Chapter 4 - The Cannery
The old cannery stood at the edge of the Columbia River like a ruined monument.
Its rusted roof sagged beneath years of rain. Broken windows stared out over the water. The air smelled of salt, rotting wood, and diesel fuel.
Vincent parked the SUV behind a line of abandoned shipping containers.
“No police?” Sebastian asked.
Vincent shook his head. “Local department is compromised. Marcus has connections everywhere.”
Sebastian looked at the dark building.
“Then it’s us.”
“It’s never just us,” Vincent said. “You have four men watching the perimeter.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.
“I said no crew.”
“You said you wanted people who could protect a child.”
Vincent’s voice was steady. “I found four.”
A moment later, a woman stepped from behind a container. She wore a rain jacket, dark tactical pants, and a badge clipped inside her coat.
“My name is Special Agent Elena Ruiz,” she said. “FBI Organized Crime Task Force.”
Sebastian stared at Vincent.
“You called the FBI?”
Vincent answered, “I called someone who has spent ten years trying to put Marcus away.”
Elena’s gaze did not soften.
“Mr. Cole, I am not here because I like you. I am here because Marcus Cole has gone beyond your organization. He is moving weapons, laundering cartel money, and now he has kidnapped a child.”
“My child.”
“Yes,” Elena said. “And that gives you one chance to do the right thing.”
Sebastian looked toward the cannery.
“I’ll take it.”
Inside, Eli sat on an overturned crate beneath a hanging work light.
His wrists were tied with plastic restraints, though they were loose enough not to cut him. A red dinosaur backpack lay beside him. His cheeks were wet, but he was trying very hard not to cry.
Across the room, Marcus Cole watched him.
Marcus had aged well. He still looked expensive, controlled, untouchable. His silver suit was too clean for the cannery floor.
“You have your father’s eyes,” Marcus said.
Eli sniffed. “I don’t know my father.”
Marcus smiled.
“That may be the luckiest thing about you.”
A man entered from the side door.
“Cole’s here.”
Marcus nodded.
“Of course he is.”
Outside, Sebastian heard a child’s voice through the warehouse wall.
His entire body went rigid.
Vincent caught his arm.
“Wait.”
“That’s him.”
“I know.”
“Vincent.”
“If you go in blind, Marcus will kill the boy before you take three steps.”
Sebastian’s hands trembled with barely contained violence.
Elena spoke into her radio.
“Teams in place. We need visual confirmation.”
A small drone rose from behind the shipping containers and slipped through a broken upper window. On Elena’s tablet, grainy footage appeared.
Eli.
Alive.
Sebastian stared at the screen.
The boy shifted on the crate and looked up toward the ceiling as if he could sense someone was near.
Then Marcus stepped into the frame.
His phone rang.
He answered, smiling.
“Sebastian.”
Sebastian took the call.
“Let him go.”
Marcus chuckled. “No greeting? After all these years?”
“If you touch him—”
“I already have.” Marcus’s voice turned smooth and cruel. “You know what your father always said? The easiest way to control a dangerous man is to find the one thing he cannot live without.”
Sebastian’s eyes burned.
“You killed Madeline.”
“Technically, Daniel Voss arranged the accident. I merely approved it.”
The words struck like a bullet.
For five years, Sebastian had imagined Madeline’s final moments. He had told himself she died alone because she had chosen to leave him.
Now he knew she had died because she loved him.
Marcus continued, “She was inconvenient. She made you soft.”
“She made me human.”
Marcus laughed.
“That is exactly the same thing, in men like us.”
Sebastian took one step toward the cannery.
“Tell me what you want.”
“The ledger Madeline stole.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You will.”
“What ledger?”
Marcus sighed. “Don’t insult me. Your father kept records. Daniel kept duplicates. Madeline took photographs, but the original book was hidden somewhere only your father knew.”
Sebastian’s mind moved through memories.
His father’s study.
The locked cabinet.
The old watch collection.
Then he remembered a sentence from Madeline’s letter.
Daniel said your father was no longer in control of his own empire.
Sebastian understood.
His father had known Marcus was planning a takeover.
The ledger was not with Madeline.
It was in Houston.
And Marcus believed Sebastian knew where.
“You have until sunrise,” Marcus said. “Bring me the ledger, or the boy goes into the river.”
The call ended.
Sebastian stared at the cannery.
Vincent stepped beside him.
“What are we doing?”
For years, Sebastian would have ordered an assault.
He would have chosen speed, violence, certainty.
But the boy inside was five.
And Sebastian had already spent five years losing him.
He looked at Elena.
“Can you get a sniper angle?”
“Maybe. Not without risk.”
“Can you cut the power?”
“Yes.”
“Can you get the doors open remotely?”
“Possibly.”
Sebastian looked back at the building.
Then he made a decision that changed everything.
“We don’t bring Marcus what he wants,” he said.
Vincent understood first.
“We make him think we did.”
Sebastian nodded.
“Get me a book,” he said. “A black leather one.”
“And then?”
Sebastian’s voice dropped.
May you like
“Then I go inside and meet my uncle.”
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