Chapter 11 - The Deal
Cruz stared at the drive.
“You carried that through the fall?”
Lucía nodded.
“Taped inside my boot.”
Marcos almost laughed.
“You’re insane.”
“I plan ahead.”
Cruz crossed her arms.
“We are not handing it over.”
Lucía looked at her.
“That’s my sister.”
“And giving Vidal the drive may get you both killed.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t walk into his trap.”
Lucía picked up the device.
“I’m not walking into it blind.”
Marcos shook his head.
“You’re not going alone.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No.”
“Marcos—”
“He threw you out of a helicopter this morning. You broke half the bones in your body, crawled through a valley, got shot at, and now you want to meet the man who helped kill your father?”
Lucía stared at him.
“When you put it like that, it sounds like a bad day.”
Marcos almost smiled.
Almost.
Cruz placed a tracker inside the drive casing.
“We do this my way.”
The meeting point was an abandoned hydroelectric station.
Midnight.
Lucía arrived alone in a black SUV.
At least it looked that way.
Cruz’s tactical team waited three miles out.
Marcos was hidden closer.
Lucía stepped inside the building.
Water dripped from the ceiling.
Sofia sat tied to a chair.
“Lucía!”
“I’m here.”
Vidal stepped from the shadows.
He looked older than she remembered.
But not softer.
“The drive.”
“Let her go.”
“First the drive.”
Lucía held it up.
“You killed my father.”
Vidal smiled sadly.
“Your father killed himself the moment he decided principles mattered more than survival.”
Lucía wanted to shoot him.
Instead she asked, “Was Serrano there?”
“Yes.”
“And Iván?”
Vidal’s eyes flickered.
“That bothers you.”
“Answer.”
“He was there.”
Lucía’s jaw tightened.
“What did he do?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s not better.”
“No.”
Vidal walked closer.
“Iván was young. Terrified. He watched Serrano shoot your father and kept his mouth shut.”
Lucía’s stomach twisted.
Vidal held out his hand.
“The drive.”
Lucía gave it to him.
He examined it.
Then smiled.
“You always were Javier’s daughter.”
Behind him, a red light began blinking.
Lucía frowned.
“What is that?”
Vidal looked at the drive.
The tracker wasn’t blinking.
Something else was.
He suddenly understood.
“You activated the old file.”
Every light in the station went out.
May you like
Then Javier Navarro’s voice filled the building.
“If you are hearing this, then they failed to bury the truth.”
