Chapter 73: The Sound of Glass Before It Shatters
Chapter 73: The Sound of Glass Before It Shatters
Xavier De Luca didn’t sleep much anymore.
He had once prided himself on his discipline—six hours of rest, four of meditation, two for fencing—but now even silence betrayed him. He heard whispers where there were none. Footsteps where no one walked.
Betrayal had a rhythm.
And tonight, Marrakesh pulsed with it.
From his private suite in the Palais Marjani, Xavier looked out over the city—a skyline stitched together with lanterns, low chants, and the glow of greed. The summit was a heartbeat away. Every corridor had been swept. Every guest vetted. Every exit locked.
And yet…
Something was off.
“Still awake?” a voice asked from behind.
Viera entered, sharp in a midnight-blue tuxedo, her movements coiled like a serpent.
“We finished scanning all comms,” she said. “No unusual activity. But I recommend we delay the summit.”
“No,” Xavier said, turning to face her. “If we delay, they’ll smell fear. And you know what happens when blood touches the water.”
“They bite.”
He nodded. “Let them come. I’ve baited the trap.”
Viera paused. “You’re certain Luca will come?”
Xavier’s smile was thin. “He’s a man who believes redemption is a battlefield. And you can’t win a war unless you show up.”
He lifted a glass of red wine but didn’t drink.
“This is the last time anyone in Europe forgets the name De Luca.”
Across the city, beneath the worn stucco of a repurposed gallery, Luca knelt beside a table scattered with maps, tech gear, and weapons sealed in foam.
“Final roll call,” Matteo announced. “Team Alpha: Infiltration. Evangeline, Yusuf, Luka Mendez. Secondary disguises preloaded in route bags.”
“Team Bravo: Perimeter lockdown. Optical drone overwatch. EMP jammer on standby.”
“Team Charlie: Comms and media leak. Anika will trigger the livestream breach the moment we access Xavier’s vault.”
Luca nodded. “And the boy?”
Angela’s voice came through his earpiece from a secure location outside the city. “Leo’s safe. Air transport in Tangier is on standby.”
Luca allowed himself one long exhale.
“You all know what this is,” he said, standing. “It’s not just a takedown. It’s the end of an inheritance built on blood. Xavier believes power makes him untouchable.”
He looked to Evangeline.
“But we’ve learned something he hasn’t: Power without love is hollow. It breaks the hand that holds it.”
Evangeline’s voice was calm, fierce. “Tonight, we don’t just expose a crime. We reclaim a future.”
Everyone nodded.
No bravado. No speeches.
Just war, sharpened into purpose.
Thirty minutes later, the team approached the palace in staggered groups.
Evangeline—now styled in a crimson Moroccan kaftan with gold embroidery—walked arm-in-arm with Luka Mendez, posing as a royal emissary from a northern state.
Security scanned their IDs with careful glances. None flinched. The forgeries were flawless.
Inside, the palace dazzled with decadence. Marble halls. Glass chandeliers. Golden mosaics layered with history, like wealth was grown from soil. Guests murmured in French, Arabic, English. The Circle was here.
And Xavier?
Not yet visible.
“Security grid is shifting,” Anika whispered through the comm. “Someone’s pulling data off the interior network. Probably paranoid. He suspects something.”
“Let him,” Luca replied. “Keep moving.”
Upstairs, Xavier was indeed watching.
A hidden panel behind the throne room displayed heat signatures. One in particular caught his attention—moving too precisely. Holding too still.
He tapped the screen.
“Zoom on this guest.”
The feed adjusted.
Evangeline.
His pupils dilated.
“She came,” he whispered. “The Queen is willing to burn her own board.”
He turned to Viera.
“Ready my stage.”
In the heart of the palace, a secret door swung open. Team Alpha slipped inside—Evangeline leading, followed by Yusuf and Luka. They passed through corridors built before electricity, down staircases carved into rock, until they reached the subterranean chamber.
Inside: servers. Paper files. Video archives.
“Anika, we’re in,” Evangeline said.
A beep. Then: “Streaming initiated. Your feed is going live in forty-five seconds.”
Yusuf moved quickly. “Look at this.”
He pulled up a file labeled: “Operation OBLIVION / Legacy Reset: De Luca Lineage Transfer”
Luca’s voice cut in from another channel. “That’s the file. Dump it.”
“I’m patching into Xavier’s personal comm stream,” Anika added. “If he says anything to the Circle in the next hour—it goes public.”
Just then, Yusuf’s voice changed.
“Wait.”
He pointed to a second name in the file.
“Leo’s name is listed. But… so is another.”
Evangeline squinted.
Her breath caught.
“No,” she whispered.
Beneath Leo’s name: Gabriel Renault.
Her half-brother.
Dead for twelve years.
Or so she thought.
Upstairs, Xavier addressed the guests in a grand hall draped with black and silver banners.
“My friends,” he began, “tonight we do not merely protect wealth. We enshrine destiny.”
But even as the words left his mouth, the screen behind him flickered.
A ripple.
Then a live feed.
His face went pale.
On screen: his servers. His files. His name. Leo’s name. And now…
“This is what they’ve been hiding.”
“This is the child they planned to crown after burning two families to the ground.”
Gasps erupted. A banker’s wife fainted.
Xavier turned to the control panel.
“Shut it off—NOW!”
But Anika’s voice rang in his earpiece.
“Too late.”
Below, Evangeline stared at the name again.
“Gabriel Renault,” she whispered. “Xavier faked his death. He raised him.”
Yusuf looked at her. “What does that mean?”
“It means…” she trailed off, trembling. “Xavier doesn’t just want Leo to be king. He wants Gabriel to rule over him. Like a leash.”
The palace alarms triggered. Lights flared red.
“Bravo, what’s the perimeter?” Luca asked, now racing down the eastern wing.
“Compromised,” Matteo answered. “Xavier’s pulling in mercenaries from the Circle’s side force.”
“We’re outnumbered.”
“Then we outsmart them,” Luca growled.
Evangeline clutched the hard drive and ran for the stairs.
“They’ll come for Leo next,” she said.
Luca’s voice came through the comms.
“Not if I get to Xavier first.”