Chapter 10 - THE CONFESSION RAMON ORTEGA NEVER GAVE
At 6:00 the next morning, Ramon sat at a kitchen table eating toast with Lucia.
It was the strangest breakfast of his life.
Outside, armed men surrounded Helena's secure country home.
Inside, television networks were already covering the federal raids against Ortega companies.
Reporters called Ramon everything from underworld kingpin to fugitive financier.
Lucia pushed a jar of strawberry jam toward him.
“You didn't put enough.”
Ramon looked at his toast.
“It has jam.”
“That's not enough.”
He added more.
Lucia nodded approvingly.
Across the room, Isabel watched them.
She had barely slept.
Neither had Ramon.
The countdown showed five hours and forty-two minutes.
Gabriel entered.
“You have a minute?”
Ramon looked at Lucia.
She waved him away.
“Go do mafia stuff.”
Isabel choked on her coffee.
Ramon stood.
“We need to discuss your vocabulary.”
“Victor taught me.”
From the hallway Victor shouted, “Lies.”
For one tiny moment, the house felt almost normal.
Then Ramon entered the study.
Gabriel closed the door.
“I can find Esteban.”
“How?”
“He's using a private relay system.”
“Can you trace it?”
“Not exactly.”
Ramon waited.
“But the archive can't be released from just anywhere. The second master requires physical authentication every six hours.”
“So Esteban is near it.”
“Yes.”
“Where would Father hide a second archive?”
Gabriel looked ashamed.
“I think I know.”
“Tell me.”
“The family mausoleum.”
Ramon stared.
Of course.
His father had loved symbolism.
Dead men holding living secrets.
“Whose crypt?”
“Salvador's.”
At 7:30, Ramon, Gabriel, Victor, and Diego arrived at the Ortega family cemetery.
Diego's shoulder was bandaged, but he had refused to stay behind.
“You got hit in the head yesterday.”
“You've been shot three times.”
“Four.”
“Exactly.”
Ramon stopped arguing.
They opened Salvador Ortega's mausoleum.
Cold marble.
Bronze plaques.
Old flowers.
Gabriel found the mechanism behind their father's memorial panel.
The wall opened.
Inside was no archive.
Only a computer terminal.
Active.
Ramon looked at the screen.
AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE: 05:54 A.M.
Esteban had been there less than two hours earlier.
Victor examined security footage from the private cemetery system.
“Found him.”
Video showed Esteban leaving in a gray sedan.
Plate visible.
Diego smiled.
“Got you.”
They traced it to a downtown hotel.
Then discovered the vehicle abandoned.
Another camera captured Esteban entering a subway station.
A third showed him exiting near the courthouse district.
Gabriel stared at the map.
“He's going to federal headquarters.”
Ramon understood.
“He wants to watch.”
At 10:43 a.m., Ramon Ortega entered the federal building.
Cameras filled the street.
Reporters shouted.
Federal agents surrounded him.
Victor had tried to accompany him.
Ramon refused.
So had Gabriel.
Ramon refused him too.
This part had to look real.
An assistant U.S. attorney escorted Ramon into an interrogation room.
Two federal investigators waited.
A camera recorded from the corner.
“Mr. Ortega,” one agent said, “you requested this meeting.”
“Yes.”
“You indicated you wanted to make a confession.”
“Yes.”
The countdown on Esteban's website showed sixty-three minutes.
The agent placed a recorder on the table.
“Begin.”
Ramon folded his hands.
“My name is Ramon Salvador Ortega.”
He looked directly toward the camera.
“I am the head of the Ortega organization.”
Across town, Esteban watched the feed.
He smiled.
Ramon continued.
“For years, law enforcement has accused my family of operating a criminal network involving bribery, extortion, financial manipulation, and violence.”
The prosecutor leaned forward.
“Are those accusations true?”
“Some.”
“Which?”
Ramon paused.
Then smiled faintly.
“Not the ones you brought me here to confess to.”
Esteban's smile disappeared.
Ramon looked at the camera.
“My uncle is watching this.”
The agents exchanged glances.
“Mr. Ortega—”
“His name is Esteban Luis Ortega. He controls the Arden network.”
Esteban stood.
“No.”
Ramon continued.
“He believes I'm here to accept responsibility for his crimes because he is threatening to release a blackmail archive at noon.”
The prosecutor's face changed.
“This is not what your attorney indicated.”
“My attorney doesn't know.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To keep Esteban watching one screen.”
At that exact moment, across the city, Victor entered an abandoned communications building owned by an Ortega shell company.
Gabriel had realized the mausoleum terminal was not the archive.
It was an authentication relay.
They traced its fiber connection underground to one of Salvador's old telecommunications investments.
