Chapter 4 - The War at Pier Seventeen
The convoy stopped two blocks from Pier Seventeen.
Alejandro sat in the back of a black SUV with Bruno and Victor. Barnaby rested beside him, the cloth rabbit’s bent ear touching his hand.
The Moretti Shipping terminal stretched along the East River. Warehouses, cranes and stacked containers formed a maze beneath white security lights.
Bruno studied a tablet.
“The east gate has twelve guards. Six are ours. Six report directly to Marco.”
“Can we trust ours?” Victor asked.
“No,” Alejandro replied.
Victor frowned.
“Then why bring only eight men?”
“Because this is not an assault.”
Bruno looked at the rifles in the vehicle.
“It resembles one.”
Alejandro checked his watch.
12:52 a.m.
Federal agents were still at least twenty minutes away.
He called the terminal’s control room.
A man answered.
“Moretti Shipping.”
“This is Alejandro.”
Silence.
Then the man said, “Mr. Moretti, we heard you were ill.”
“Open the east gate.”
“I need authorization from Mr. Marco.”
Alejandro looked at Bruno.
“That answers one question.”
He returned to the phone.
“Marco is unavailable.”
“I’m sorry, sir. Protocol—”
Alejandro ended the call.
Victor shook his head.
“They have declared for Marco.”
“Not all of them,” Bruno said. “Some are frightened.”
“Fear creates loyalty until someone more frightening arrives,” Alejandro replied.
Victor looked at him.
“Is that what you intend to be?”
Alejandro glanced at Barnaby.
“No.”
He opened the door.
“I intend to give them a choice.”
The convoy approached the east gate.
Armed guards emerged from the security booth.
Alejandro stepped out alone.
Their commander, Dominic Salerno, raised a rifle.
“Stop there.”
Alejandro continued walking.
“Mr. Moretti, do not force us.”
“Who gave you orders?”
“Marco.”
“Marco is under arrest.”
Several guards exchanged uncertain looks.
Dominic kept the rifle steady.
“We received a message saying you had been compromised.”
“By whom?”
“Dr. Vance.”
“Vance poisoned me.”
Dominic’s expression flickered.
Alejandro removed the hidden camera and tossed it across the pavement.
“Watch the recording.”
Dominic did not move.
“Or shoot me without learning whether the man giving you orders tried to murder your employer.”
A younger guard picked up the camera.
Dominic snapped, “Put that down.”
The guard hesitated.
Alejandro looked at him.
“What is your name?”
“Luis.”
“Do you have children, Luis?”
“Two daughters.”
“Then watch the recording and decide whether you want them to remember you as a man who followed a murderer.”
Luis connected the camera to a terminal monitor inside the booth.
The footage played.
Vance entered the study.
Three drops fell into the bottle.
The guards watched in silence.
Dominic lowered his rifle slightly.
Alejandro spoke.
“Marco ordered the poisoning. He also falsified medical records connected to my wife’s death. The server in this terminal contains evidence.”
Dominic looked toward the main warehouse.
“You cannot access it.”
“Why?”
“The internal system went into lockdown fifteen minutes ago. Marco’s men control the server room.”
“Who leads them?”
“Caleb Shaw.”
Victor cursed.
Caleb was a former military contractor Marco had hired six months earlier.
“How many men?” Bruno asked.
“Maybe twenty.”
Alejandro looked at Dominic.
“You have a decision.”
Dominic tightened his jaw.
“If I open the gate, Shaw will kill my men.”
“If you keep it closed, federal agents will arrive and treat everyone carrying a weapon as part of Marco’s conspiracy.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Federal agents?”
Alejandro nodded.
“I have surrendered the evidence.”
Bruno looked at him sharply.
The guards began murmuring.
Dominic lowered his rifle.
“You called the government into your own port?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because my family has mistaken secrecy for honor for too long.”
Dominic pressed a button.
The gate opened.
“We’ll take you to the west warehouse,” he said.
Alejandro walked past him.
“No. Tell your men to put down their weapons and wait outside.”
“You’ll need us.”
“I need them alive.”
Dominic studied Alejandro as though seeing him for the first time.
Then he ordered his guards to disarm.
Inside the terminal, emergency lights flashed red.
A voice came through the overhead speakers.
“Alejandro.”
Caleb Shaw.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Alejandro, Bruno and Victor took cover behind a concrete barrier.
“Where is the server?” Alejandro called.
“You know where.”
“I know where the old server room was.”
“It has been moved below Warehouse C.”
Bruno whispered, “He wants us in the open.”
Alejandro looked at a row of surveillance cameras.
“He can see every corridor.”
Victor checked his weapon.
“We can cut the power.”
“The server has backup power,” Bruno replied.
Alejandro held up the miniature camera.
“But the surveillance network may use the same receiver system.”
He connected the device to Bruno’s tablet.
A signal map appeared.
The receiver was linked to a private channel inside Warehouse B.
“Marco used the port’s network to watch the study,” Alejandro said.
Victor examined the map.
“If we overload that channel, we may blind the cameras.”
“How?”
Victor smiled.
“Shipping containers use automated tracking beacons. Thousands of them.”
He opened a maintenance application and activated every beacon in the terminal at once.
The signal map filled with interference.
One by one, the surveillance feeds went black.
Caleb’s voice returned.
“Clever.”
Alejandro moved toward Warehouse C.
Gunfire erupted from the upper walkway.
Bruno fired back.
