John recognized him.
"Adrian Sloane."
Victor's son.
Adrian looked at Daniel.
"Your mother was very clever."
John raised his gun.
Adrian laughed.
"You won't shoot me."
"Why?"
"Because you know what happens if I die."
John's eyes narrowed.
Adrian held up a phone.
A photograph appeared.
Daniel's foster family.
Alive.
A message followed.
Give us the boy, or they die.
Daniel saw it.
His face changed.
"No."
John looked at him.
Adrian smiled.
"Your son understands."
John lowered his weapon.
Marcus shouted:
"John!"
John didn't move.
Adrian extended his hand.
"Come with me, Daniel."
Daniel looked at his father.
John's eyes were filled with pain.
Then Daniel did something unexpected.
He stepped forward.
But instead of walking toward Adrian, he threw the pendant onto the floor.
Adrian instinctively looked down.
John fired.
The bullet struck Adrian's hand.
The phone fell.
Marcus tackled him.
Within seconds, Adrian was restrained.
Daniel looked at his father.
"I knew you'd figure it out."
John stared.
"You used the pendant."
Daniel nodded.
"You told me people lie."
A tiny smile appeared on John's face.
"Good."
Daniel smiled back.
Then the entire building shook.
A bomb had detonated downstairs.
The ceiling began collapsing.
John grabbed his son.
They ran.
The Man Behind the Empire
Victor Sloane sat alone in a glass office forty floors above Chicago.
He was seventy years old.
Silver hair.
Perfect suit.
A watch worth more than most houses.
On his desk sat a single photograph.
Elena.
John.
Daniel.
The photograph had been taken when Daniel was only six months old.
Sloane had kept it for years.
Not because he cared about them.
Because it represented unfinished business.
His assistant entered.
"Adrian has been captured."
Victor didn't react.
"By whom?"
"John Wick."
Victor smiled.
"I expected that."
"The boy escaped."
Victor's smile disappeared.
"Then activate the second team."
"All of them?"
"All."
The assistant hesitated.
"That could expose us."
Victor looked toward the city.
"Then let the city burn."
Meanwhile, John and Daniel traveled west.
The Black Ledger was hidden beneath an archive facility outside Denver.
The building had been abandoned decades earlier.
But according to Rebecca, someone still maintained it.
John, Marcus, Daniel, and four bikers arrived at midnight.
Snow fell.
The facility looked dead.
It wasn't.
Security lights activated.
A voice came through the speakers.
"John Wick."
John looked up.
"Victor."
"You've caused considerable damage."
"You killed Elena."
A pause.
"Your wife chose her fate."
John's face changed.
Daniel saw it.
He reached for his father's hand.
John squeezed it.
Victor continued.
"Give me the boy."
"No."
"You cannot protect him forever."
"I don't need forever."
John raised his gun.
"Just tonight."
The doors opened.
Men poured out.
The battle began.
John moved through them.
Marcus and the bikers attacked from the side.
Daniel stayed with Rebecca inside the facility.
They found the archive room.
Rebecca located the hidden vault.
The door required a code.
She looked at Daniel.
"Your birthday."
Daniel entered it.
Nothing.
"Hospital number."
Nothing.
"Your mother's initials."
Nothing.
Then Daniel remembered something.
"My father's name."
Rebecca looked at him.
"What?"
"He told me his full name was Johnathan Wick."
John had never told him that.
But Daniel had seen it on an old document.
He entered:
JOHNATHAN WICK.
The vault opened.
Inside was a black metal case.
Rebecca opened it.
The Black Ledger.
Hundreds of pages.
Thousands of names.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Audio drives.
Evidence.
Daniel stared.
"That's it?"
Rebecca nodded.
"That's everything."
Then a gunshot echoed behind them.
Rebecca fell.
Daniel screamed.
Victor Sloane stood in the doorway.
He held a pistol.
Two guards stood behind him.
"Hello, Daniel."
The boy backed away.
Victor walked closer.
"You look like your mother."
Daniel's face hardened.
"You killed her."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because she discovered the truth."
Victor reached for the ledger.
"Your father doesn't understand something."
"What?"
"He thinks love makes him strong."
Victor smiled.
"It makes him predictable."
A voice came from the hallway.
"You're wrong."
Victor turned.
John Wick stood there.
Bleeding.
Broken.
But alive.
Victor's smile faded.
John raised his weapon.
"Love is the only reason I'm still standing."
Victor fired.
John moved.
The gunfight was brutal.
One guard fell.
Then another.
Victor escaped through a side door.
John chased him.
They reached the roof.
Snow covered the concrete.
Victor turned.
"Look at yourself."
John stopped.
"You've lost everything."
John looked at Daniel through the doorway.
"No."
He lowered his weapon.
"I found something."
Victor attacked.
The two men fought.
No guns.
Only fists.
John was exhausted.
Victor was older, but stronger than expected.
He struck John across the face.
John fell.
Victor reached for a knife.
Then Daniel shouted.
"Dad!"
John looked up.
Victor hesitated.
That was enough.
John caught his wrist.
He twisted.
The knife fell.
Victor screamed.
John stood.
He could kill him.
Daniel watched.
John looked at his son.
Then at Victor.
"You don't get to decide what kind of man I become."