by being exhausted.
Daniel transmitted a close view of the relay case.
I recognized the scratched cuff link on the sleeve of the man guarding it.
“That’s him,” I said.
“The fake waiter.”
Mara studied the image.
“Viktor Hale.
Matteo’s operations chief.”
Luca turned to Sarah.
“Does Matteo believe Elena knows anything useful?”
“No.
He thinks she is terrified and drunk.”
Luca looked at me.
“Can you still act terrified and drunk?”
I almost laughed.
“I won’t need to act much.”
His plan was simple enough to sound reckless.
I would enter the elevator holding the ledger while Luca appeared to surrender.
Matteo would direct me toward the security center.
Meanwhile, Daniel would use the relay case to restore one section of the hotel network.
Mara’s people would retake the service passages and rescue Owen.
The ledger would never reach Matteo.
Mara objected immediately.
“So do I,” Sarah said.
I looked at her.
“You lost your vote when you planted a murder map on me.”
Luca did not order me to participate.
He did not tell me that I owed him for saving me from the sniper.
He asked, “Are you certain?”
“No,” I said.
“But Matteo already decided I was disposable.
I would like to correct him.”
Luca gave me his jacket to cover my torn uniform, then placed a tiny earpiece in my palm.
“If you say the word jasmine, we pull you out regardless of the cost.”
“Why jasmine?”
His gaze held mine for a moment.
“It is what your hair smelled like when I entered the room.”
Heat reached my face despite everything.
He stepped back before the moment could become something else.
The elevator doors opened.
I entered alone with the ledger pressed against my chest.
Matteo’s voice came through the speaker.
“Lobby level.”
I pressed the button.
The elevator descended.
At the twenty-second floor, the lights failed.
I heard metal scrape above the ceiling panel.
Someone was climbing onto the car.
“Luca,” I whispered.
No answer came through the earpiece.
The relay had blocked the signal.
The ceiling panel shifted.
I remembered the emergency latch Sarah had once shown me during staff training.
I pulled it, stopping the elevator between floors.
The sudden halt threw whoever was above me against the shaft wall.
A gun fell through the opening and struck the carpet.
I kicked it into the corner.
The panel lifted, and Viktor Hale reached down.
Before he could grab me, the elevator doors were forced apart from outside.
Mara appeared in the gap with Daniel beside her.
Viktor tried to climb back into the shaft.
Daniel caught his ankle and dragged him down.
The fight ended quickly, with Viktor facedown on the floor and Mara’s knee between his shoulders.
“Service system restored,” Daniel said.
“We have the cameras and half the doors.”
“What about Owen?” I asked.
“Luca’s team is moving now.”
Matteo did not realize he had lost control until every television in the hotel changed at once.
Instead of the forged ledger, the screens showed the ballroom footage of him paying Sarah.
Then came recordings of his men placing the relay case, the sniper entering the east tower, and Viktor loading weapons through the catering dock.
Luca had sent copies beyond the hotel network to his attorney and a federal
