Chapter 8 - The Grand Hall of Justice
We scrambled out of the smoking car. I grabbed Lily while Clara took the two keys from my coat pocket.
The bank doors were still locked to the public, but two security guards inside saw our bloodied figures and rushed to open the heavy doors, their hands hovering over their holsters.
“Call the Federal Marshals!” I barked at the head guard, displaying my family signet ring—a symbol every major bank in Boston recognized. “Code Red on the Moretti main account! Lock down the building!”
The guard’s eyes widened. He immediately hit the emergency button on his belt. Heavy steel shutters began rolling down over the floor-to-ceiling glass windows just as the second SUV came to a halt outside.
Vincent stepped out of the vehicle, holding a heavy automatic pistol, his face contorted in rage as he saw the steel shutters descending.
“Dominic!” his voice boomed through the closing gap. “You can’t hide in there forever!”
“I don’t need forever,” I muttered under my breath. “I just need three minutes.”
We sprinted down the marble staircase into the subterranean vault area. The bank manager, a gray-haired man named Mr. Abernathy who had handled my father’s accounts for thirty years, ran toward us, his face pale with alarm.
“Mr. Moretti! What is the meaning of this? The vault is closed until—”
“Abernathy, open Box 404,” I gasped, clutching my bleeding ribs. “Now! Under the emergency override protocol!”
Abernathy took one look at the blood running down my face, the ash covering Clara, and the terrified child in her arms. He recognized the cold reality of the situation immediately.
He pulled his master key card and led us into the deep vault, stopping before a massive steel box built into the center wall, marked with the double-headed falcon crest.
7:58 AM.
“Insert the keys,” I said, turning to Clara.
Her hands were shaking. She held Julian’s silver key, looking at the keyhole that her husband had fought and died to protect.
“Together,” she whispered, looking at me.
May you like
I placed my hand over hers, holding the golden signet key in my other hand.
Side by side, we inserted both keys into the twin locks of Box 404 and turned them simultaneously.
