Chapter 27 Ren
Ren
Later in the day.....
I stand in front of Amelia and watch the stubborn set of her jaw. She looks steady, almost calm, but I've been around her well enough to see the tension in her shoulders. She is holding herself together by sheer force.
“You aren't safe here anymore,” I say. I keep my voice controlled. “You need to leave the base. For your own safety.”
She doesn't hesitate. “No.”
The answer is quick and firm. Leaving now room for arguments.
“I worked too hard to be here,” she continues. “I am not giving everything up over some stupid attempt on my life.”
I stare at her. “Stupid?”
“Yes,” she says. “It failed.”
“It failed because someone walked into your room when you were going into shock,” I reply. “Not because the killer changed their mind.”
She folds her arms. “You're overreacting.”
I feel my patience thinning. “Someone walked into your room while you were sedated and tampered your IV line. That is not a mistake. That is not random. It was planned. Someone wanted you dead.”
“I can take care of myself, Luca,” she snaps. “I don't need you to protect me.” She looks irritated.
I arch my brow slowly. “If you can take care of yourself, why didn't you fight when your IV was tampered with? You would have been dead by now, Amelia. And whoever wants you dead will be celebrating how easy it was to get rid of you.”
Her eyes flash. “I was unconscious.”
“Exactly.”
She steps closer to me. “You expect me to abandon my post because someone tried to kill me and failed?”
“Yes. I expect you to survive, but it seems you have the survival instincts of a fish.” I answer.
She shakes her head. “You always do this. You decide what is best and expect everyone to follow.”
“And you always think you are untouchable and you really don't know me that well.”
“I don't think I am untouchable. I think I am capable of taking care of myself just fine.”
“Capable people still die,” I say.
The silence between us sharpens. I can see the anger building in her. I can feel my own.
“Somebody, probably your own family, wants you dead, can’t you see that?” I snap. “Do you have a death wish?”
Her expression hardens instantly. “Do not drag my family into this.”
“They are already in it,” I reply.
“You do not know that.”
“I know enough.”
She looks at me like I have crossed a line. Maybe I have. I don't care. I would rather have her angry than dead.
“I am not running,” she says. “If I leave now, I prove they can scare me. I prove I do not belong here.”
“You prove nothing,” I say. “You remove yourself from their reach.”
“And then what?” she challenges. “You handle everything? You make decisions for me?”
“I handle the threat.”
“And I sit somewhere quietly while you play hero?”
“This is not about being a hero.”
“Then what is it about?”
“It is about keeping you alive.”
Her breathing grows heavier. Mine is not calm either.
“You do not get to control my life,” she says.
“And you do not get to gamble with it,” I reply.
Before she can answer, the door opens.
Matteo steps inside. He stops the moment he senses the tension. His gaze shifts between us. He understands immediately that he has walked into the middle of something heated.
He looks like he might step back out and give us space.
“Well?” I snap.
He straightens. “The footages from the camera when Captain Russo was attacked has been wiped clean.”
The room feels colder.
I turn to him fully. “What do you mean, wiped clean?”
“The entire thing was formatted,” he says. “The system storage was accessed and erased. It cannot be retrieved. It is gone for good.”
Amelia lowers her arms slowly. “Formatted?”
“Yes.”
“By accident?” she asks, though her tone suggests she already knows the answer.
“No,” Matteo replies. “This was deliberate.”
I walk toward him, my focus shifting from anger to something sharper.
“Start from the beginning,” I say.
“The camera recorded normally up until the attack,” he explains. “After that, the file ends. When I checked the server, the entire storage partition for that corridor had been formatted. Clean. No fragments. No backups.”
“And you cannot restore it?” I ask.
“No.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Nothing.”
I let that sink in. Someone tampers with Amelia’s IV. Then someone erases the evidence.
This is not coincidence.
“Who has access to do that?” I ask.
“Very few people,” Matteo replies. “It requires high level authorization.”
I glance at Amelia. She meets my eyes. The earlier argument fades into something more serious now.
“So this is internal,” she says quietly.
“Yes,” I answer.
Matteo nods. “Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing.”
I feel the shift inside me. Anger gives way to focus.
“This is why you need to leave,” I say to her again. My voice is calmer now, but firmer. “You are standing in the middle of something planned.”
“And leaving solves it?” she asks.
“It gives us room to think.”
“It makes me look weak.”
“It keeps you breathing, geez. You really do have a death wish.”
She turns away from me for a moment, then back again. “You really think someone inside this base wants me dead.”
“Yes.”
“And you think it is connected to my family.”
“Yes, obviously.”
She studies me carefully. “You have no proof.”
“I have a pattern.”
She almost smiles at that. “That is not the same thing.”
“It is enough.”
Matteo clears his throat. “If someone erased the footage, they will assume no one can trace it. That makes them confident.”
“Or careless,” I say.
Amelia steps closer. “What do you plan to do?”
“I plan to find out who accessed that system,” I reply. “Quietly.”
“And in the meantime?”
“In the meantime, you do not move alone. You do not ignore protocol. And you do not pretend this is small.”
She looks at me for a long moment.
“I am not leaving,” she says again, but her tone is less defiant now and more measured.
I nod once. “Then we do this my way.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Which is?”
“You listen when I tell you something is a risk.”
“And if I disagree?”
“You can argue later.”
Matteo watches us both. “We need to be careful. If this is someone with clearance, they will know the moment we start digging.”
“I know,” I say.
The room feels tight with unspoken thoughts. Trust becomes a fragile thing in places like this. Every corridor looks the same. Every door looks secure. None of it means anything if the threat is already inside.
I look at Amelia again.
“You may not want protection,” I say quietly, “but you are getting it.”
She holds my gaze. “We will see.”
"Yes, we will."
I exchange a look with Matteo and without a word, he walks towards her and injects her in the neck.