Chapter 28 - The Concrete Terminal
At five fifty-eight the following evening, Graham walked into Northstar Terminal Four carrying a steel briefcase.
Snow whipped through the open loading bay.
The abandoned facility smelled of cement dust, rust, and diesel.
Victor Kane stood beneath a row of dead industrial lights.
Leonard Price remained tied to a chair.
Two armed men flanked him.
Kane smiled.
“Mr. Foster.”
Graham stopped twenty feet away.
“You look disappointing in person.”
Kane laughed.
“I expected more fear.”
“I’ve been afraid of worse men.”
“You mean Thomas Sterling?”
“I mean men who believed they were untouchable.”
Kane gestured toward the briefcase.
“Documents.”
“Price first.”
Kane sighed.
“You're negotiating?”
“Yes.”
“You’re standing in my building.”
“No.”
Kane frowned.
Graham glanced upward.
“This building belongs to Northstar Capital Leasing Three, a shell corporation whose property insurance expired eight months ago.”
Kane’s smile faded.
“You researched the deed?”
“I’m an engineer. We read boring things.”
One gunman stepped forward.
Kane raised a hand.
“Give me the case.”
Graham set it on the floor.
Kane approached.
Then Graham said, “Your father knew Thomas Sterling.”
Kane stopped.
There it was.
A flicker.
“My father?”
“Samuel Kane.”
For the first time, Victor’s confidence cracked.
Graham continued.
“He was the unidentified man in the 1994 photograph.”
Kane’s eyes darkened.
“You’ve been busy.”
“He helped Sterling run the labor placements.”
“They gave unwanted boys jobs.”
“They trafficked children.”
Kane’s jaw tightened.
“Careful.”
“You paid to have Arthur’s workshop burned.”
“Prove it.”
“You ordered Leonard kidnapped.”
“Prove it.”
“You’re standing beside him.”
Kane smiled.
“Then I suppose you should have brought witnesses.”
Graham looked past him.
“I did.”
Kane laughed.
Then the facility lights slammed on.
Federal agents poured through three entrances.
“FEDERAL AGENTS!”
Kane spun.
His gunmen raised their weapons.
A deafening metallic crash shook the building.
A massive overhead conveyor dropped six inches.
Concrete dust exploded through the air.
Both gunmen flinched.
Agents tackled them.
Kane grabbed Graham by the coat and dragged him backward, pressing a pistol against his ribs.
“Call them off!”
Graham didn't move.
Sloan raised her weapon.
“Drop it!”
Kane backed toward the loading platform.
“You think you won?” he shouted. “This city has been bought for thirty years!”
Graham’s eyes remained steady.
“Then the receipts should be interesting.”
Kane shoved the gun harder against him.
“You're going to die for an old carpenter?”
Graham looked at him.
“No.”
He moved suddenly.
Graham drove his elbow backward into Kane’s forearm.
The pistol discharged.
The bullet tore into a steel beam.
Sloan fired.
Kane dropped the weapon, screaming as a round struck his shoulder.
Agents swarmed him.
Graham fell against the railing.
For several seconds nobody realized he had been hit.
Then Mara ran through the loading bay.
“Graham!”
He looked down.
Blood spread across his side.
The bullet had ricocheted from the beam.
Mara reached him as his knees buckled.
She caught his face between her hands.
“Stay with me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding through your coat!”
“Minor technical issue.”
“Graham!”
He smiled weakly.
“Still bossy.”
Arthur appeared behind her with Owen.
Sloan shouted for medics.
Kane lay handcuffed on the floor, staring at Graham with hatred.
Graham looked toward him.
“You wanted the documents?”
Kane breathed heavily.
Graham nodded toward the briefcase.
An agent opened it.
Empty.
Kane stared.
Graham smiled.
“The originals are already with a federal grand jury.”
For the first time, Victor Kane looked afraid.
Graham’s strength began to fade.
Mara pressed both hands against his wound.
“Don’t you dare close your eyes.”
Arthur knelt beside him.
Graham looked at the old carpenter.
“Arthur?”
“I’m here.”
Graham swallowed.
“Ladder held.”
Arthur’s face broke.
He laughed and cried at the same time.
“Yeah, son.”
May you like
He squeezed Graham’s hand.
“It held.”
