Chapter 14 - THE GHOST BEHIND THE COMPANY
Federal agents reopened Daniel Kent’s death investigation.
Dental records from the grave belonged to a missing North Harbor contractor.
Daniel had faked his death and continued controlling Voss from Canada.
Voss lied when he claimed to have killed him.
The entire network still had an architect.
Daniel contacted me through an encrypted Hartwell board line.
His face appeared older, thinner, and unmistakably related to Russell.
“Hello, Olivia.”
“You killed my mother.”
“I corrected a problem.”
“You kidnapped Kendra.”
“I raised my daughter.”
“You turned her into a weapon.”
“I prepared her to take what belonged to us.”
He demanded immunity and ten percent of Hartwell Group in exchange for records implicating officials still in office.
I refused.
He smiled.
“Arthur would negotiate.”
“My father built an empire.”
“I am trying to build something that can survive daylight.”
Daniel threatened Maria.
Agents moved her to protection.
He threatened Kendra in prison.
Security transferred her.
Then he threatened Hartwell workers by placing explosives at three construction sites.
The devices were found before detonation.
Each carried a timer set for the anniversary of Evelyn’s death.
Daniel wanted fear, not only money.
Russell volunteered to contact him.
“He is my brother.”
“He stopped being your brother when he used your guilt as a shield,” I said.
“Let me end it.”
We arranged a meeting at the abandoned North Harbor terminal.
Russell wore a wire.
I remained in the federal command center with my father and Mara.
Daniel arrived in a freight vehicle with two armed men.
He embraced Russell as if they were meeting for dinner.
“You always were loyal to the wrong people.”
Russell answered, “I was loyal to the idea that you could still stop.”
Daniel handed him a drive.
Then he noticed the wire.
Gunfire erupted.
Russell took cover behind a concrete barrier.
Federal agents entered from both sides.
Daniel escaped into the terminal’s old conveyor tunnels.
I knew those plans.
I had studied them at sixteen during my first acquisition meeting.
One tunnel ended beneath the river loading platform.
I directed Mara’s team there.
Daniel emerged holding a detonator.
Charges had been placed beneath the terminal supports.
If he triggered them, the structure would collapse into the river with agents inside.
My father stepped into view before anyone could stop him.
“Daniel.”
The two men faced each other across twenty years of buried war.
Daniel raised the detonator.
Arthur said, “Evelyn was carrying your original ledger when she died.”
Daniel froze.
“You never found it.”
“We did.”
It was a bluff.
But Daniel believed him.
He demanded the location.
That gave a tactical officer time to reach the secondary circuit.
The signal was jammed.
Daniel pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
He turned to run.
Russell stepped from the tunnel and blocked him.
Daniel aimed a gun at his brother.
Russell did not move.
May you like
“You have taken enough from this family.”
A shot rang out.
