Chapter 3 - THE MAN FROM THE FORTIETH FLOOR
The elevator numbers moved downward.
Each glowing digit seemed louder than the gunfire had been.
Ethan Mercer crouched behind the overturned desk with his pistol aimed toward the office entrance.
Maya kept both hands pressed against Daniel Cross's wound.
Lily was hidden beneath Ethan's heavy coat beside one of his security men.
Natalie sat against the wall, shaking so badly her teeth clicked.
The elevator reached thirty-five.
“Who is coming?” Maya whispered.
Daniel's face had gone gray.
“Malcolm.”
Ethan did not look away from the doorway.
“My uncle hasn't entered this building after midnight in twelve years.”
Daniel coughed.
“He never had to before.”
Thirty-four.
Ethan's security man, Cole, checked his weapon.
“Boss, stairwell?”
“Compromised.”
“Freight elevators?”
“Probably.”
Maya looked at Daniel.
“You said Ryan is alive.”
“Maya.”
“Where is he?”
“Not now.”
“If we die in the next five minutes, now is all we have.”
Daniel looked at her.
Even wounded, he understood the truth in that.
“Ryan was taken two years ago.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Taken by who?”
“Malcolm's people.”
“Why?”
“Because Ryan found something.”
“What?”
Daniel looked toward Ethan.
“A second ledger.”
Ethan finally turned.
“There was another one?”
“Michael copied portions before he died. Ryan found his storage box years later.”
Maya could hardly breathe.
“So Ryan didn't leave us?”
“No.”
“Did he know they were coming?”
“Yes.”
“And he just went with them?”
“He drew them away from you.”
Maya shut her eyes.
Every angry thought she'd had about her husband became poison.
Every night Lily asked why Daddy didn't call.
Every birthday Maya had smiled and said some people weren't strong enough to stay.
She had been wrong.
Thirty-two.
The elevator stopped.
Everyone froze.
Nothing happened.
Then Ethan's phone buzzed.
One message.
Unknown number.
SEND MAYA AND THE DRIVE UP ALONE.
Ethan showed Daniel.
Daniel whispered, “That's him.”
A second message arrived.
OR RYAN BENNETT DIES BEFORE 12:10.
Maya grabbed the phone.
Attached was a photograph.
Ryan.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
He sat tied to a chair in a room Maya recognized immediately.
Ethan's executive conference room.
Fortieth floor.
The clock in the photograph showed 12:03.
Current.
“I'm going.”
Ethan took the phone from her.
“No.”
“That is my husband.”
“That is exactly why you aren't going.”
“They'll kill him.”
“They'll kill you too.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
Ethan looked at the ceiling.
“I give Malcolm what he thinks he wants.”
Daniel grabbed Ethan's sleeve.
“He wants the drive because Richard tied the original Mercer ownership records to it.”
“Meaning?”
“If Maya is legally acknowledged as Richard's daughter, Malcolm loses control of the family trust.”
Maya looked over.
“What family trust?”
Ethan's expression hardened.
“Thirty-one percent of Mercer Holdings.”
Maya almost laughed.
“I work twelve-hour security shifts.”
“You also apparently own part of a six-billion-dollar company.”
“This is not funny.”
“No.”
Ethan checked the magazine in his pistol.
“It isn't.”
The elevator doors opened outside the office.
No one emerged.
Instead, a small black case sat inside.
Cole approached carefully.
“Don't touch it.”
A speaker inside clicked.
Malcolm's voice filled the corridor.
“Happy New Year, Ethan.”
Ethan's face became stone.
“Uncle.”
“I was beginning to wonder when Father would finally reach out from the grave.”
“You killed Anna.”
A pause.
Then Malcolm laughed softly.
“Daniel always did have trouble keeping his emotions out of operational matters.”
Daniel tried to sit up.
Ethan pushed him back down.
Malcolm continued.
“Bring Maya to the fortieth floor.”
“Release Ryan.”
“After.”
“No.”
Another pause.
“Still stubborn. Just like your father.”
“I'm not my father.”
“No. Richard had sentimental weaknesses. You merely inherited them.”
Ethan glanced at Maya and Lily.
Malcolm had meant them.
“Five minutes,” Malcolm said. “Then I remove one of Ryan Bennett's fingers and send it downstairs.”
The speaker disconnected.
Maya stood.
Ethan caught her arm.
“I said no.”
“And I didn't ask you.”
“You're my sister.”
The words stopped them both.
It was the first time either had said it aloud.
Maya stared at him.
A strange pain crossed Ethan's face.
He looked almost annoyed by it.
Or frightened.
“Apparently,” Maya said.
“Which means you're not walking into that room alone.”
“I've known you for four hours.”
“And somehow that makes you the least complicated Mercer relative I've got.”
Despite everything, Maya almost laughed.
Almost.
Daniel pulled a keycard from his pocket.
“There is another way to forty.”
Ethan looked at him.
“The old freight lift.”
“Malcolm won't know it still works. Your father sealed it from the plans.”
“Where?”
“Room 614.”
They moved fast.
Cole and another guard carried Daniel.
Ethan took Lily.
Maya objected.
“I'm coming.”
“So is she.”
“No.”
“Malcolm knows she's here. Leaving her with security he may control is worse.”
Maya hated that he was right.
They returned to the hidden basement room through a service corridor.
Inside Room 614, Daniel pointed toward a shelf.
“Move the third unit.”
Behind it was a steel door.
