Chapter 20 - THE DOORS LOCK AGAIN
Ivy woke to the sound of water.
Not rain.
Pipes.
Her wrists were bound in front of her.
Her head hurt.
The air smelled of stone, rust, and old wine.
She opened her eyes.
A single bulb hung above a narrow cellar corridor.
Alistair Blackwood sat on a wooden crate across from her.
"Good."
Ivy blinked until the room stopped moving.
"Federal custody looks different than I imagined."
Alistair smiled tiredly.
"I wasn't in custody long."
"Who helped you?"
"A man whose name you haven't learned yet."
Ivy's stomach tightened.
Alistair noticed.
"Relax."
"Everyone who says that eventually threatens one of my brothers."
"Not this time."
"Then what do you want?"
"The location of the copied ledger files."
Ivy laughed.
"You really think Celia told me?"
"I think you know enough."
"Wrong."
Alistair studied her.
"You are much harder than Celeste wanted you to become."
Ivy's eyes sharpened.
"You don't get to talk about what my mother wanted."
"I knew her before you did."
"I was her daughter."
"You were a child."
"And you were the man who gave killers her route."
Alistair flinched.
There.
Guilt still lived somewhere inside him.
Ivy leaned forward.
"Why did Augustus free you?"
Alistair's expression hardened.
"He didn't."
"Then who?"
"Gideon's old fixer."
"Name."
Alistair smiled.
"You think names are magic."
"My mother did."
That wiped the smile away.
"Silas Kane," he said.
Ivy stored it immediately.
"Who is Silas Kane?"
"The man Gideon used when he wanted an order completed without family fingerprints."
"He killed Celeste?"
Alistair looked away.
"He was on the road that day."
Ivy's heart began to pound.
"And Eleanor?"
"Different team."
"Hale's team."
"Yes."
"Where is Silas now?"
"In the house."
Ivy felt cold.
"Why?"
Alistair leaned forward.
"Because Augustus is no longer the most dangerous person in the room."
Above them, a muffled boom shook dust from the ceiling.
Ivy looked up.
"What was that?"
"A warning charge."
"Fire?"
"Not yet."
"You said Augustus planned fire."
"He did."
Alistair's voice became bitter.
"Silas changed the plan."
"Why?"
"Because Halcyon is worth more alive than buried."
Ivy stared.
"He wants the accounts."
"He wants the surviving network."
That was worse.
The trial records were not only evidence of past crimes.
They were a map to blackmail, medical fraud, and officials still compromised by payments.
Silas could rebuild the entire machine.
Ivy pulled against the restraints.
"Then why are you helping him?"
Alistair laughed without humor.
"I'm not."
"You kidnapped me."
"I removed you from the ballroom before he did."
Ivy stared at him.
"You expect gratitude?"
"No."
Alistair looked toward the corridor.
"I expect survival."
Footsteps approached.
Alistair stood.
A tall man entered.
He appeared to be in his late fifties.
Gray at the temples.
Plain dark suit.
No visible weapon.
His face was unremarkable in the deliberate way of men who had spent careers avoiding memory.
"Miss Lancaster," he said.
Ivy knew immediately.
"Silas Kane."
He smiled.
"Names before numbers."
The phrase hit her like a fist.
"How do you know that?"
"Your mother said it constantly."
Ivy's anger sharpened.
"You knew her."
"I respected her."
"You killed her."
Silas considered the accusation.
"I was assigned to recover a ledger."
"Her car was forced off the road."
"Gideon escalated the instruction after I deployed."
"And you obeyed."
Silas's expression did not change.
"Yes."
No excuse.
No remorse.
That honesty made him more frightening than Alistair.
Ivy's voice lowered.
"Why keep Halcyon alive?"
"Because information does not become evil simply because bad men used it."
"You mean profitable."
"Often the same thing to people who understand markets."
Ivy looked at Alistair.
"And you brought him back into this?"
Alistair's jaw tightened.
Silas answered.
"Alistair wanted protection from Augustus."
"I wanted evidence moved," Alistair said.
"You wanted leverage," Silas corrected.
"Do not pretend you are morally superior."
Silas almost smiled.
"I would never insult either of us that way."
Ivy listened carefully.
These men trusted nobody.
That was a weakness.
"Augustus knows you're here?"
Silas looked at her.
"Not exactly."
"Vivienne?"
"She thinks the blackout was her father's contingency."
Ivy understood.
The Hales and Alistair had built overlapping betrayals.
Silas had entered through the cracks.
"Ronan will find me."
Silas's expression changed slightly.
"Ronan is busy."
"Doing what?"
"Choosing between you and two hundred guests."
Ivy went cold.
"What did you do?"
Silas looked at his watch.
"The ballroom doors are locked."
"Open them."
"There are controlled ignition devices in three service corridors."
"You said not yet."
"Correct."
"What do you want?"
"The federal evidence locations."
"I don't know them."
"Then Ronan will have to trade something else."
Ivy's heart pounded.
"What?"
Silas smiled faintly.
"The master Halcyon encryption key."
"He doesn't have it."
"Not consciously."
Ivy stared.
Silas looked toward Alistair.
"Gideon hid it inside the Blackwood succession protocol."
Alistair's face changed.
"That's impossible."
"You witnessed the document."
"I read it."
"You read the legal terms."
Silas smiled.
"You did not read the embedded account seed."
Ivy remembered Ronan's twenty-first birthday agreement.
The document Celeste had warned him never to sign.
Gideon had not merely used Ronan's signature to ratify the past.
He had hidden the key to Halcyon's future inside Ronan's inheritance.
Above them, another boom echoed through the house.
This time, smoke drifted faintly through an air vent.
Silas checked his watch.
"Ronan has twenty minutes."
Ivy looked at Alistair.
He looked afraid now.
"You didn't know about the ignition devices."
Alistair said nothing.
"Did you?"
"No."
Ivy leaned closer.
"Then if Silas gets what he wants, what happens to you?"
Silas looked amused.
Alistair did not.
Ivy saw the calculation begin.
She pushed harder.
"Augustus wants you in prison."
"I know."
"Silas wants you unnecessary."
Alistair's jaw tightened.
"And Ronan?" Ivy asked.
"Ronan wants me accountable."
"Exactly."
Ivy smiled grimly.
"Accountable is the only option in that list where you are still alive."
Silas's smile disappeared.
Alistair looked at Ivy.
Then at Silas.
Then at the pistol beneath Silas's jacket.
The cellar lights went out.
Alistair moved.
A gunshot cracked through the darkness.
Ivy dropped to the floor.
Someone shouted.
A door slammed.
When emergency light flickered on, Silas was gone.
Alistair lay against the wall clutching his arm.
The restraints around Ivy's wrists had been cut.
A small knife rested beside her.
Alistair looked at her through clenched teeth.
"Go."
"Why?"
"Because your mother was right about one thing."
"What?"
"Names before numbers."
May you like
He nodded toward the corridor.
"Go save the people."
