Chapter 8 - The Courthouse TrapThe abandoned federal courthouse on South Dearborn had been empty for eleven years.
Its stone columns were dark with grime. Windows had been boarded from inside. The American flag had long since been removed, leaving only rusted brackets above the entrance.
At 11:23 p.m., three black SUVs stopped one block away.
Dante stepped out first.
Sienna followed.
Elena exited last.
Luca stared at her as though someone had introduced him to a resurrected ghost.
“So this is your dead sister.”
Elena looked him over.
“So this is your enormous babysitter.”
Luca frowned.
“I don’t like her.”
Dante loaded his pistol.
“You didn’t like Sienna either.”
“I still don’t.”
Sienna raised an eyebrow.
Luca shrugged.
“I respect you. Different thing.”
Nero’s voice came through the earpieces.
“Countdown is at forty-two minutes.”
Sienna checked her vest.
The hard drive was secured inside a reinforced pouch.
It felt absurdly heavy.
Dante noticed.
“You can still walk away.”
She looked at him.
“And let my former commander release a global assassination database?”
“I didn’t say it was a good option.”
Elena studied them.
“You two always talk like this?”
“Yes,” Sienna said.
“No,” Dante said.
Elena smirked.
Dante pointed toward Luca.
“Outer perimeter. Nobody enters unless I authorize it.”
Luca frowned.
“You’re going in with them?”
“That was implied.”
“Boss—”
“Luca.”
Something in Dante’s voice ended the argument.
Luca nodded reluctantly.
Dante looked at Nero’s surveillance feed on a tablet.
“No heat signatures?”
“None.”
Elena laughed softly.
“Then there are definitely people inside.”
Sienna looked at her.
“Agreed.”
Dante sighed.
“I hate spies.”
“You kissed one,” Elena said.
Sienna turned.
Dante looked at his sister.
“How do you know that?”
Elena smiled.
“Operational awareness.”
Sienna closed her eyes.
Dante muttered in Italian.
They approached the courthouse.
The main doors opened before they touched them.
Inside, emergency lights illuminated a corridor.
A speaker activated.
“Welcome.”
Kane.
Sienna’s jaw tightened.
They entered.
The doors closed behind them.
The lock engaged.
Dante looked back.
“Predictable.”
Sienna drew her pistol.
“Still effective.”
They advanced into the old main courtroom.
Elias Kane stood where the judge’s bench had once been.
No weapon visible.
No guards.
Gray suit.
White hair.
Same calm eyes.
Sienna had dreamed about killing him.
She had dreamed about forgiving him.
Now, seeing him in person, she felt neither.
Only exhaustion.
Kane smiled.
“Sienna.”
“Colonel.”
“You still call me that.”
“Habit.”
His eyes moved to Elena.
“You came.”
Elena’s expression was empty.
“You tried to have me killed.”
“Complicated circumstances.”
“You always did love euphemisms.”
Kane looked at Dante.
“And Antonio’s son.”
Dante immediately raised his weapon.
“You have five seconds to explain what happened to my mother.”
Kane remained calm.
“Isabella was extraordinary.”
“Four.”
“She discovered Orpheus.”
“Three.”
“She tried to take Elena.”
“Two.”
“I tried to help her.”
Dante stopped.
Sienna looked sharply at Kane.
“What?”
Kane sighed.
“The story Antonio left you is incomplete.”
Elena stiffened.
“You said you didn’t know about Mother’s escape.”
“I lied.”
Elena’s eyes filled with anger.
Kane continued.
“Because if the Directorate knew I had assisted Isabella, I would have been executed.”
Dante lowered his gun slightly.
“Did you kill my mother?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Kane looked at Elena.
“The Directorate.”
Elena’s face became white.
“They ordered the crash.”
“Yes.”
“You told me Antonio did it.”
Kane said nothing.
Elena drew her pistol.
Sienna moved between them.
“Elena.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“He lied to me for seventeen years.”
“Yes.”
“He made me hate my father.”
“Yes.”
“Move.”
Sienna held her ground.
“Killing him now doesn’t stop Orpheus.”
Elena’s arm trembled.
Kane looked genuinely sad.
“I needed you loyal.”
“You needed me broken.”
“Sometimes they are the same thing.”
Dante’s face changed.
He crossed the courtroom in three strides and punched Kane.
Hard.
The older man crashed against the judge’s bench.
Sienna did not stop him.
Dante grabbed Kane by the collar.
“You don’t get to talk to her like that.”
Kane wiped blood from his mouth.
“You sound exactly like your mother.”
Dante hit him again.
“Dante.”
Sienna finally intervened.
He released Kane.
The countdown hit:
00:31:16.
“Stop the transmission,” Sienna said.
Kane straightened his jacket.
“I cannot.”
“You said you could.”
“I said you could.”
He pointed at the drive.
Sienna felt dread.
“What do you need?”
“Your biometric key. Elena’s authorization. Dante’s family cipher.”
Dante stared.
“My what?”
“Antonio embedded the final Orpheus lock into the Moretti banking architecture.”
Dante laughed without humor.
“My father really did put family everywhere.”
Kane approached an old clerk’s desk.
He pressed a button.
The floor opened.
A hidden server console rose.
Three scanners.
Three authentication points.
Sienna understood.
“He built a deadlock.”
Kane nodded.
“No single faction could control Orpheus.”
“Unit 77.”
“Moretti.”
“Elena.”
“Correct.”
Dante looked between them.
“Why Elena separately?”
Kane looked at her.
“Because Isabella demanded it.”
Elena froze.
“My mother?”
“She did not trust Antonio. She did not trust me. But she trusted you.”
Elena looked stunned.
Kane’s voice softened.
“She made your biometric signature the final human veto.”
