Chapter 17 - BENEATH THE ISLANDThe tunnel sloped downward toward the ocean.
Water covered the floor.
Victoria kept the gun against Maya’s back.
“Move.”
Maya’s head throbbed where the weapon had struck her.
Behind them, agents attempted to open the steel door.
Victoria led her toward an underground dock.
A speedboat waited inside a narrow sea cave.
Fuel containers had been prepared.
Passports lay on the passenger seat.
Victoria had planned every escape.
She had not planned to need Maya alive.
“Place your hand on the scanner,” Victoria ordered.
A portable Vaughn authorization device rested inside the boat.
Maya recognized Gabriel’s insignia on the screen.
“No.”
Victoria fired into the wall.
Stone exploded beside Maya’s face.
“Place your hand on it.”
“What happens after I do?”
“You become unnecessary.”
“Then you have given me no reason to cooperate.”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.
“You think courage makes you powerful?”
“No.”
Maya looked directly at her.
“Having something worth protecting makes me powerful.”
Victoria struck her again.
Maya fell near the edge of the dock.
The medal slipped from Victoria’s pocket and landed between them.
Victoria reached for it.
Maya kicked the medal into the water.
Victoria screamed.
She dropped the gun and lunged after it.
Maya grabbed the weapon.
Victoria seized Maya’s wrist.
They struggled at the edge of the dock.
The gun slid across the wet stone.
Victoria wrapped both hands around Maya’s throat.
“You were supposed to disappear.”
Maya drove her elbow into Victoria’s ribs.
Victoria lost her footing.
Both women fell into the freezing water.
The current pulled them toward the sea cave.
Maya surfaced first.
Victoria grabbed her hair.
Maya reached for the dock ladder.
Victoria pulled her away.
“You ruined my family.”
“You destroyed your own family.”
A wave slammed them against the stone wall.
Victoria disappeared beneath the surface.
Maya saw her sinking.
For one second, she considered letting go.
Victoria had stolen her name.
Her parents.
Her childhood.
Her marriage.
She had tried to take Noah.
No one would blame Maya for allowing the ocean to finish what Victoria had begun.
Then Maya remembered the children’s home.
She remembered promising that power would not change who she was.
She dove beneath the water.
She caught Victoria’s coat.
With the last of her strength, Maya pulled her toward the dock.
Marcus and Ortiz broke through the tunnel door.
They dragged both women from the water.
Victoria coughed and gasped.
She stared at Maya in disbelief.
“Why did you save me?”
Maya looked down at her.
“Because I will not become you.”
Ortiz placed Victoria in handcuffs.
Marcus recovered the medal from a shallow section of the cave.
It was scratched again.
But it remained intact.
Above them, Leah was alive.
The bullet had passed through her shoulder.
Senator Hale had been arrested while trying to flee with the ledger.
Dr. Keller had agreed to testify.
Gerald Price survived the airport shooting and requested a deal.
Every remaining wall around the Sterling conspiracy had begun collapsing.
Victoria was led through the tunnel.
She looked smaller without the ballroom.
Without the gown.
Without an audience too afraid to speak.
As she passed Maya, she whispered one final threat.
“Ethan will never forgive you for destroying his family.”
Maya watched her go.
Then she answered.
May you like
“I did not destroy his family.”
“I found mine.”