Victor shouted, “Move!”
They crossed the loading yard behind a line of containers.
A bullet struck the metal near Alejandro’s head.
Bruno pulled him down.
“Boss, you said this was not an assault.”
“I was mistaken.”
“Good to hear you admit it.”
They reached Warehouse C.
The main door was locked.
Victor entered a code.
Access denied.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Alejandro looked toward a ventilation shaft above the loading platform.
“Can that reach the lower level?”
Bruno stared at the narrow opening.
“You will not fit.”
Alejandro looked at Victor.
Victor stepped backward.
“Absolutely not.”
“You are the smallest.”
“I manage finances.”
“Tonight you manage ventilation.”
Bruno almost smiled.
Victor removed his coat.
“If I survive this, I expect a new title.”
“You may choose one.”
Victor climbed into the shaft.
Alejandro and Bruno covered the corridor while he crawled above them.
Caleb’s men approached from the far end.
“Two minutes,” Bruno said.
“We may have thirty seconds.”
The warehouse door suddenly unlocked.
Victor’s voice came through the radio.
“I’m inside. Move.”
Alejandro and Bruno entered and sealed the door.
They descended a metal staircase.
The server room lay behind reinforced glass.
Caleb stood inside with four armed men.
A countdown displayed on the central monitor.
00:17:42 UNTIL PERMANENT DELETION
Caleb aimed his pistol through an open firing slot.
“You cannot reach the server.”
Alejandro remained behind cover.
“Federal agents are on their way.”
“Then we’ll be gone before they arrive.”
“With what evidence?”
“We don’t need the evidence. We need you.”
Alejandro understood.
The deletion was a distraction.
Caleb’s true objective was to capture or kill him.
“Marco promised you control of the port,” Alejandro said.
“He promised me ten million dollars.”
“Money he cannot pay from prison.”
“He won’t go to prison if there is no witness.”
“Vance confessed.”
“Vance will not survive the night.”
Alejandro’s phone vibrated.
A security alert from the mansion appeared on the screen.
BASEMENT MEDICAL CELL BREACHED.
He called Sarah.
No answer.
He called the guard commander.
The line failed.
Bruno saw his expression.
“What happened?”
“Someone is freeing Vance.”
“Marco still has men in the house.”
Alejandro called again.
This time Emma answered.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Emma, where is your mother?”
“She went downstairs because the alarm was making noise.”
“Are you alone?”
“I’m with the lady police officer.”
Rebecca Sloan had reached the mansion ahead of her team.
“Put her on.”
Rebecca’s voice came through.
“We have a problem. Vance escaped his restraints and took Sarah into the basement tunnels.”
Alejandro’s blood ran cold.
“How?”
“One of your guards freed him.”
“Who?”
“He was shot before we could question him.”
“Is he alive?”
“Barely.”
“Vance knows the tunnels. He could reach the carriage house.”
“We sealed the outside exits.”
Alejandro looked at the countdown.
Sixteen minutes remained.
“I am at the server.”
“Do not touch anything until my agents arrive.”
“Rebecca, Vance has Sarah.”
“I know.”
“Emma is listening.”
A small voice came through the phone.
“Bring Mommy back.”
Alejandro closed his eyes.
“I will.”
He ended the call.
Bruno spoke quietly.
“You cannot be in two places.”
“No.”
“The agents can recover the server. We return to the house.”
Caleb heard them.
“You won’t leave.”
The server room door opened.
His four men moved into the warehouse.
Gunfire exploded.
Alejandro and Bruno fired from behind steel pillars.
Victor dropped from an overhead maintenance ladder and struck one of Caleb’s men with a metal tool.
Bruno shot the weapon from another man’s hand.
Alejandro advanced toward the glass room.
Caleb fired twice.
One bullet tore through Alejandro’s jacket.
The second struck Barnaby.
The cloth rabbit fell to the floor.
Alejandro looked down.
A bullet had passed through Barnaby’s chest, tearing the fabric and scattering cotton across the concrete.
Something inside Alejandro changed.
He stepped from cover.
Caleb aimed again.
Alejandro fired first.
The bullet struck Caleb’s shoulder, spinning him into the glass wall.
Alejandro entered the server room and kicked away his weapon.
Caleb groaned.
“You should kill me.”
Alejandro looked at the countdown.
“I have wasted enough of my life killing men who wanted to die.”
He connected the camera’s memory device to the server terminal.
Victor entered behind him.
“What are you doing?”
“Copying everything.”
“The system is encrypted.”
“The camera used the same network. It contains the authentication key.”
Victor inserted a portable drive.
The data transfer began.
4 percent.
12 percent.
25 percent.
Sirens sounded outside.
Federal agents stormed the terminal.
Rebecca called again.
“We found the tunnel Vance used.”
“Where does it lead?”
“To the old chapel near the north property line.”
Alejandro looked at the transfer.
48 percent.
“How long before your agents reach it?”
“Ten minutes.”
“Too long.”
He handed the phone to Bruno.
“Stay with the server.”
Bruno grabbed his arm.
“Boss.”
“Sarah protected Emma when she believed I might hurt her. She trusted my promise after every reason not to.”
“You cannot go alone.”
Alejandro looked at the federal agents entering the warehouse.
“You are needed here.”
He picked up Barnaby’s torn body and placed it inside his jacket.
May you like
Then he took Caleb’s vehicle keys.
The data transfer reached 61 percent as Alejandro ran toward the storm.
