Chapter 1 - The Fall
Lucía Navarro had both hands locked around the edge of the helicopter.
Nothing existed beneath her except mountains, rock, and hundreds of feet of open air.
Iván Rojas crouched above her.
“Last chance,” he said. “Give me the drive.”
Wind tore at Lucía’s hair.
Her fingers were already slipping.
She didn’t beg.
She didn’t cry.
She looked past Iván toward the tail of the helicopter.
Then she looked into his eyes.
“When the alarm goes off,” she said, “it’ll already be too late.”
Iván smiled.
“You’re bluffing.”
“No.”
Lucía’s voice was strangely calm.
“I’m warning you.”
Marcos Vega shouted from inside the cabin.
“Iván! Pull her up!”
Iván didn’t even turn.
Lucía’s right hand slipped.
Marcos lunged forward.
Álvaro grabbed him before he could reach the open door.
“Stop! You’ll both go out!”
“Iván!”
Lucía was hanging by one hand now.
Iván leaned closer.
“Where is the drive?”
Lucía smiled.
That smile bothered him.
Even years later, it would bother him.
“You should’ve listened to me before takeoff.”
Iván stepped on her fingers.
Lucía fell.
Marcos screamed her name.
For one second, they could still see her body dropping beneath the aircraft.
Then she disappeared into the valley.
Silence swallowed the cabin.
Marcos turned on Iván.
“You killed her.”
Iván closed the door.
“She made her choice.”
“You threw her out!”
“She betrayed the mission.”
Marcos moved toward him.
Álvaro blocked him.
“Not here.”
Iván calmly straightened his jacket.
“We finish the job.”
Then—
Beep.
Everyone stopped.
Pilot Álex Moreno looked down at the instrument panel.
Another beep followed.
Then three more.
Red lights appeared across the controls.
Álex’s face changed.
“No.”
Iván stepped toward the cockpit.
“What?”
“Tail rotor warning.”
The helicopter drifted sideways.
Álex corrected.
The aircraft shuddered.
“Sit down!”
Another alarm screamed.
Álex looked at the hydraulic gauge.
“Pressure’s dropping.”
Marcos slowly looked toward the empty seat where Lucía had been sitting ten minutes earlier.
She had warned them.
She had told Álex something felt wrong.
She had demanded they lower altitude.
Iván had laughed.
Now Álex shouted, “We need to get down immediately!”
The helicopter began to spin.
Marcos grabbed a handhold.
Iván’s confidence disappeared.
“What did she do?”
Álex looked back at him.
“Maybe the better question is what did somebody do to this helicopter?”
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Then the aircraft dropped thirty feet in less than two seconds.
And every man inside realized Lucía’s warning had not been a bluff.
