Chapter 37: The Ghost in the Fog

Soren

The red laser moved across the front of my jacket like a drop of fresh blood.

High above us, on a rusty metal walkway about sixty feet off the ground, Greta Adler stared down at us like a cruel queen watching an execution. Her cane, with its gold handle, shone in the pale moonlight. Beside her stood two armed soldiers, both aiming their weapons directly at Kasimir and me.

“Kill them both,” Greta ordered.

Her voice echoed through the damp warehouse, cold and final.

Two muffled gunshots rang out.

I was still standing. Instead, the soldier on Greta’s left suddenly collapsed against the rusty railing. His heavy rifle slipped from his hands, fell over the edge, and splashed into the dark river below.

Kasimir had moved before the sound of the second shot faded. He threw himself behind a large steel cargo container and raised his gun. A silenced shot rang out from the shadows near the loading area.

Jonas was there.

The same Jonas who was supposed to be loyal to Greta was now firing from the lower metal platforms, trying to stop the second sniper from shooting.

Suddenly, the entire warehouse became a battlefield. Bright flashes from the guns lit up the thick grey fog as bullets flew through the air.

I quickly threw myself behind a rusty metal support beam. My polished leather shoes slipped across the wet floor, which was covered in oil. I struggled to catch my breath, my lungs burning with every gasp.

But I didn’t reach for a gun.

Instead, I held tightly to the leather folder hidden inside my coat. The strong smell of gunpowder filled the air as the shooting continued.

“Soren!” Kasimir shouted over the gunfire.

He rushed behind the same metal beam where I was hiding. His dark coat was covered in grease and rust, and blood was running from his reopened shoulder wound. His different-colored eyes looked fierce and dangerous.

“Get down! We have thirty seconds before Greta’s backup team breaks through the south doors!”

I turned to look at him.

Here was the young heir to the Adler empire, bleeding from his injured shoulder but still fighting desperately to protect a powerful family whose wealth had been built on the deaths of countless people.

And suddenly, all the anger I had carried inside me for decades came rushing back.

The pain. The betrayal. The hatred that had eaten away at my soul for years.

It all rose inside me at once.

I let out a low, breathless laugh.

It wasn’t because anything was funny. It was a bitter laugh filled with anger, pain, and grief.

Kasimir stopped for a moment. He lowered his gun slightly and stared at me, clearly wondering what had just happened.

“Look at you,” I said, my voice shaking with pain and anger that I could no longer hold back. “You’re still fighting for her. Still bleeding for her. You think this is all about shipping routes and business, don’t you, Kasimir? You still think I’m the bad guy in your little tragic story.”

“Shut up and move!” Kasimir shouted.

He grabbed my jacket and pulled me farther behind the metal beam just as bullets struck the concrete above our heads, sending pieces of it flying.

“If we don’t get to the river dock, neither of us is leaving this warehouse alive!”

I violently pushed his hand away and stood straight beside the metal support beam, even as dust fell around us.

“Twenty years ago!” I shouted over the gunfire. My voice echoed through the warehouse, reaching Greta on the platform above us. “Twenty years ago, my father stood in this exact same shipping warehouse! He owned fifty-one percent of the Lindner-Baltic company, and he refused to give his shares to your grandmother!”

Kasimir suddenly went still. He tightened his grip on his gun and stared at me, his expression changing.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“Your grandmother didn’t buy control of the Baltic shipping routes, Kasimir!” I shouted.

Tears filled my eyes as years of hatred came rushing back.

“She invited my father here under the promise of peace, just like tonight. She pretended they were going to make a fair business deal. But when he refused to give her what she wanted, she had him tied up and injected with a deadly poison that attacked his heart!”

My voice broke as I continued.

“Then she had him thrown into the freezing Danube River while he was still alive!”

For one terrible second, the gunfire from above seemed to slow.

All the color drained from Kasimir’s face. The fierce look in his eyes disappeared, replaced by shock and a terrible understanding. It was as if my words had broken something inside him.

“They told everyone he died of sudden heart failure,” I said, struggling to breathe as twenty years of secrets finally came out.

“I was nineteen, Kasimir. I found my father’s frozen body caught in fishing nets three miles downstream. I could smell the bitter almond scent on his lips. I saw the tiny mark behind his ear where the needle had entered his skin.”

“Soren…” Kasimir whispered.

His voice cracked, barely louder than a breath.

“She took everything from me!” I screamed, pointing toward Greta above us. My finger shook with rage. “She stole my father’s business, blamed the Falkenrath family to hide the evidence, and turned you into her loyal, emotionless killer!”

I could barely control myself anymore.

“Everything I’ve done was because of her! Every shipping route I sabotaged, every business asset I seized, every trap I set for Vespera—it was all to destroy that old witch and take back everything she stole from my father!”

For a moment, the entire warehouse fell silent. The only sound was the river water gently hitting the rotten wooden posts outside.

High above us, Greta Adler slowly walked toward the edge of the metal platform.

She didn’t deny anything. She didn’t look angry or afraid.

She simply leaned on her gold-headed cane and stared down at me with cold, lifeless grey eyes. She looked like a woman who had sacrificed everything human inside her for power.

“Your father was weak, Soren,” Greta said.

Her voice was thin and cold, without a trace of pity.

“He had valuable shipping routes, but he didn’t have the courage to destroy his enemies. You inherited his weakness. Your feelings will be the reason you die tonight.”

Then she turned slightly toward the dark doorway behind her.

“Bring her out.”

My heart stopped.

Kasimir immediately looked up. His jaw tightened so hard that the muscles in his neck stood out.

Two guards dressed in black stepped onto the upper platform. Between them was Vespera.

They were dragging her forward with her hands tightly bound behind her back with heavy plastic restraints. Her dark hair was messy, as if she had fought them, and she wore a high-collared wool coat.

The bright overhead lights revealed how pale her face had become.

Her dark eyes searched the warehouse floor until they found Kasimir.

“Kasimir!” she cried.

Her desperate voice echoed through the building, and the sound seemed to tear straight through the darkness around us.

Kasimir stepped out from behind the metal beam and into the open, putting himself directly in the line of the armed men above.

He no longer seemed to care that they could shoot him.

His gun hung loosely at his side. His mismatched eyes were wide with fear and pain.

“Vespera… no!” he shouted.

Greta didn’t even look at her grandson. Instead, she stared directly at me, wearing a cruel smile that showed how pleased she was with herself.

Then she reached into her coat and pulled out a small black remote control.

“You both wanted to end this feud tonight,” she said quietly. Her thumb rested on the red button that would activate the explosives.

“Then look at the wooden supports beneath your feet.”

I lowered my eyes.

Six powerful thermite charges had been attached to the rotten wooden posts supporting the concrete floor. Small green lights flashed on each device, all blinking together.

They were ready to explode.

Greta leaned over the railing and looked directly at Kasimir. His face had fallen as he stared at her, finally understanding how completely she had trapped him.

“Drop your weapon, Kasimir,” she ordered, her voice almost gentle.

“Or I’ll destroy the supports beneath this warehouse. The entire floor will collapse, and you will sink to the bottom of the Danube.”

Her smile widened.

“And your precious wife will have to watch you die, just as Soren’s father did twenty years ago.”