Chapter 14 - The War for the Ledger
By 5:46 a.m., New Orleans had two governments.
One wore federal jackets.
The other wore city badges.
Neither trusted the other.
Price moved the ledger from the cemetery in an unmarked SUV with three agents.
Thomas, Maya, and Rosa followed in a separate vehicle.
"You should be in an ambulance," Maya said.
"I am beginning to sense a theme."
"You are bleeding through the towel."
Rosa leaned forward from the back seat.
"Mama is right."
Thomas sighed.
"Two against one is not democracy."
"It is in this car," Maya said.
Then the first police cruiser rammed Price's SUV at the intersection of Canal and Claiborne.
Everything happened at once.
A second cruiser blocked the road.
Men in tactical uniforms jumped out with rifles.
"Federal agents! Stay in your vehicles!"
Price's team shouted back.
Thomas saw one detail that told him this was not a misunderstanding.
The tactical officers had removed their body cameras.
"Down!" he shouted.
Gunfire tore through the rear windshield.
Maya covered Rosa with her body.
Thomas accelerated into the police cruiser blocking the lane.
Metal screamed.
The cruiser spun far enough for Price's SUV to escape.
They raced toward the river.
"Where are they going?" Maya asked.
Thomas called Price.
"Do not go to the federal building. Pike expects that."
"Then where?"
Thomas looked toward the cathedral towers in the rain.
"WNOH. Broadcast it."
Price understood immediately.
Once the evidence existed in a thousand copies, no raid could erase it.
They reached the television station three minutes ahead of Pike's people.
Nina Caldwell met them at the loading dock.
"Control room is ready."
Price handed her scanned pages.
"Witness names redacted."
"Already done."
Thomas collapsed against the wall.
Rosa screamed.
Maya caught him before he hit the floor.
"No. No, no, no."
Thomas looked at Rosa.
"I told you. Not tonight."
"It is morning now," Rosa sobbed.
Thomas actually laughed.
"Technicality."
Nina went live at 6:01 a.m.
Across Louisiana, viewers saw ledger pages, shell companies, bribe schedules, photographs of port containers, and Celeste Rousseau's handwritten notes.
Nina read the first names aloud.
Judge Malcolm Landry.
Superintendent Evan Pike.
Jacques Baptiste.
Thomas Rousseau.
Maya looked at Thomas when his name was spoken.
He did not flinch.
Then every screen in the control room went black.
The power died.
Backup generators failed.
Nina swore.
"Someone cut the building feed."
A producer looked at her phone.
"Stream is still live from the mobile encoder."
Nina smiled.
"Keep reading."
Below them, the loading dock door exploded inward.
Tactical police entered the building.
Price drew his weapon.
"We need five minutes."
Thomas pushed himself upright.
Maya grabbed his arm.
"You can barely stand."
"Then I only need to stand in one doorway."
He walked toward the stairwell.
At the bottom, Superintendent Pike raised his rifle.
"Move, Thomas."
Thomas leaned against the rail.
"No."
Pike smiled coldly.
"You always were sentimental about the wrong things."
Thomas looked back once at Rosa.
Then Pike fired.
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