Chapter 8 - THE PRICE OF SEVENTEEN YEARS
Ramon wanted to reject the evidence before he saw it.
Instead, he looked.
The file contained payment after payment.
Monthly transfers.
Seventeen years.
Different shell companies.
Same hidden beneficiary code.
GABRIEL ORTEGA.
Victor studied the screen.
“Could be fabricated.”
Isabel shook her head.
“These records predate my employment. Some were created before modern systems. I verified paper ledgers.”
Ramon said nothing.
“How much?” Victor asked.
“About thirty-eight million.”
The rain tapped against the vehicle roof.
Ramon stared at the numbers.
Thirty-eight million dollars.
Prisoners did not usually get paid.
But then Gabriel had never called himself a prisoner.
Not exactly.
Trapped by his own mistake.
Work for them, or watch everyone I care about become targets.
Ramon closed the file.
“He was being compensated.”
Isabel looked uncomfortable.
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“I don't know.”
Ramon remembered rooms underground.
Photographs.
Blackmail files.
Medical equipment.
Children's clothing.
His brother had spent seventeen years inside that machine.
How much of it had he merely endured?
How much had he helped build?
Lucia climbed into the vehicle beside Isabel.
She looked at Ramon.
“Are we going to save the cane man?”
Children had an almost cruel ability to simplify moral disasters.
“Yes.”
“Even if he did bad things?”
Ramon looked at her.
“Especially then.”
Victor glanced at him.
Ramon started the engine.
The railway tunnel sat on private land owned by an abandoned mining company.
Or so county records claimed.
At 11:21 p.m., Ramon's team reached the perimeter.
No fog this time.
Rain fell hard enough to turn dirt roads into rivers of mud.
Gabriel's vehicle sat outside the tunnel.
Empty.
The driver's door remained open.
Ramon found the cane first.
Broken in half.
Then blood.
Victor looked toward the darkness.
“They took him inside.”
Ramon checked his weapon.
“Then we go inside.”
Isabel had stayed behind with Lucia under Helena's protection.
Ramon did not need her guidance.
He knew these woods now.
Too well.
The tunnel descended gradually.
Old railway tracks remained embedded in the ground.
Electric lights had been installed along one wall.
Two hundred yards in, the tunnel opened into a vast underground chamber.
Twenty-one people knelt in two rows.
Men.
Women.
Three teenagers.
All restrained.
Armed guards surrounded them.
Gabriel stood in the center.
Hands tied behind his back.
Esteban beside him.
The black ledger lay on a steel table.
Ramon remained hidden behind a concrete pillar.
Victor whispered, “Eight guards visible.”
“More behind us soon.”
“Plan?”
Ramon watched Esteban.
“Change the numbers.”
He signaled the team.
Two men circled left.
Two right.
Victor stayed.
Ramon stepped into the open.
“Uncle.”
Every gun turned.
Esteban smiled.
“I knew you wouldn't disappoint me.”
Gabriel's face tightened.
“You shouldn't be here.”
Ramon ignored him.
Esteban touched the ledger.
“Your brother kept his promise.”
“That's new.”
Gabriel looked away.
Ramon continued walking.
“Release the hostages.”
“After Gabriel disables the protocol.”
“And then?”
“Then the Ortega family continues.”
“With you?”
“With us.”
Ramon stopped.
Esteban gestured between Ramon and Gabriel.
“Salvador had two sons. One with a brain. One with a spine. Unfortunately, he never managed to combine them.”
Ramon smiled faintly.
“You always did mistake cruelty for strength.”
“I kept this family alive.”
“You kept it diseased.”
Esteban's smile vanished.
Gabriel spoke.
“Ramon, the payments—”
“I saw them.”
Pain crossed Gabriel's face.
Esteban laughed.
“Excellent.”
Ramon looked at his brother.
“Were you paid?”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
Gabriel hesitated.
Ramon's chest tightened.
“Answer.”
“To manage the archive.”
Victor shifted behind the pillar.
Ramon felt something inside him crack.
“You organized the files.”
“Yes.”
“You maintained the blackmail system.”
“Yes.”
“People died.”
“Yes.”
“People were held captive.”
Gabriel's eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Ramon looked at him for a long time.
Then said, “Why?”
“Because every month I kept the system running, I could remove names.”
Ramon frowned.
Gabriel continued.
“The original network targeted thousands. I spent seventeen years quietly erasing families. Destroying files. Redirecting payments.”
Esteban's mouth twisted.
“Self-righteous sabotage.”
