CHAPTER 7 — The Trap at the Shipyard
Midnight.
The abandoned shipyard stood silent beneath freezing rain.
Rusted cargo cranes towered over the empty docks like skeletons.
Sarah arrived alone.
No weapon.
No body armor.
Only the small memory card hidden inside the sole of her boot.
Exactly as Lorenzo had demanded.
Floodlights suddenly exploded to life.
More than forty armed men stepped out from behind shipping containers.
In the center of them all...
stood Lorenzo Rossi.
Elegant.
Calm.
Smiling.
Beside him...
Sister Agnes knelt with her hands tied behind her back.
Emily's mother was there too.
Bruised.
Terrified.
Lorenzo applauded slowly.
"I underestimated you, Sarah."
"A maid with this much courage deserves respect."
Sarah didn't answer.
"You came alone?"
"I did."
Lorenzo laughed.
"No."
"You came with hope."
"And hope always gets people killed."
He nodded once.
One of his men struck Sister Agnes across the face.
Sarah's fists clenched.
Lorenzo noticed.
"Good."
"Now we're speaking the same language."
He extended his hand.
"The memory card."
Sarah slowly reached into her boot.
Every rifle in the yard pointed at her.
She held up the tiny card.
Lorenzo smiled.
"Excellent."
She tossed it onto the wet concrete.
One of Lorenzo's men picked it up and hurried over.
Lorenzo inserted it into a tablet.
The screen loaded.
Then...
a message appeared.
FILE CORRUPTED.
Lorenzo frowned.
Again.
FILE CORRUPTED.
His smile disappeared.
Sarah finally spoke.
"You always thought Dominic inherited his father's intelligence."
"You never realized..."
"Carmine planned for you."
Before Lorenzo could react...
every floodlight around the shipyard suddenly went dark.
Complete darkness.
Then...
sirens.
Police.
Federal agents.
Helicopters.
Searchlights lit the sky.
Lorenzo spun around.
"What have you done?"
Sarah smiled for the first time.
"I gave you exactly what you wanted."
"A fake."
Far above them...
a drone hovered silently.
Streaming live.
Not to one news station.
To every major news network in America.
May you like
And somewhere across the river...
Dominic had just uploaded the real video.
