Chapter 9 - THE JUDAS COIN
The world stopped. The sound of rain, the scream of sirens in the distance, Sophie’s cries—everything vanished beneath the image of Vincent falling to the asphalt.
"Elena, down the stairs! Now!" Leo barked, shoving me violently toward the tiled descent of the subway entrance as bullets chipped the concrete railing beside us.
"We can't leave him!" I sobbed, struggling against his grip, watching the smoke swirl around Vincent’s motionless body.
"He bought this chance with his blood!" Leo growled, his voice breaking. "If you go back out there, Julian’s daughter dies! Move!"
Leo dragged us down into the tiled labyrinth of the station, leaping the turnstiles just as a downtown express train roared into the terminal, headlights cutting through the subterranean gloom. Leo held the pneumatic doors open, shoving me and Sophie into the crowded subway car before stepping back onto the platform.
"Leo, get in!" I screamed, lunging for the rubber door trim.
"Someone has to hold the turnstiles," Leo said, offering a faint, fatalistic salute as the train doors slid shut between us. "Agent Miller is waiting at the Roosevelt Island tram. Give him the cipher."
The train surged forward into the dark tunnel, tearing us away from the slaughter on Lexington Avenue.
Sophie was shaking uncontrollably, her tiny hands clutching Julian’s brass key so hard that the edges bit into her skin. I held her against my chest on the floor of the train car, passengers shrinking away in terror from my blood-spattered sweater and dust-covered hair.
Thirty minutes later, we emerged into the gray, freezing drizzle of Roosevelt Island.
The tram platform was deserted except for a lone figure in a navy wool trench coat standing beneath an umbrella near the cable car terminal: Special Agent Miller, Julian’s contact.
"Elena," Miller said, his breath fogging in the cold air as he stepped forward, flashing his gold federal badge. "Julian told me about you. Did you bring the ledger?"
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I pulled the yellow construction paper from my pocket, unfolding the drawing Sophie had made for the man who made me smile. "Vincent is dead," I whispered, the words tasting like poison. "Marcus Vance shot him on Lexington."
"Not quite, Mrs. Marlo," a chilling voice purred from the shadows behind the tram machinery.
Marcus Vance stepped out from the utility alcove, wearing a clean overcoat, his arm wrapped in a tight white bandage. Behind him stood four armed men, their weapons trained on Agent Miller and me.
Miller didn't flinch. Instead, he calmly lowered his badge, stepped to the side, and nodded toward Marcus.
"Thank you, Agent Miller," Marcus said with a cold, triumphant smile, tossing a heavy leather envelope at the federal agent's feet. "Your final offshore retainer. The Department of Justice will close the Julian Marlo inquiry by noon."
My soul collapsed into an abyss of pure horror. The betrayal ran all the way through the government. Julian had trusted Miller. Vincent had sent me to Miller. And the entire time, Miller was on Marcus’s payroll.
"Give me the paper, Elena," Marcus demanded, stepping forward, his pistol aimed straight between my eyes. "And then this whole sad family can finally be reunited."
Sophie stepped out from behind my legs. With tears streaming down her pink cheeks, she held out Julian's small brass key. "Don't hurt Mommy," she pleaded in a tiny, breaking voice. "You can have Daddy's song."
Marcus sneered, reaching down to snatch the key from the child's hand. "Your father was an idiot, little girl."
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A deafening crack echoed across the East River.
Marcus’s shoulder exploded in a mist of red as a high-caliber sniper round tore through him from across the tram lines. He collapsed against the metal railing, screaming in agony.
