Chapter 5 - The Betrayal Behind the Translation
Twenty-seven minutes.
That number became the only thing that mattered.
Not Victor.
Not money.
Not revenge.
Fourteen people.
Alessio was already moving.
“Call the warehouse.”
Marco did.
No answer.
“Again.”
Nothing.
Nari ran toward the SUV.
“Why isn't anyone answering?”
“Victor controls the security system,” Marco said.
“Maybe he cut communication.”
Alessio got behind the wheel himself.
Marco swore.
“You're not driving.”
“Get in.”
Nari climbed into the back.
The SUV tore out of Teterboro.
Twenty-four minutes.
“Police?” Nari asked.
Marco called.
Bomb squad was being dispatched.
Too far.
Traffic.
Night construction.
Twenty-one minutes.
Alessio drove like Manhattan traffic laws were theoretical.
Nari gripped the seat.
“You're going to kill us before the bomb does.”
“Helpful.”
“I'm serious.”
“So am I.”
Marco called warehouse security repeatedly.
Finally someone answered.
A sleepy voice.
“Yeah?”
Marco shouted.
“EVACUATE THE BUILDING.”
“What?”
“Bomb threat. Get everyone out now.”
The line cut.
Nari stared at the phone.
“Did he hear?”
“Yes.”
“Did he understand?”
“I don't know.”
Eighteen minutes.
They crossed into New Jersey.
Rain intensified.
The warehouse appeared ahead.
Long.
Low.
Industrial lights glowing behind metal siding.
No workers outside.
“Why aren't they evacuating?” Nari asked.
Alessio accelerated.
They reached the gate.
Locked.
Marco jumped out.
“Security override doesn't work.”
Nari looked at the keypad.
A message flashed.
SYSTEM LOCKDOWN.
Fifteen minutes.
Alessio backed the SUV up.
“What are you doing?”
“Opening the gate.”
He accelerated.
“Alessio!”
The SUV slammed through the barrier.
Metal exploded sideways.
Airbags nearly deployed.
Nari's teeth snapped together.
“Next time,” she gasped, “we use the pedestrian entrance.”
“There won't be a next time.”
“There better not be.”
Workers finally emerged from a side door.
Seven.
Marco counted.
“Where's everyone else?”
“Loading bay!” one man shouted.
“The doors locked automatically!”
Thirteen minutes.
Alessio ran toward the building.
Nari followed.
“Stay outside!”
“No.”
“Why is that always your answer?”
“Because you keep saying stupid things!”
They entered.
Alarms flashed silently.
No sound.
Victor had disabled them.
In the loading section, a steel security door separated them from trapped workers.
Voices pounded from the other side.
Marco tried the control panel.
“Locked.”
Nari noticed instructions printed beside the panel.
German.
Of course.
Imported equipment.
She read rapidly.
“There’s an emergency mechanical release.”
“Where?”
“Maintenance housing.”
Marco opened a panel.
Wires.
Levers.
Labels.
German abbreviations.
Nari pointed.
“Not that one. That shuts the hydraulic system.”
“This?”
“Yes.”
Marco pulled.
Nothing.
“You said yes.”
“I said that's the release. I didn't say it worked.”
Nine minutes.
Alessio kicked the panel.
Nari read further.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“Secondary override requires manual pressure reset.”
“In English.”
“Turn that wheel left, then pull.”
Marco found a red wheel.
It resisted.
Alessio joined him.
Together they turned it.
The steel door groaned.
Opened six inches.
Hands appeared from the other side.
“Push!”
Workers shoved.
The door rose.
Seven trapped employees crawled beneath.
Fourteen accounted for.
“Everybody out!”
Six minutes.
Nari started running.
Then she heard something.
A voice.
Faint.
“Help!”
She stopped.
Alessio grabbed her arm.
“What?”
“Someone's still inside.”
“We counted fourteen.”
“Then there are fifteen.”
The voice came again.
A woman.
From an office near the loading dock.
Alessio cursed.
“Go outside.”
He ran toward the office.
Nari followed again.
He turned.
“Nari!”
“She might speak Spanish!”
He stared at her.
“That is your excuse?”
“It was the first one I had!”
They reached the office.
A woman was trapped beneath a fallen storage rack.
Her ankle pinned.
