Chapter 6 - Reckoning at the Port
The storm rolling over the New York harbor brought torrential rain and whipping winds that masked the sound of breaking waves against the shipping containers.
Nathan stood on the roof of a stack of steel cargo containers, rain soaking through his tactical coat, his eyes locked on the lighted office window of Pier 42. Below him, Vince and ten of their most trusted men moved like ghosts through the maze of crates, cutting off every escape route.
Inside the office, Marcus Vance was furiously packing stacks of bearer bonds and foreign currency into a heavy leather duffel bag. A glass of scotch sat half-empty on the desk beside a satellite phone.
The heavy steel door of the office burst inward with a deafening crash.
Marcus spun around, pulling a gold-plated revolver from his waistband, but a single shot rang out, shattering his wrist and sending the gun clattering across the floor. Marcus screamed, clutching his bleeding arm and stumbling back against the wall.
Nathan stepped through the doorway, water dripping from his hair, his suppressed weapon raised with dead-eyed precision. Vince stepped in behind him, closing the door and shutting out the sound of the howling storm.
"Nathan!" Marcus gasped, his face pale with terror. "Nathan, wait! Listen to me! It wasn't my idea! The European Syndicate... they pushed me! They threatened my family!"
"You stood in my home, Marcus," Nathan said, his voice flat, devoid of anger, which made it infinitely more terrifying. "You held my sons on your shoulders. You looked me in the eye while those little boys were slowly dying in their beds."
"I gave the doctor orders to keep them alive!" Marcus lied desperately, tears mixing with the sweat on his face. "I just needed you distracted! I needed you to give up the shipping control so we could move the shipments without your endless morality checks! You were changing, Nathan! Ever since Sarah died, you were turning soft! You were going to ruin everything we built!"
"Sarah saw what this life did to people," Nathan said softly, stepping closer until the barrel of his weapon was inches from Marcus’s forehead. "She wanted our children to grow up clean. I was too weak to finish what she started. But thanks to you, Marcus... I finally understand."
"Nathan, please! We're brothers!" Marcus wept, sinking to his knees on the wet floorboards.
"My brothers don't poison six-year-old boys," Nathan said.
A single shot echoed inside the office, swallowed immediately by the crash of thunder over the harbor.
Nathan didn't look down at the fallen man. He turned to Vince. "Call the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Give them the encrypted hard drives from Marcus’s safe. Give them full access to every illicit ledger, every illegal dock contract, and every name in the Syndicate network."
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Vince looked at his boss in absolute shock. "Boss... if we hand over those ledgers, it destroys the entire underground network. You'll be burning the empire to the ground."
"Good," Nathan said, taking off his wet gloves and tossing them onto the desk. "Let it burn. I have a family to go home to."
