Chapter 9 - The Fall of a KingBy Friday morning, Valentino Milani was officially toxic.
Three banks terminated relationships with his companies.
Two board members resigned.
Federal agents raided Milani Enterprises headquarters at 6:03 a.m.
Every television network replayed grainy images connecting him to armed men, destroyed properties and international criminal investigations.
The media called it the collapse of a billionaire.
Valentino ate breakfast.
Daphne found him in the underground kitchen spreading marmalade on toast.
“You’re taking this disturbingly well.”
“They seized my offices.”
“Yes.”
“They froze another four hundred million.”
“Yes.”
“My lawyer says a grand jury is being assembled.”
“Yes.”
He took a bite.
“Excellent marmalade.”
Daphne stared.
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“No. I lost access to several corporations.”
“You built those companies for fifteen years.”
“And?”
“And normal people experience emotions.”
“I’m Italian. We experience emotions loudly and later.”
She sat opposite him.
He pushed the toast plate toward her.
She took one.
“You really believe your people will stay?”
“Some.”
“And the others?”
“Now we learn who was loyal to money.”
His phone rang.
Rico.
Valentino answered.
Listened.
“Let him go.”
Another pause.
“No. Don’t threaten his family. Just let him go.”
He ended the call.
“Captain?”
“Moretti.”
“He defected?”
“Apparently legitimacy mattered to him.”
Daphne remembered Moretti challenging her at the hotel.
“Where is he going?”
Valentino smiled humorlessly.
“Helix.”
That was not a guess.
Thirty minutes later Chen confirmed Moretti had contacted representatives connected to Nathaniel Crane.
Valentino looked almost pleased.
“He knows our properties. Safe houses. soldiers.”
Rico frowned.
“And that pleases you?”
“He knows what I allowed captains to know.”
Daphne understood.
“You compartmentalized.”
“Always.”
“He thinks he’s selling Helix your secrets.”
“He’s selling them bait.”
The first location Moretti provided was a warehouse near Lake Calumet.
Helix attacked at midnight.
They found nothing except an encrypted server deliberately left online.
When they accessed it, Chen entered their network.
He smiled for the first time in thirty hours.
“I’m inside.”
Daphne leaned over his shoulder.
“What can you see?”
“Routing. Financial relays. Logistics.”
“Council communications?”
“Not yet.”
Anna appeared behind them.
“You won’t get them through logistics.”
Chen did not look up.
“I enjoy when people tell me what I can’t do.”
“You remind me of Daphne.”
“Please don’t insult him,” Daphne said.
Chen grinned.
Valentino entered.
“Moretti wants to meet.”
Rico laughed.
“Already?”
“He says Helix betrayed him.”
Daphne shook her head.
“Trap.”
“Obviously.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Where?”
Valentino’s smile appeared.
“The Gilded Cage.”
Daphne closed her eyes.
“Does every enemy you have eventually choose that restaurant?”
“The wine list is excellent.”
Moretti sat at table 12.
Of course.
He looked terrible.
Sweating.
Hands shaking.
Two months earlier he had challenged Daphne before twenty captains.
Now he stood when she entered.
“Miss Angelo.”
“Sit.”
He did.
Valentino remained away.
This was intentional.
Moretti believed Daphne had come alone.
“You made a mistake,” she said.
“I know.”
“No. You made several.”
He swallowed.
“They promised protection.”
“People who murder children?”
“I didn’t know about that.”
“You didn’t ask.”
Moretti looked down.
“What do you want?”
“You asked for this meeting.”
“They’re bringing something into Chicago tomorrow.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then you’re wasting my time.”
“They called it Crown.”
Daphne’s attention sharpened.
“What else?”
“Twenty operators. Private airfield outside Aurora. Crane is coming personally.”
Nathaniel Crane.
Former intelligence director.
Helix Council member.
One of the ten known names.
“Why?”
“I heard them say they need Viper alive.”
Daphne leaned back.
Nothing new.
Then Moretti added, “And Milani dead.”
Also nothing new.
She stood.
“Please.”
She stopped.
Moretti’s face had collapsed.
“I have a daughter.”
“So did the people Helix killed.”
“She’s nineteen.”
Daphne stared at him.
“They know about her.”
There it was.
Betrayal becoming fear when consequences reached home.
Daphne wanted to hate him.
Instead, she remembered Anna.
People made terrible choices while calling them protection.
“Where is she?”
“Northwestern.”
