Chapter 29 - The Ghost in the Glass
Sebastian frowned, instantly straightening up, his protective instincts snapping back into place. "Deliveries stopped at six p.m."
"Julian might have sent the final legal releases from London," Norah said, slipping off the counter and walking toward the reinforced steel parcel locker embedded in the wall.
"Wait," Sebastian commanded, stepping in front of her. "Let me clear it first."
He punched in his biometric code. The heavy steel door slid open with a pressurized hiss.
Inside was a rectangular wooden crate bound with tarnished brass straps, smelling of aged cedar, ozone, and salt air. It bore no postal stamps, no shipping barcodes, and no customs clearance tags.
On the lid, burnt directly into the wood with a branding iron, was an emblem that made Sebastian’s breath catch in his throat.
It wasn't Vittorio’s crest.
It was a jeweler's hallmark: an anvil crossed with a diamond chisel—the private personal mark of Daniel Vance.
"Sebastian..." Norah’s voice was barely a whisper, her hand flying to her chest. "That's my father's mark. But... he died four years ago. I identified the remains in Marseille."
Sebastian took out a tactical knife, carefully slicing through the sealed brass straps. "Stay behind me."
He pried the lid open.
Inside, cushioned in dry sea moss, was an antique brass sextant, a stack of handwritten journals dating back forty years, and a sealed glass cylinder containing a singular, extraordinary object.
It was a fractured prism of uncut blue-black diamond—the sister stone to the massive sapphire Norah had broken months ago in Sebastian's office.
Norah stepped forward, her hands trembling uncontrollably as she lifted the glass cylinder. Beneath the stone lay a handwritten note.
The handwriting was fresh. The ink was still faintly glossy.
*My brave girl,* the note read.
*If you are reading this, you and young Romano have successfully purged the syndicate of Kane and his hyenas, just as Vittorio and I planned before we staged our deaths.*
*You thought you were breaking a necklace to prove your innocence. But you were unlocking the first stage of a map.*
*The Romano and Vance empires were never meant to be legitimized, Norah. They were built to hide something far more dangerous beneath the ice of Svalbard. Vittorio didn't die in Chicago, and I didn't burn in France.*
*We are waiting for you at the northern coordinates.*
*Come alone, or Sebastian Romano dies before your wedding day.*
Norah’s breath hitched in her throat as she stared at the note, her entire world tilting on its axis.
May you like
Before she could speak, the gallery's lights flickered once, twice, and plunged into total, suffocating darkness.
From the silent street outside, the red laser dot of a high-powered sniper rifle slid silently through the reinforced glass window, hovering directly over Sebastian’s chest.
