Chapter 24 - The Counterweight of Blood
"You think this briefcase holds the keys to the kingdom, Julian?" Luca's voice boomed through the nave, intentionally loud, drawing every mercenary's eyes straight down the center aisle. "You spent two decades rotting in the gutter, waiting for Vito to die, just to chase a ghost."
"A ghost?" Julian sneered, his grip tightening on the revolver. "The Moretti family didn't build this city on narcotics and loan-sharking. You built it on the architectural master grid Arthur Reed created! Every underground conduit, every hidden vault beneath the Federal Reserve, every emergency vault built for the governor—Arthur designed them. And Vito mapped them with the Silver Star cipher! Slide the case, Moretti, or I paint this altar with your father-in-law's brains!"
Luca slowly knelt on one knee, placing the briefcase flat on the marble. With a flick of his wrist, he unlatched the brass locks.
The Mercenaries leaned forward slightly, their discipline wavering for a fraction of a second.
"Clara," Dominic whispered frantically beside me, seeing my hand reach for the rusty iron lever embedded in the altar pillar. "Wait for the command—"
"There's no angle, Dominic," I breathed. "If he pulls the trigger, my father dies."
Out on the altar, Arthur suddenly raised his head. His bruised, swollen eyes fluttered open. Through the bloody hair falling over his face, his gaze didn't land on Luca.
He looked directly through the pierced marble screen.
Directly at me.
Arthur gave a nearly imperceptible shake of his head—a warning. Then, his eyes flicked upward toward the ceiling, and then down toward the base of his chair.
Tied around his chest, hidden beneath his torn shirt, was a bundle of industrial explosives. A dead-man’s switch was taped to Julian’s left hand.
Julian wasn't planning on leaving the cathedral alive with the briefcase. It was a complete ambush. A murder-suicide pact designed to wipe out the Moretti bloodline in a single stroke of holy fire.
"Luca, it's a bomb!" I screamed, breaking cover and stepping out from behind the altar screen.
Julian's head snapped toward me in shock, his gun wavering for a split second. "The girl—"
In that heartbeat, Luca didn't hesitate. He didn't dive for cover. He sprang forward with the speed of an apex predator, throwing the heavy leather briefcase directly into the face of the nearest mercenary, shattering the man's nose in a spray of blood.
Dominic fired. The sharp *crack* of his rifle took out Julian’s right shoulder, spinning the syndicate leader around. The gold revolver clattered to the marble floor.
"Kill them all!" Julian roared through the pain, lunging with his left thumb toward the dead-man's detonator switch.
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I threw my entire body weight onto the rusted counterweight lever.
With a shriek of groaning metal that drowned out the gunfire, the ancient iron chains snapped. The massive, two-ton iron chandelier tore free from the high gothic ceiling, plummeting through the sanctuary like a falling star.
