On the third, they encountered Commissioner Dane.
He stood beside two armed men.
“Mara Bell,” Dane shouted over the bell. “Your mother should have destroyed the evidence.”
“She should have destroyed you.”
Dane raised his weapon.
Lucian fired first.
The bullet struck Dane’s shoulder.
Mara pulled a fire lever.
A steel storm door dropped between them, separating Dane from his men.
Lucian looked at her.
“You know this building remarkably well.”
“My mother loved emergency systems.”
They continued upward.
The bell slowed as its weight neared the bottom.
On the fourth level, Adrian waited.
Blood soaked his trouser leg.
His gun pointed at Lucian.
“Move away from her,” Adrian said.
Lucian stopped.
“You had several opportunities to kill me.”
“I still have one.”
“But you did not warn Celestine about the tunnel.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Mara understood.
“You came back to help.”
“I came back because the marine patrol is surrounded by Circle boats. They will not reach the island in time.”
Lucian lowered his weapon slightly.
“Then stand aside.”
Adrian looked toward the stairs.
“Celestine has six men in the lantern room. She also has a detonator connected to charges beneath the foundation.”
“She intends to collapse the tower,” Mara said.
“She intends to destroy everyone and call it storm damage.”
Adrian removed a small remote from his pocket.
“I took the secondary trigger.”
“Secondary?” Lucian asked.
“The main trigger is with her.”
Mara looked at Adrian.
“Why are you telling us?”
He laughed bitterly.
“Because fifteen years ago, Lucian found me fighting for scraps outside a gambling room. He gave me work. Then responsibility. Then a life.”
“You sold that life.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian’s eyes moved to Lucian.
“Because he became obsessed with redemption. I thought destroying the Circle would destroy all of us.”
“It still may,” Lucian said.
“I know.”
Adrian lowered his gun.
“But I would rather fall beside the man who saved me than survive as Celestine’s dog.”
Lucian studied him.
“After tonight, you answer for what you did.”
“I expect nothing else.”
Adrian gave Mara the remote.
“The trigger activates a jammer in the lantern room. Press it once, and Celestine’s detonator loses connection for ninety seconds.”
“Then what?”
“Then the jammer burns out.”
“Ninety seconds,” Mara repeated.
Lucian checked his weapon.
“Enough.”
“No,” Mara said. “Not for a gunfight.”
She looked at the brass cylinder hidden beneath her skirt.
“But perhaps enough for a confession.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Celestine Vale stood beneath the dark lighthouse lens with a pistol in one hand and the main detonator in the other.
Judge Shaw was beside her.
So were four armed guards.
An old maritime transmitter sat on a table beneath the windows.
When Mara entered, every weapon turned toward her.
She raised her empty hands.
Lucian and Adrian remained hidden on the stairway below.
Celestine smiled.
“Where is Lucian?”
“Bleeding somewhere beneath us.”
“And the cylinder?”
Mara removed it from beneath her skirt.
Greed transformed Celestine’s expression.
“Bring it to me.”
“You spent twenty-seven years searching for this.”
“Twenty-seven years correcting Silas Rook’s final mistake.”
“My mother outlived your search.”
“She outlived her courage.”
Mara approached the table.
“You watched her die.”
“I ensured she remained frightened enough to stay silent.”
“You paid the collection agency to pressure me.”
“I needed to see whether financial desperation would make you search through her belongings.”
“Instead Lucian paid them.”
Celestine’s smile thinned.
“Lucian has always confused possession with protection.”
Mara placed the cylinder on the table.
“What did Silas discover?”
Celestine looked toward the windows.
“Greyhaven was dying. The shipyards were closing. The unions were striking. Foreign companies were taking the routes. We created order.”
“By trafficking weapons?”
“By controlling commerce.”
“By buying judges?”
“By preventing chaos.”
“By killing people?”
Celestine’s eyes hardened.
“Cities are not built by innocent hands.”
Mara glanced at the transmitter.
A cable ran from it to a recording unit.
“Did you order Silas killed?”
Judge Shaw stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Celestine raised one finger.
He stopped.
She enjoyed being obeyed.
“Yes,” Celestine said. “I ordered the beacon extinguished. Marcus Dane altered the maintenance report. Alden delayed the investigation. Silas’s vessel struck the reef exactly where we expected.”
“And the explosion?”
“Adrian placed the fuel charge.”
Mara kept her expression still.
Behind the stairwell door, Adrian heard every word.
“You turned him against Lucian years ago.”
“I taught him that loyalty should be profitable.”
“What about my mother?”