Chapter 10 - The Flight Trap
Marco disconnected the aircraft network.
The descent continued.
Victor pounded once against the cockpit door.
“Open it.”
No answer.
He did not repeat himself.
Marco opened an emergency access panel.
“Three minutes.”
“To override?”
“If the pilots haven’t disabled it.”
Lily held Ethan tightly.
The child was awake now.
Confused.
Quiet.
Too quiet.
Victor touched his forehead.
“Is he okay?”
Lily checked his pupils.
“I think so.”
The pediatrician sat against the wall, still disoriented.
“Someone injected me.”
“With what?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor’s eyes moved toward the cockpit.
The aircraft descended below twenty thousand feet.
Marco bypassed the final lock.
The cockpit door opened.
The copilot turned.
A handgun appeared in his hand.
Victor moved before the man fired.
He slammed the wrist against the seat.
The gun discharged into the ceiling.
The pilot kept both hands on the controls.
Marco pulled the copilot backward.
Victor looked at the pilot.
“Level the plane.”
The pilot shook.
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“They have my family.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“Who?”
“Damien.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Level the plane.”
The pilot obeyed.
The aircraft climbed.
Victor stood beside him.
“You were supposed to land where?”
“Private airstrip outside Dubrovnik.”
“What was waiting?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor believed that part.
The pilot was terrified.
Not loyal.
Terrified people follow instructions badly.
Marco restrained the copilot.
The man smiled despite the blood on his lip.
“You won’t reach Adrian.”
Victor looked at him.
“Why?”
“He’s already dead.”
Lily froze.
Victor crouched.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“How do you know?”
The copilot laughed.
“Because Damien sent the photograph.”
Victor grabbed the man’s phone.
Locked.
Marco forced him to unlock it.
The photograph appeared.
Adrian Blackwood lay in a hospital bed.
Eyes closed.
A handwritten card rested on his chest.
TOO LATE.
Victor stared.
“Call the facility.”
Marco did.
After three tense minutes, the Austrian hospital answered.
Adrian was alive.
Victor looked at the copilot.
The photograph was staged.
Not a death.
A warning.
They landed in Vienna two hours later.
Adrian’s facility had gone into lockdown.
Victor entered his room just after sunrise.
The old man looked at him.
For a long time neither spoke.
Then Adrian smiled faintly.
“Alexander’s boy.”
Victor stared.
“You know who I am.”
“I held you when you were born.”
Victor felt something strange.
A memory without an image.
“Why did my father hide you?”
Adrian looked toward the window.
“Because I knew what he was.”
“What was he?”
“A thief.”
“A murderer when necessary.”
“A coward when convenient.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“You were his brother.”
“Twin.”
Victor froze.
That explained the DNA confusion.
Adrian laughed softly.
“Your father hated that we looked alike.”
“He spent his life trying to prove we were different.”
“Were you?”
Adrian looked at him.
“Yes.”
“I was worse at lying.”
Victor sat beside the bed.
“Did Evelyn love you?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Once.”
“Is Damien your son?”
“Yes.”
Victor absorbed it.
“And Serena?”
“Alexander’s.”
Two half-siblings raised as full siblings.
Two children of two Blackwood brothers.
A family secret turned into a conspiracy.
“Did Evelyn know?”
“Always.”
“Did Serena?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Yes.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“She knew I was her brother when she started dating me.”
“Yes.”
Lily, standing near the door with Ethan, looked horrified.
Victor asked.
“Why?”
Adrian’s voice became bitter.
“Evelyn taught those children that your family stole their lives.”
“She told Serena Alexander abandoned her.”
“She told Damien I let Alexander destroy us.”
“She raised them inside revenge.”
Victor stared.
“What did my father give you before he died?”
Adrian looked at him carefully.
“A choice.”
“What choice?”
“He realized Evelyn had discovered the Continuity Trust.”
“He knew she might use it.”
“He wrote a codicil.”
“Where?”
Adrian smiled.
“I wondered how long before someone finally asked.”
He pointed toward a wooden chessboard.
“Your father loved chess.”
Victor nodded.
Adrian gestured.
“Black king.”
Victor lifted the piece.
It was heavier than expected.
He twisted the base.
A tiny key fell into his palm.
“What does it open?”
Adrian looked toward Ethan.
“Something Alexander hoped you would never need.”
Before he could explain, alarms sounded throughout the facility.
Marco touched his earpiece.
“Fire on the third floor.”
Victor looked at Adrian.
Adrian’s face changed.
“That is no fire.”
Smoke appeared beneath the door.
Marco shouted.
“Move.”
Lily lifted Ethan.
Victor tried to move Adrian’s wheelchair.
Adrian stopped him.
“Listen.”
“We can take you.”
“No.”
“Listen.”
Victor leaned closer.
“The key opens box seventeen.”
“Where?”
“Zurich.”
“Union Helvetia Bank.”
Victor memorized it.
Adrian grabbed his wrist.
“And Victor…”
“Yes?”
“Evelyn isn’t doing this for money anymore.”
“Then why?”
Adrian’s eyes filled with grief.
“Because Damien learned the truth.”
“What truth?”
The door burst open.
A masked man fired.
Marco returned fire.
Victor pulled Adrian’s bed behind the wall.
Lily ran with Ethan.
The attacker disappeared into smoke.
Victor turned back.
Adrian had been hit.
Blood spread across the sheets.
“No.”
Victor pressed against the wound.
Adrian looked at him.
“Damien knows.”
“Knows what?”
Adrian coughed.
“That Evelyn caused the accident.”
Victor froze.
“What accident?”
“My accident.”
“She put me in this chair.”
“Why?”
“Because I tried to take Damien away from her.”
Adrian’s breathing weakened.
“She never forgave me.”
Victor leaned closer.
“Stay with me.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
“Your father used to say that like an order too.”
Then Adrian looked toward Lily holding Ethan.
“Protect the boy.”
Victor nodded.
Adrian’s eyes closed.
The monitor flattened.
Victor stared at the man who had existed in his family for decades without ever being spoken of.
Then Marco shouted.
“We have to go.”
They escaped through the rear medical wing.
Outside, security intercepted a van.
Inside were photographs.
Maps.
Weapons.
And a second black veil belonging to Evelyn.
But Evelyn was not inside.
A phone lay on the passenger seat.
It rang.
Victor answered.
Damien spoke.
“You met my father.”
Victor looked back at the burning floor.
“Yes.”
“Is he dead?”
Victor was silent.
Damien understood.
His voice changed.
For the first time, the arrogant certainty vanished.
“My mother did this?”
Victor stared.
“He said she caused the accident that put him in that chair.”
Silence.
Then Damien whispered.
“She told me Alexander did it.”
Victor closed his eyes.
Another lie.
Another child raised on it.
Damien’s breathing became uneven.
“She lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“For thirty years.”
“Yes.”
A long silence.
Then Damien said something Victor did not expect.
“I’ll give you Serena.”
Victor became still.
“Where?”
“In exchange for my mother.”
“I don’t have Evelyn.”
“You will.”
Victor frowned.
Damien continued.
“She wants what’s in box seventeen.”
Victor looked at the key in his hand.
“How do you know about it?”
“My father told me once.”
“She has searched for that key for fifteen years.”
“What is inside?”
Damien laughed bitterly.
“The one thing that can destroy every Blackwood.”
The call ended.
Lily looked at Victor.
“What does that mean?”
Victor stared at the tiny key.
He did not know.
But for the first time he understood something worse.
Evelyn might not be trying to inherit the Blackwood empire.
May you like
She might be trying to make sure nobody inherited anything at all.
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