Ethan stared at him.
“You might eventually tell me how many secret pieces of my building you know about.”
Daniel managed a weak smile.
“Your father was paranoid.”
“He was correct.”
They opened the steel door.
An old elevator waited.
Manual controls.
No cameras.
No electronic network.
Ethan looked at Maya.
“We go to thirty-nine. Cole stays with Lily and Daniel. You remain behind me.”
“I know how to handle myself.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“You patrol my building alone at two in the morning for fourteen dollars above minimum wage.”
“Eighteen.”
“My apologies.”
The elevator climbed.
Twenty.
Twenty-seven.
Thirty-five.
Maya stared straight ahead.
“Why didn't your father tell you about me?”
Ethan's jaw shifted.
“Probably because he believed ignorance would keep me from leading Malcolm to you.”
“Did it?”
“For twenty-five years.”
“Until tonight.”
“Until Lily.”
Maya looked down.
Lily was holding Ethan's hand.
She seemed to realize it at the same time.
She released it.
“Sorry.”
Ethan looked at his empty hand.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“Then don't apologize.”
The elevator reached thirty-nine.
Cole stayed inside with Daniel and Lily.
Maya kissed her daughter's forehead.
“I'll be right back.”
Lily whispered, “Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“I knew Mr. Ethan before tonight.”
Maya froze.
Ethan did too.
“What?”
Lily reached into her coat pocket.
She removed a folded photograph.
Maya recognized her mother's handwriting on the back.
If you ever need help, find Ethan Mercer.
Maya stared.
“Where did you get this?”
“Grandma's blue box.”
“When?”
“Before Christmas.”
Maya's mind raced.
Lily had asked to eat downtown after Christmas.
She had pointed at Bellamy's when Maya showed her restaurant choices online.
Because Ethan's photograph had been taken in front of Bellamy's sign.
Lily hadn't understood.
But she had remembered his face.
Richard's words returned.
She didn't invite Ethan Mercer to that table by accident.
Lily whispered, “I thought he was Grandma's friend.”
Ethan looked at the photograph.
“My father planned this.”
Daniel shook his head weakly.
“No.”
They turned.
“Elena did.”
Maya stared at him.
“My mother?”
“She knew someday Lily might need someone powerful enough to stop Malcolm.”
Ethan took a slow breath.
Then the building alarms suddenly stopped.
Complete silence.
Cole checked the hall.
“That's bad.”
Ethan opened the stairwell door.
They climbed one floor.
At the fortieth-floor conference room, two guards stood outside.
Ethan recognized them.
His own men.
“Mr. Mercer.”
“Step aside.”
Neither moved.
The betrayal answered the question.
Ethan fired first.
Not to kill.
One bullet shattered the wall inches from the first man's head.
“Last warning.”
Both men dropped their weapons.
Ethan entered.
Maya followed.
Ryan sat at the far end of the room.
Alive.
His face changed when he saw her.
“Maya?”
Her entire body stopped functioning.
Ryan began crying.
Not loudly.
Just instantly.
“God.”
Maya crossed the room.
Malcolm Mercer stepped from behind a column.
Silver hair.
Expensive black tuxedo.
A champagne glass in one hand.
Gun in the other.
“Touch him,” Malcolm said, “and you lose him.”
Maya stopped.
Ethan aimed at his uncle.
Malcolm smiled.
“Welcome, niece.”
Maya wanted to spit at him.
“You murdered Michael.”
“I ordered a problem corrected.”
“And Anna?”
Malcolm's smile disappeared.
“That was unfortunate.”
Ethan's pistol rose another inch.
“Say that again.”
Malcolm ignored him.
He looked at Maya.
“Your mother stole something from me.”
“The ledger?”
“No.”
For the first time, Malcolm seemed genuinely interested.
“The ledger was bookkeeping.”
He placed his champagne glass down.
“Elena stole the only evidence showing who actually built the Mercer empire.”
Ethan narrowed his eyes.
Malcolm continued.
“Your father wasn't the founder.”
Maya frowned.
“He inherited it.”
“No.”
Malcolm looked directly at her.
“Your mother owned it first.”
Silence.
Then Ryan shouted.
“Maya, don't listen to him. He's stalling.”
Malcolm shot him.
The bullet struck Ryan's shoulder.
Maya screamed.
Ethan fired.
Malcolm dropped behind the table.
Security lights died.
The room plunged into darkness.
Gunshots exploded.
Glass shattered.
Maya crawled toward Ryan.
Someone grabbed her ankle.
She kicked hard.
Then emergency lights returned.
Malcolm was gone.
Ethan stood near the doorway.
Ryan lay bleeding.
And on the conference table was a folder Malcolm had deliberately left behind.
Maya opened it.
Inside was an original corporate charter dated 1978.
The first owner of what later became Mercer Freight was not Richard Mercer.
Not Malcolm Mercer.
The signature belonged to a woman.
EVELYN BENNETT.
Maya stared at the name.
“My grandmother.”
Ryan caught her hand.
“Maya.”
She looked at him.
His face was white from blood loss.
“You need to hear what I found before they took me.”
“What?”
Ryan swallowed.
“Malcolm isn't trying to hide the past anymore.”
He looked at Ethan.
“He's preparing to sell Mercer Freight.”
Ethan froze.
“To whom?”
May you like
Ryan's answer made Daniel, standing in the doorway behind them, turn even paler.
“The people who paid him to kill Anna.”
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