“Rico will move her.”
Moretti looked stunned.
“You’ll help?”
“Her. Not you.”
He nodded.
Fair.
Daphne walked away.
At the door, Moretti spoke.
“Daphne.”
She turned.
“Crown isn’t equipment.”
“What is it?”
“A person.”
The private aircraft landed outside Aurora at 2:17 the next afternoon.
Daphne watched through a long-range camera from a maintenance building.
Nathaniel Crane exited first.
Seventy-one.
Silver hair.
Former director of an American intelligence agency whose exact name nobody in the media was allowed to connect with certain operations.
Two guards.
Then four more.
Then a woman.
Hands restrained.
Black hood.
Daphne felt Anna stiffen beside her.
“You know her?”
“No.”
The hood came off.
Anna whispered one word.
“Impossible.”
The prisoner was approximately thirty.
Dark hair.
Thin.
Bruised.
Crane took her inside the hangar.
“Who is she?” Daphne demanded.
Anna’s face had gone pale.
“Her name is Sofia Vale.”
Daphne heard the surname.
“My father.”
Anna nodded.
“Sofia was Adrian’s daughter.”
Daphne stared.
“What?”
“Before me. Before you.”
The world shifted again.
“My sister?”
“Half sister.”
“You told me my father was British intelligence. You forgot to mention he had another child?”
“I thought she died with him.”
Daphne laughed once.
“Your information about dead family members is remarkably unreliable.”
Valentino touched her shoulder.
She did not move away.
“What does Helix want with her?”
Anna looked terrified.
“Adrian helped create the Atlas.”
Daphne understood.
“My biometrics aren’t the only key.”
“No.”
“Sofia?”
Anna nodded.
“Your father designed two-person authentication.”
Daphne stared toward the hangar.
“Both daughters.”
“Yes.”
Valentino swore softly.
Crane had Crown.
Not a weapon.
A key.
Half of one.
Daphne checked her rifle.
“We take her.”
Anna grabbed her arm.
“You don’t know Sofia.”
“She’s my sister.”
“You’ve known she exists for thirty seconds.”
“That’s thirty seconds longer than she deserves to spend with Helix.”
Valentino smiled.
“There’s the woman I fell in love with.”
Silence.
Everyone looked at him.
Including Valentino.
He appeared to realize what he had said.
Daphne slowly turned.
“You what?”
Rico became fascinated by his rifle.
Anna smiled.
Valentino cleared his throat.
“This seems like an inconvenient moment.”
“You think?”
“There are armed people.”
“There are always armed people.”
“Exactly why the timing is difficult.”
Daphne stared at him.
Months of danger.
Months of sleeping beside him without defining whatever existed between them.
Months of almost saying things.
Valentino Milani had apparently chosen a surveillance operation targeting an intelligence conspiracy to finally say it.
Daphne shook her head.
“You’re unbelievable.”
“Is that a positive reaction?”
“We’re discussing this later.”
“That means I survive?”
“That depends on how annoying you are.”
He smiled.
“Then my odds are terrible.”
They attacked at 2:31.
Chen disabled cameras.
Rico cut external communications.
Daphne entered through the roof.
Valentino led the ground team.
Twelve minutes later, the hangar belonged to them.
Crane escaped through a secondary vehicle tunnel.
But Sofia remained.
Daphne found her locked inside an office.
She opened the door.
Sofia immediately attacked.
Fast.
Very fast.
Daphne blocked a strike, shifted, caught her wrist.
Sofia twisted free.
They stared at each other.
Same eyes.
Their father’s eyes, apparently.
“Who are you?” Sofia demanded.
Daphne lowered her weapon.
“My name is Daphne.”
No reaction.
“Daphne Angelo.”
Still nothing.
She swallowed.
“Adrian Vale was my father.”
Sofia froze.
Behind Daphne, Anna entered.
Sofia saw her.
Her expression changed from confusion to hatred.
“You.”
Anna stopped.
Daphne looked between them.
“You know each other.”
Sofia laughed bitterly.
“Oh, yes.”
Anna whispered, “Sofia.”
“Don’t say my name.”
Daphne felt the room tighten.
“What happened?”
Sofia looked at Daphne.
“You want to know who your mother really is?”
Anna closed her eyes.
Sofia smiled without warmth.
“Ask her who killed our father.”
Daphne turned slowly toward Anna.
No one spoke.
May you like
Anna’s silence was enough.
Again.
