Chapter 3 - Ghosts in the Wire
By three in the morning, the mansion was completely secure. Lily was fast asleep on the large velvet sofa under two down comforters, her hand resting on Bear’s head. The dog had finished two bowls of warm meat and broth and was now sleeping soundly, his breathing steady and warm beside the hearth.
Down in the subterranean command center beneath the estate, my technical team was hard at work. Three high-powered monitors illuminated the dark concrete room, displaying digital maps of the city’s underground infrastructure.
I stood behind my lead analyst, a young tactical hacker named Chen.
“I entered the coordinates from the locket,” Chen said, tapping his keyboard frantically. “The encryption key bypassed three firewalls. Julian... this isn’t just a personal message. Dominic was tracking the Red Hand Cartel for the last six years.”
A map popped up on the center screen, displaying a network of hidden safehouses, illegal docks, and human trafficking routes spanning three states.
“Look here,” Chen pointed to a blinking red node near the old ironworks factory on the north edge of the river. “This signal updated six hours ago. It’s an automated distress beacon tied to Dominic’s biometric heart monitor.”
“He’s alive,” Marcus muttered, standing beside me. “The bastard actually survived the explosion six years ago.”
“Why didn’t he come back to me?” I murmured, my fists tightening at my sides. “Why did he hide for six years?”
Chen pulled up a second file hidden deep within the encrypted server. It was a recorded video log dated three years ago.
I leaned closer to the monitor. “Play it.”
The screen flickered to life. A man sat in a dimly lit room, his face heavily scarred on the left side, his hair streaked with silver. It was Dominic. He looked older, tired, but his eyes still held the fierce, unbreakable loyalty of the man I used to call my brother.
“Julian,” Dominic’s recorded voice spoke through the room’s speakers, low and gravelly. “If you’re watching this, it means I’m either dead or captured, and Lily found you. I know what you think of me. You think I betrayed you at the docks six years ago. You think I set up the ambush that killed your men.”
Dominic took a heavy breath in the video, clutching a wounded shoulder.
“It wasn’t me, brother. It was a setup from inside your own counsel. The Red Hand paid off someone in your inner circle—someone who wanted to sell our shipping lanes to Cassian Vance. When I found out, they blew up the warehouse to quiet me. I barely dragged myself out of the rubble.”
The room went dead silent. My security detail stood rigid, watching the screen.
“I couldn’t come back, Julian,” Dominic continued, his eyes staring directly into the camera lens. “They threatened Elena. They told me if I ever made contact with you again, they would kill her and the baby. I took Elena into hiding. But her health was already failing... she passed away four years ago. I spent every day since then protecting our little girl and collecting proof against the mole in your house.”
Dominic leaned into the camera, his expression darkening.
“The man who betrayed us... the man who sold our family to Cassian Vance... is sitting right beside you, Julian. It’s—”
The video suddenly cut out, replaced by a harsh static hum.
“The file is corrupted!” Chen grunted, typing wildly to restore the feed. “Someone placed a kill-switch on the final three seconds of the video!”
I slowly turned away from the screen, my blood running colder than the storm outside.
Six years ago, only three people had access to the dock schedules: Dominic, myself, and my senior lieutenant, Silas—the man who had handled my financial networks for fifteen years and was currently asleep in his penthouse in the high-rise district.
“Marcus,” I said softly, my voice devoid of any emotion.
May you like
“Yes, Boss?”
“Assemble the strike team,” I ordered. “We’re paying Silas a visit.”
