Chapter 10 - The Sins of the Past Revealed
The private elevator of the Vale Tower hummed softly as it descended toward the sub-basement processing vault where Viktor Vance, Sterling's chief enforcer, was securely detained.
Dante stood beside me, holding an encrypted digital recorder.
The heavy steel door of the interrogation vault hissed open with a release of pneumatic pressure. Inside, strapped securely to a steel chair beneath a single, harsh overhead light, was Viktor Vance. His face was badly bruised from our encounter at the hospital, his jaw wired with temporary medical splints.
He looked up as my boots clicked against the polished concrete. Despite his broken body, a sneer twisted his scarred lips.
"Vale," Vance rasped, his voice raw. "You think you won because you locked down some bank accounts? Sterling has forty men breaching your lower levels right now. You’re going to die in this tower."
I walked slowly around the chair, my hands clasped behind my back, my presence radiating an aura of absolute, crushing dominance.
"Your forty mercenaries were intercepted by Homeland Security and federal tactical units two blocks from this building," I said with cold indifference. "Novak fed their GPS coordinates and weapons manifests directly to the FBI ten minutes ago. Every single vehicle was boxed in at the river crossing. Marcus Sterling is currently sitting alone in his penthouse at the Sapphire Tower, watching his entire empire burn on national news."
The sneer vanished from Vance’s face. The reality of their total, systematic defeat began to set in.
"Now," I continued, stopping directly in front of him, "we are going to talk about December 24th, 2021."
Vance’s eyes flickered with a sudden flash of genuine fear. He swallowed hard, looking away.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Vance muttered.
Dante stepped forward, slamming a thick dossier onto the metal table beside him. The file spilled open, revealing the surveillance photographs of my late wife and daughter, along with the decoded bank payouts bearing Vance’s personal alias.
"You drove the heavy dump truck that struck my family's vehicle on Lakeshore Drive," I said, my voice dropping so low it seemed to vibrate the concrete beneath our feet. "Sterling ordered the hit, but you pulled the wheel. You took two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to murder a five-year-old girl."
Vance began to tremble, the cold sweat breaking across his forehead. "It was business, Vale! It was just business! Sterling told me you were going to seize the South Port terminals! He said if we took your family, you would break! He said you would leave the city!"
"And what did you do with the money, Vance?" I asked, leaning in until my face was inches from his. "Did you buy a nice house? Did you drink fine liquor while my daughter lay in a cold grave?"
"Please..." Vance gasped, the terrifying realization of who he was facing completely breaking his hardened demeanor. "Please, Vale... I was just following orders! Sterling planned the whole thing! He picked the date! He wanted it done on Christmas Eve so it would hurt forever!"
I straightened my posture, looking down at the broken killer with a cold, detached finality.
"Thank you for confirming the confession on record, Vance," I said.
I nodded to Dante, who turned off the digital recorder.
"What... what are you going to do to me?" Vance stammered, his eyes wide with terror.
"I am not going to kill you, Vance," I said calmly, turning my back on him and walking toward the heavy vault door. "Death is far too quick of a mercy for what you did. You are going to spend the rest of your natural life in ADX Florence—the federal supermax facility in Colorado—in a concrete box twenty-three hours a day, knowing that every breath you take is a gift of my patience."
May you like
I looked back over my shoulder one last time.
"And as for your master, Marcus Sterling... I am going to deliver his sentence personally."
