold-storage terminal. Bay 6.

Pickup: 02:30.

Gabriel swore under his breath.

“What?”

“That terminal is not ours.”

Mercer’s expression turned flat.

I took a photo with the temporary phone Sofia had given me.

The jammer kept it from sending.

“Now we leave,” Gabriel said.

Mercer lifted both hands. “You think the elevator will work?”

A fire alarm started screaming.

Red lights flashed.

Gabriel moved toward the door.

“Stairs.”

Smoke began rolling under the hallway doors.

Real smoke this time.

Mercer laughed.

“You planned a fire?” I asked.

“No. Silas did.”

Gabriel looked at him. “He knew I was here?”

“He knows everything you do.”

For the first time, Gabriel looked afraid.

The overhead sprinklers triggered.

Water slammed down.

I grabbed the burner phones and shipping labels from the cabinet and shoved them into my supply bag.

Mercer lunged.

Gabriel fired once into the ceiling above him.

“Don’t.”

Mercer stopped.

“You won’t shoot me,” he said.

Gabriel’s voice turned cold. “Try me.”

We reached the stairwell.

People from other floors were already pouring down. In the chaos, Mercer disappeared behind us.

“Where did he go?” I shouted.

Gabriel looked back.

“Forget him.”

“I would love to.”

We descended three floors before the emergency lights went out.

Darkness swallowed the stairwell.

Someone screamed below.

I froze for half a second.

Then my father’s voice came back from twenty years earlier.

Name what is in the room.

Concrete wall. Metal rail. Wet steps. People breathing. Exit signs with battery backup.

Fear got smaller.

“Keep one hand on the rail,” I shouted. “Do not run.”

Gabriel looked at me.

“My father taught me.”

We reached the loading dock ten minutes later.

Dante was there.

He crossed the concrete so fast I barely had time to react before his hands were on my shoulders.

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Burned?”

“No.”

“Shot?”

“I feel like that would fall under hurt.”

His eyes closed briefly.

Then he saw Gabriel.

Everything changed.

Dante stepped away from me.

Gabriel lowered his gun.

“Hello, brother.”

“Do not call me that.”

“That is fair.”

Sofia came running from the command vehicle. “We lost your signal when the jammer activated.”

I held up the bag.

“Found the jammer.”

“And labels,” Gabriel said. “Bay 6 in Tacoma. Pickup at two-thirty.”

Dante looked at him. “Why should I trust anything you say?”

“You should not.”

“Good answer.”

“But you should trust what your cameras can verify.”

Gabriel handed Sofia his phone.

On it was a photograph of a warehouse loading schedule.

Three containers were marked for Bay 6.

The cargo description read MEDICAL REFRIGERATION UNITS.

Benny, waiting inside the SUV, leaned out when he heard.

“That was their old code.”

“For what?” I asked.

His face went gray.

“People.”

Silence hit the loading dock harder than the alarm.

Dante looked at his watch.

“Two hours.”

Sofia shook her head. “We need federal involvement.”

“Mercer controls local police,” Gabriel said.

“I did not say local.”

She reached for another phone.

Dante looked at me.

“You are done.”

I laughed in disbelief. “We just found a shipment.”

“Exactly.”

“You think I am going back to the apartment?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Mara.”

“Dante.”

Gabriel looked between us. “Do you two always do this?”

“Yes,” Sofia and Benny answered together.

Despite everything, I almost laughed.

Then Sofia’s phone connected.

“Agent Price,” she said. “We have a live trafficking movement at Tacoma cold storage, Bay 6. We also have twelve-year-old evidence connecting Captain Samuel Mercer.”

She listened.

Her expression changed.

“What do you mean you already know?”

We all went still.

Sofia put the call on speaker.

A woman’s voice came through.

“Because we have been investigating Silas Kane for eighteen months.”

Dante’s face hardened.

“And you never contacted us?”

Agent Naomi Price answered calmly.

“We did.”

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A beat.

“Through Gabriel Kane.”