Gabriel looked at Ramon.
“The thirty-eight million never belonged to me.”
“Where is it?”
“Victim relocation. Legal funds. Medical care.”
Ramon looked at Esteban.
His uncle's expression confirmed enough.
Gabriel swallowed.
“I did terrible things to stay close enough to stop worse ones.”
Ramon understood.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But understanding.
Esteban slammed one hand onto the table.
“Enough confession.”
He opened the ledger.
“Disable the protocol.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
One guard put a pistol against a teenage hostage's head.
Esteban smiled.
“Try again.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
Then approached a computer terminal.
Ramon watched his hands.
One thumb rubbed against his index finger.
Twice.
Then once.
A childhood signal.
Gabriel used to make it during card games.
Bluff.
Ramon almost smiled.
His brother had a plan.
Gabriel inserted the brass key.
The screen activated.
Esteban leaned closer.
“Password.”
Gabriel typed.
The system displayed:
MASTER ARCHIVE ACCESS.
Then:
DEAD MAN PROTOCOL: ARMED.
Gabriel looked at Ramon.
“I'm sorry.”
Ramon's stomach tightened.
Gabriel hit ENTER.
Sirens erupted.
Esteban screamed, “What did you do?”
Every screen in the chamber lit up.
DATA TRANSFER INITIATED.
Victor whispered, “That looks bad.”
Esteban struck Gabriel.
“You idiot!”
Gabriel laughed as he fell.
“You never understood the protocol.”
“What?”
“It doesn't release the files.”
Gabriel looked at Ramon.
“It releases the hostages' locations.”
Phones across Ramon's team vibrated simultaneously.
Coordinates.
Safe-house addresses.
Holding sites.
Names.
Ramon's people outside the forest moved immediately.
Esteban's face became murderous.
“Kill them.”
Gunfire erupted.
Ramon dove behind the steel table.
Victor fired.
Two guards dropped their weapons and fled.
Others exchanged fire with Ramon's men.
The hostages screamed and crawled for cover.
Ramon reached Gabriel.
Cut his restraints.
“Can you walk?”
“With dignity? No.”
“Never asked.”
They moved.
Esteban ran toward a side passage.
Gabriel saw him.
“Ramon!”
Ramon turned.
Their uncle disappeared into the tunnel.
Gabriel grabbed his arm.
“Let him go.”
“No.”
“He has a failsafe.”
“What failsafe?”
“The forest facility.”
Ramon stared.
Gabriel's face went pale.
“He can destroy the entire underground complex remotely.”
“So?”
Gabriel looked toward the surface.
“The complex isn't empty.”
Ramon's blood chilled.
“Who is inside?”
Gabriel whispered, “Children.”
Silence seemed to crush the chamber.
“How many?”
“I don't know.”
Ramon started running.
Victor followed.
Behind them, freed hostages were being evacuated.
Ramon reached the tunnel mouth and saw Esteban's taillights disappearing through the rain.
He jumped into an SUV.
Gabriel climbed beside him.
“You shouldn't drive.”
Ramon floored the accelerator.
“You shouldn't have been dead.”
“Fair.”
They raced through the forest.
Then Gabriel looked at the dashboard clock.
11:48.
His face changed.
“What?”
“The purge timer.”
“How long?”
“At midnight.”
Twelve minutes.
They reached the clearing in nine.
Ramon jumped out.
The hatch stood open.
Esteban was waiting beside it.
A gun in one hand.
A remote device in the other.
He smiled.
“Right on time.”
Ramon raised his weapon.
Esteban lifted the remote.
“One more step and everyone below dies.”
Gabriel emerged from the SUV.
“It's over.”
“No,” Esteban said. “It's inheritance.”
Ramon stared at the remote.
“You won't press it.”
“You think I care about children?”
“No.”
Ramon looked at his uncle.
“I think you care about surviving.”
Esteban smiled.
“Finally.”
A small red light on the remote began blinking.
Gabriel went pale.
“He already armed it.”
Esteban backed toward the hatch.
“Eleven minutes became zero the moment you chose him over me.”
The forest floor trembled.
From underground came a deep mechanical rumble.
Then a child's voice screamed beneath them.
Lucia's voice.
Ramon froze.
Impossible.
Lucia was supposed to be miles away.
He turned toward the SUV.
Empty back seat.
Gabriel stared at him.
And from inside the open hatch came another terrified cry.
“Ramon!”
May you like
Lucia had followed them into the forest.
And she was somewhere inside the facility that was beginning to self-destruct.