Esteban had been controlling the archive from a forgotten switching center.
Victor's team breached the first floor.
Diego covered the rear.
Gabriel entered through a service tunnel he had helped design seventeen years earlier.
The countdown reached forty minutes.
At federal headquarters, Ramon began naming officials tied to Esteban.
Not accusations without proof.
Names supported by Isabel's drive.
The agents stopped treating the meeting as a confession.
It became an emergency investigation.
Ramon watched the camera.
He knew Esteban was still watching.
Because the website timer had not changed.
Thirty minutes.
Victor found the server room.
Empty.
Gabriel examined the racks.
“He moved the physical archive.”
“Where?”
Gabriel saw a cable running beneath the floor.
They followed it.
To a freight elevator.
Down.
The elevator opened into an underground garage.
One black SUV waited.
Engine running.
Esteban stood beside it.
He held a pistol.
And beside him stood Helena Voss.
Hands restrained.
Victor whispered, “How did he get her?”
Gabriel's face changed.
Helena had left the safe house thirty minutes earlier.
Alone.
Nobody knew why.
Esteban put the gun against her head.
“Hello, Gabriel.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“Let her go.”
“You always loved women who tried to save you.”
Victor looked at Gabriel.
The meaning was obvious.
Helena wasn't merely an old family doctor.
Gabriel loved her.
Maybe always had.
Esteban smiled.
“Put down the weapon.”
Gabriel did.
Victor cursed.
Esteban turned toward a metal case beside the SUV.
The second archive.
“Ramon thinks he's clever.”
Gabriel looked at the case.
“It's over.”
“No.”
The countdown showed eighteen minutes.
Esteban opened the rear vehicle door.
“I'm leaving.”
“With the archive?”
“With Helena.”
“Why?”
“Because someone needs to remind Ramon that happy endings belong to children.”
Helena suddenly drove her elbow backward.
Esteban stumbled.
Victor fired.
The bullet struck Esteban's shoulder.
Gabriel lunged.
The gun went off.
Helena fell.
“No!”
Gabriel caught her.
Blood spread across her blouse.
Esteban ran for the elevator.
Victor chased him.
Gabriel pressed both hands against Helena's wound.
“Stay with me.”
She looked up.
“You took long enough.”
“Don't.”
“Seventeen years.”
“Helena.”
“You owe me dinner.”
He laughed and cried at the same time.
“I owe you a century.”
The countdown reached ten minutes.
At federal headquarters, Ramon's phone vibrated.
One message from Victor.
FOUND ARCHIVE. ESTEBAN RUNNING. HELENA HIT.
Ramon stood.
The agent said, “Sit down.”
“No.”
“You are not free to leave.”
Ramon looked at him.
“You have ten minutes before thousands of protected identities become public. Arrest me tomorrow.”
Then alarms sounded inside the federal building.
The website countdown suddenly accelerated.
9:42.
9:41.
Then jumped.
4:59.
Gabriel stared at the server.
“He changed it!”
Esteban had shortened the timer remotely.
Ramon looked at the screen.
Less than five minutes.
He called Victor.
“What stops it?”
Victor put Gabriel on speaker.
“Physical shutdown requires two Ortega biometric signatures.”
Ramon froze.
“Two?”
“You and me.”
“You're across the city.”
“I know.”
“How long?”
“Twenty minutes.”
They had four.
Ramon looked at the federal agent.
“Do you have a helicopter?”
The agent stared.
Ramon said, “Now would be an excellent time.”
Three minutes later, a federal helicopter lifted from the roof.
Ramon sat beside two tactical agents.
The city blurred beneath them.
Timer:
1:47.
Gabriel waited at the terminal.
Victor stood beside him.
Helena was alive and being treated by paramedics.
“Come on,” Gabriel whispered.
The helicopter approached the switching center roof.
1:02.
Ramon jumped out before the rotors fully slowed.
He ran.
Fifty seconds.
Stairs.
Forty.
Victor opened doors ahead.
Thirty.
Ramon entered the server room.
Gabriel held one hand against the biometric panel.
“Other side!”
Twenty.
Ramon put his palm down.
AUTHENTICATING.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
ACCESS DENIED.
Ramon stared.
“What?”
Gabriel looked horrified.
“It needs Esteban.”
“He's Ortega blood.”
Victor shouted into his radio.
“Where is he?”
Diego answered.
“Roof!”
Ramon ran.
Timer:
00:05.
He reached the rooftop.
Esteban stood at the edge.
Blood on his coat.
Gun in his hand.
Ramon raised his own weapon.
“Your hand.”
Esteban smiled.
“Too late.”
00:03.
Ramon lunged.
00:02.
He grabbed Esteban's wrist.
May you like
00:01.
The screen went black.