Elena slowly lowered her gun.
For the first time, Sienna saw the child beneath the operative.
“My mother trusted me.”
“Yes.”
Kane looked at the timer.
“We need to begin.”
Sienna approached the console.
“Once we authenticate?”
“We can erase Orpheus permanently.”
“Or activate it.”
Kane met her gaze.
“Yes.”
Dante immediately aimed his gun again.
“Comforting.”
Kane ignored him.
“Sienna, insert the drive.”
She did.
The console activated.
IDENTITY ONE REQUIRED.
Sienna placed her palm on the scanner.
A needle pricked her finger.
Blood analysis.
RETINAL MATCH.
She leaned forward.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED: BLAKE, SIENNA.
IDENTITY TWO REQUIRED.
Elena approached.
She hesitated.
Dante stood beside her.
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do.”
She placed her hand down.
VESPER AUTHORIZATION CONFIRMED.
IDENTITY THREE REQUIRED.
Dante frowned at the scanner.
“I’m not in your system.”
Kane looked toward a small recess.
“Your father’s key.”
Dante removed the brass key from his neck.
He inserted it.
The console processed.
MORETTI CIPHER CONFIRMED.
Three green lights appeared.
A final choice displayed.
ACTIVATE ORPHEUS.
PURGE ORPHEUS.
Sienna looked at Kane.
“Purge.”
He nodded.
She reached toward the screen.
Gunfire erupted outside.
Luca shouted through the earpiece.
“CONTACT! MULTIPLE VEHICLES!”
Kane closed his eyes.
“The Directorate.”
Windows exploded inward.
Sienna hit the floor.
Dante dragged Elena behind the judge’s bench.
Black-armored operators descended through shattered windows on ropes.
Not police.
Not military.
Something between.
Sienna fired.
One attacker fell.
Kane grabbed a hidden rifle beneath the bench.
Dante stared.
“You kept that there?”
“I expected company.”
“You could have mentioned it.”
“Would you have come?”
“No.”
“Exactly.”
The courtroom became chaos.
Nero shouted through comms.
“Twenty-four minutes!”
Elena fired with terrifying precision.
Two operators fell.
Dante watched her.
“Remind me never to annoy you.”
“You already do.”
Sienna reached the console.
A bullet struck beside her hand.
She withdrew.
“They’re targeting the server!”
Kane realized.
“They don’t want Orpheus activated.”
Dante fired.
“Then what do they want?”
“To destroy the evidence.”
An operator threw an incendiary charge.
Elena shot it midair.
It detonated against a wall.
Flames spread.
Sienna crawled toward the console again.
A masked attacker appeared.
He aimed directly at her.
Dante saw him.
“Sienna!”
He moved before she could.
The gun fired.
Dante jerked.
Sienna’s world stopped.
He fell.
“No!”
She shot the attacker twice and crawled to Dante.
Blood spread across his shirt.
High chest.
Near the shoulder.
“Dante.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been shot.”
“I noticed.”
“You’re not fine.”
“Semantics.”
Even bleeding, he was impossible.
Sienna pressed her hand against the wound.
Elena arrived.
Her face changed when she saw the blood.
“Brother.”
Dante looked up at her.
“You called me brother.”
“Shut up.”
“Definitely family.”
Sienna almost screamed.
“Both of you shut up.”
Kane fired toward the balcony.
“Finish the purge!”
Sienna looked at the console.
The choice remained.
ACTIVATE.
PURGE.
Countdown:
00:17:03.
She turned toward Dante.
“I have to leave you.”
“Go.”
“What if—”
“Go, Sienna.”
His voice was weaker.
She kissed him.
Fast.
Hard.
Then ran.
Elena pressed both hands against Dante’s wound.
He looked at her.
“You don’t hate me.”
“Don’t make me reconsider.”
Across the courtroom, Sienna reached the console.
She pressed PURGE.
PROCESSING.
Then the screen changed.
DIRECTORATE OVERRIDE.
PURGE DENIED.
Kane went pale.
“They changed the command hierarchy.”
Sienna stared.
“What does that mean?”
“It means the purge requires physical destruction of the master server.”
“Where?”
Kane looked down.
“Beneath us.”
Sienna understood.
“How far?”
“Four floors.”
Dante shouted from behind cover.
“Then blow it up!”
Kane looked at him.
“If we destroy the server before disconnecting the global relays, the archive automatically transmits.”
Dante swore.
Sienna asked, “How do we disconnect them?”
“Manually.”
“How many?”
“Seven.”
Nero’s voice entered.
“I can handle six remotely.”
“And the seventh?”
Silence.
Then Nero said:
“Moretti Tower.”
Dante closed his eyes.
“Of course.”
Sienna looked at the countdown.
Fifteen minutes.
Moretti Tower was twelve minutes away without traffic.
Impossible.
Then Elena stood.
“I can do it.”
Dante looked at her.
“You stay.”
“I know the tunnel network.”
“Elena—”
“It connects to the tower.”
Sienna stared.
“You can make it?”
“Eight minutes.”
Dante grabbed her wrist.
She looked down.
He was bleeding heavily.
“You come back.”
Elena froze.
Dante’s grip tightened.
“I already lost you once.”
Her expression cracked.
“I’m not losing you again.”
Elena swallowed.
Then nodded.
“I’ll come back.”
She sprinted toward a side exit.
Sienna looked at Kane.
“You better be telling the truth.”
“For once, I am.”
She fired at another approaching operator.
The courtroom burned around them.
Dante bled behind the bench.
Elena vanished into underground tunnels.
Nero attacked six relay nodes from a tower filled with secrets.
And the countdown reached fourteen minutes.
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The fate of Project Orpheus had become a race across Chicago.
One that none of them could afford to lose.
