Chapter 9 - THE TRAITOR INSIDE THE HOUSE
Matteo grabbed a chair and smashed it against the ventilation grate.
Metal bent.
Gas continued pouring through.
“Cover your mouth,” Leo ordered.
Noah pulled his shirt over his nose.
Eleanor began coughing.
Teresa moved toward the control panel.
“Emergency purge.”
“It’s dead,” Leo said.
“Manual release behind the west wall.”
Matteo looked at his mother.
“How do you know?”
“I helped design this room.”
Of course she did.
Luca ripped a decorative panel away.
Behind it sat a red lever.
He pulled.
Nothing.
“Locked.”
Teresa moved beside him.
“Biometric release.”
She pressed her thumb against a concealed scanner.
A second later, vents opened along the floor.
Fresh air rushed in.
The gas thinned.
Noah leaned against the wall.
“I miss this morning.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
Matteo looked at me.
“You okay?”
“I’ll let you know when my life stops resembling a conspiracy documentary.”
Leo checked the door.
“Someone used an internal override.”
“Meaning?” I asked.
“One of our people locked us in.”
The betrayal finally had a shape.
Not Father Anthony alone.
Someone inside the estate.
Matteo activated his radio.
No response.
He tried another channel.
Static.
Then one voice came through.
“Boss?”
Marcus Dean.
Security chief.
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
“Status.”
“Attackers withdrew. We lost three men. West entrance secure.”
“Open the safe room.”
A pause.
“I’m on my way.”
Matteo looked toward Leo.
Neither spoke.
Teresa mouthed:
Marcus.
Footsteps approached.
The safe-room door unlocked.
Marcus entered.
Tall.
Broad.
A man Matteo had apparently trusted for twelve years.
“Boss.”
Matteo stepped aside.
Marcus looked toward me.
Only for half a second.
But I saw it.
His eyes checked whether I was alive.
Matteo saw it too.
“You locked us in.”
Marcus frowned.
“What?”
“The internal override.”
“I was upstairs.”
Leo raised Archer’s phone.
“Your access code was used.”
Marcus slowly reached toward his jacket.
Matteo’s gun was already pointed at him.
“Don’t.”
Marcus stopped.
The room became silent.
“You’ve been selling access to Anthony,” Matteo said.
Marcus swallowed.
“No.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I never worked for the priest.”
Teresa stepped closer.
“Then Daniel?”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“You still think Daniel matters?”
My stomach tightened.
“Who do you work for?”
He looked at me.
“For Michael Conti.”
Nobody moved.
“My father is dead.”
“Yes.”
“Then that makes you unemployed.”
Marcus almost smiled.
“He created a contingency before he died.”
“The archive?”
“No.”
He looked at Teresa.
“The successor.”
Teresa went pale.
“What successor?”
Marcus’s gaze returned to me.
“Sophie.”
I stared at him.
“Me?”
“Michael never intended the Vale network to continue under Daniel, Teresa, or Salvatore.”
“What did he intend?”
“For you to dismantle it.”
Teresa’s face changed.
“That’s impossible.”
Marcus looked toward her.
“You never understood your brother-in-law.”
Matteo stepped closer.
“Then why try to kill Sophie?”
“I didn’t.”
“Archer used your access.”
“Archer stole access credentials.”
“Who locked us in?”
“I did.”
My anger erupted.
“You just said you weren’t trying to kill us.”
“The gas wasn’t lethal.”
Noah coughed theatrically.
“Comforting.”
Marcus ignored him.
“I needed everyone secured while Daniel’s men withdrew.”
“Why?”
“So I could get Sophie out.”
“Where?”
“St. Cecilia’s.”
Matteo’s gun lifted.
“Absolutely not.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Anthony has Gabriel. Daniel is with him. The Continuity Protocol can only be terminated physically from the church archive.”
Teresa stared.
“Church archive?”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“Anthony built it beneath St. Cecilia’s decades ago.”
Matteo looked toward his mother.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
For once, Teresa truly didn’t.
Marcus continued.
“Michael discovered it shortly before he died. That’s why Salvatore met Anthony every Thursday. He wasn’t confessing.”
“What was he doing?”
“Gathering evidence.”
The priest had been the center all along.
Every family had confessed its sins to him.
The perfect intelligence system.
I felt sick.
“So Father Anthony ran everything.”
“Not everything,” Marcus said. “But enough.”
“Why does he want Teresa?”
“The original Continuity Key is coded to her.”
“And me?”
“You can destroy it.”
I looked toward Matteo.
He shook his head.
“No.”
“This is my family’s mess too.”
“No.”
“Matteo.”
“I watched someone shoot at you twelve hours ago.”
“And I’m still standing.”
“Barely.”
“You don’t get to make this decision for me.”
His eyes burned.
“I know.”
The quiet answer hurt more than shouting.
He stepped closer.
“I’m asking you not to go.”
For a moment, everyone disappeared.
I understood what he wasn’t saying.
I touched his hand.
“I have to.”
His fingers closed around mine.
Then he nodded.
“Then you don’t go alone.”
St. Cecilia’s Church had been closed to the public since midnight.
We entered through the rectory tunnel.
Marcus led.
Matteo stayed beside me.
Luca and Leo followed.