Four minutes.
Alessio lifted the metal.
Nari dragged the woman free.
Three minutes.
They ran.
The woman cried out.
Her ankle gave way.
Alessio lifted her into his arms.
Two minutes.
The exit seemed impossibly far.
Marco shouted from outside.
“HURRY!”
One minute.
They crossed the threshold.
Thirty seconds.
Everyone ran behind concrete barriers.
Nari dropped beside a truck.
Alessio shielded the injured worker.
Ten seconds.
Nothing.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
The explosion lifted the night.
Glass burst outward.
Fire rolled through the warehouse roof.
The ground shook.
Nari covered her head.
Heat struck her face.
Then silence.
Not true silence.
Ringing.
Shouting.
Sirens.
But inside Nari's mind, silence.
She lifted her head.
Workers were alive.
All fifteen.
Alessio stood slowly.
Blood ran from a small cut near his temple.
Nari's hands shook.
“You're bleeding.”
“So are you.”
She looked down.
Glass had sliced her forearm.
Nothing serious.
She laughed.
She didn't know why.
Maybe because fear needed somewhere to go.
Alessio looked at her.
Then he laughed too.
Not elegantly.
Not like a mafia boss.
Like a man who had nearly died and couldn't believe he hadn't.
Nari sat against the concrete barrier.
Police arrived.
Firefighters surrounded the building.
For the next three hours, statements were given.
Bomb technicians confirmed Victor had planted multiple charges.
Evidence linked him to financial fraud, conspiracy, attempted murder, and organized criminal activity.
The Bellandi representatives began cooperating almost immediately.
Navarro disappeared before authorities arrived.
Predictably.
By sunrise, the warehouse was a smoking skeleton.
Nari stood looking at it.
Alessio joined her.
“You saved them.”
“We saved them.”
“You heard the woman.”
“You carried her.”
He looked at the burning roof.
“I've owned that place nine years.”
“Insurance?”
“Yes.”
“Then stop looking sentimental.”
He glanced at her.
“I'm allowed to have feelings.”
“I haven't seen enough evidence.”
He smiled faintly.
Then his expression became serious.
“Victor used people like numbers.”
Nari said nothing.
“I did too.”
She turned.
He continued.
“Maybe differently.”
“Different enough?”
“I don't know.”
That answer surprised her.
Powerful men usually had answers for everything.
Even when they were wrong.
Nari looked at the firefighters.
“You can change.”
Alessio laughed softly.
“You think people like me change?”
“I speak eight languages.”
“So?”
“People sound different in every language.”
She looked at him.
“They're still people.”
He absorbed that.
Later that morning, Nari returned to her apartment.
Her landlord waited in the hallway.
She expected another eviction warning.
Instead he handed her an envelope.
“Someone paid six months.”
Nari stared.
“Who?”
“He wouldn't say.”
She knew.
She called Alessio immediately.
“Undo it.”
“Good morning.”
“You paid my rent.”
“Technically accounting did.”
“Undo it.”
“Why?”
“Because you can't buy me.”
Silence.
Then:
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because your apartment address was exposed because of me.”
“That doesn't mean—”
“I consider it damages.”
Nari rubbed her forehead.
“You are impossible.”
“So I've been told.”
She almost smiled.
“Six months only.”
“Agreed.”
“No more.”
“Fine.”
“And I'm paying you back.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Nari.”
“Alessio.”
Silence.
Then he laughed.
“Fine.”
She ended the call.
For the first time in years, she slept ten uninterrupted hours.
When she woke, twelve missed calls waited.
Not from Alessio.
News organizations.
Somehow the story had leaked.
CLEANING WOMAN SAVES MAFIA-LINKED CORPORATION FROM INTERNATIONAL WAR.
POLYGLOT JANITOR EXPOSES EXECUTIVE BETRAYAL.
EIGHT-LANGUAGE HERO HELPS EVACUATE BOMB-TARGETED WAREHOUSE.
Nari stared at the headlines.
Her quiet life was gone.
Then she saw one final message.
Unknown number.
Her heart stopped.
She opened it.
Not a threat.
French.
One sentence.
NAVARRO WANTS TO TALK.
Nari closed her eyes.
Of course he did.
And below it:
May you like
ALONE.
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