Chapter 17 - The Architect Revealed
The investigation spread across the country.
Arrests followed.
Several officials resigned before investigators could reach them.
Others publicly denied involvement.
Alexander refused interviews.
Sarah focused on Lily.
Marcus worked with federal security teams.
For ten days, nothing connected anyone to the mysterious Architect.
Then Adrian Cole requested a meeting.
Alexander agreed only after federal agents arranged it inside a secure facility.
Cole entered the interrogation room wearing prison clothes.
The powerful deputy commissioner looked older without his uniform.
Alexander sat across from him.
"Who is the Architect?"
Cole smiled tiredly.
"You think Victoria built all this?"
"I think she believed she did."
Cole leaned back.
"The Circle existed before she was born."
"I know."
"And your family didn't merely use the tunnels."
Cole lowered his voice.
"Your father controlled them."
Alexander stared at him.
"My father tried to shut them down."
"Eventually."
Cole laughed bitterly.
"But before that, Richard Blackwood was the Architect."
Alexander felt as though the room had tilted.
His father had been dead for twelve years.
Cole continued.
"Richard changed."
"He tried to dismantle everything."
"That's why some of us turned against him."
Alexander remembered his father's final years.
The secrecy.
The paranoia.
The insistence that Alexander stay away from the old harbor.
Cole looked directly at him.
"Victoria discovered the truth."
"She believed the empire belonged to her."
"But someone encouraged that belief."
"Who?"
Cole's smile returned.
"A man you trust."
Alexander's patience ended.
"Name him."
Cole leaned forward.
"Marcus Vale."
Alexander did not move.
For several seconds, he heard only the ventilation system.
"You're lying."
"Ask him where he was the night your father died."
Alexander stood.
Cole laughed behind him.
"Ask why a former harbor enforcer became your security chief."
Alexander left without answering.
Outside, Marcus waited beside the car.
He saw Alexander's expression.
"What happened?"
Alexander looked at the man who had saved Sarah.
The man who had protected Lily.
The man who had stood beside him in the tunnels.
"Where were you the night my father died?"
Marcus became completely still.
That silence hurt more than any answer.
Alexander stepped closer.
"Tell me."
May you like
Marcus looked away.
And Alexander knew another secret was about to tear open his family.