Teresa came despite every argument.
Noah and Eleanor stayed behind under guard.
The basement archive looked nothing like a church.
Rows of steel filing cabinets.
Servers.
Hidden cameras.
Thirty years of secrets built beneath stained glass.
Gabriel sat tied beside the central terminal.
Daniel stood behind him.
Father Anthony waited near the altar stairs.
He was seventy-three.
White hair.
Gentle face.
The kind of man people told their darkest sins to.
“Matteo,” he said warmly.
Matteo looked disgusted.
“You baptized me.”
“Yes.”
“You buried my father.”
“Yes.”
“You helped destroy my family.”
Anthony sighed.
“Your family required very little help.”
Teresa stepped forward.
“Anthony.”
His face softened.
“Teresa.”
“You told me Margaret had betrayed us.”
“She had.”
“No. Daniel killed her.”
Anthony looked toward Daniel.
“Daniel was often overenthusiastic.”
Daniel glared.
“You ordered it.”
Anthony smiled.
“Be careful what you say when so many people are listening.”
A tiny red light blinked on Leo’s jacket.
Recording.
Anthony noticed.
He didn’t care.
That frightened me.
He looked toward me.
“Sophia Michael Conti.”
Hearing my full name felt strange.
“You knew my father.”
“I loved Michael.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did you help Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Michael was going to burn down a structure that kept far worse men contained.”
I stared at him.
“You stole money and blackmailed officials.”
“We controlled them.”
“You sound like Teresa.”
Teresa flinched.
Anthony smiled.
“She taught me well.”
Teresa’s face twisted.
“That is a lie.”
“Is it?”
Matteo stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Anthony looked at him.
“You always did have Salvatore’s impatience.”
“My father spent twenty-five years trying to undo what you built.”
“Too late.”
Anthony motioned toward the terminal.
“The network exists in nineteen countries now.”
My stomach dropped.
Boston was only one branch.
“Why me?”
“Because your father designed a kill command before he died.”
Marcus had been telling the truth.
Anthony continued.
“Your biological signature can erase every key.”
“Then let me do it.”
Daniel laughed.
Anthony didn’t.
“No.”
“Why bring me?”
“Because I need you to transfer control.”
I stared.
“To who?”
Anthony smiled.
“Me.”
Of course.
He wanted legitimacy built into Michael’s system.
I shook my head.
“No.”
Daniel pressed his gun against Gabriel’s head.
Anthony looked almost sad.
“Then Gabriel dies.”
Gabriel met my eyes.
He shook his head.
Don’t.
I thought about my mother.
My father.
Twenty-five years of people sacrificing themselves for secrets.
“No more.”
Anthony frowned.
“What?”
“No more people dying to protect files.”
I moved toward the terminal.
Matteo whispered:
“Sophie.”
I looked back.
Trust me.
His eyes told me he hated the idea.
But he lowered his weapon.
I placed my hand on the scanner.
The system activated.
MICHAEL CONTI CONTINUITY ACCESS.
Anthony smiled.
“Choose transfer.”
Three options appeared.
TRANSFER.
ARCHIVE.
TERMINATE.
Daniel shouted:
“Transfer.”
I looked at Anthony.
Then at Teresa.
Then Matteo.
My finger moved toward the screen.
Anthony relaxed.
I pressed TERMINATE.
Sirens began screaming.
Anthony’s face transformed.
“What did you do?”
The terminal displayed:
GLOBAL CONTINUITY TERMINATION INITIATED.
Daniel raised his weapon.
Matteo fired.
Chaos exploded.
Gabriel threw himself sideways.
Luca tackled Daniel.
Teresa struck Anthony’s gun away.
Leo moved toward the server rack.
I stayed at the terminal.
SECOND AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
“Matteo!”
He saw the screen.
He ran toward me.
Behind him, Daniel broke free from Luca.
Raised his weapon.
Aimed at Matteo’s back.
I screamed.
A gunshot filled the archive.
Matteo jerked.
For one terrible second, I thought Daniel had hit him.
Then Daniel fell.
Teresa stood behind him holding a smoking gun.
She looked at her son.
“Finish it.”
Matteo placed his hand beside mine.
The screen flashed.
AUTHORIZED.
Then another message appeared.
TERMINATION REQUIRES CONTI FOUNDING KEY.
Matteo stared.
“What is that?”
Teresa closed her eyes.
Anthony began laughing from the floor.
“You fools.”
He looked toward Teresa.
“She never told you.”
Matteo turned.
“Told me what?”
Teresa’s face had gone white.
Anthony smiled through blood on his lip.
“The founding key isn’t an object.”
He looked at Luca.
Then Matteo.
“It’s a person.”
The system displayed a name.
SALVATORE CONTI — FOUNDING AUTHORITY ACTIVE.
Matteo stared at the screen.
“My father is dead.”
Anthony’s laughter grew.
“No, Matteo.”
He looked toward the hidden elevator behind the archive.
Its doors opened.
An elderly man stepped out.
Dark suit.
Silver hair.
Cane.
Same eyes as Matteo.
Everyone froze.
The man looked at Matteo.
Then Luca.
“My sons.”
Matteo’s weapon slipped slightly in his hand.
Salvatore Conti smiled.
May you like
“It’s time we ended this.”
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