Chapter 7 - No Way Out
“Drop the weapons!”
Méndez’s voice echoed through the tunnel.
Marcos looked behind him.
Three lights.
Ahead, two.
Five men at least.
Lucía whispered, “There’s a maintenance chamber ten yards forward.”
“You sure?”
“I saw the old map.”
Marcos nodded.
“On my signal.”
Iván leaned against the wall, pale from blood loss.
“You have a signal?”
“Yeah.”
“What is it?”
Marcos pulled a smoke flare from his pack.
“This.”
He struck it.
Red smoke exploded into the tunnel.
“Move!”
Gunfire erupted.
Marcos fired toward the lights.
Álvaro dragged Iván.
Álex stayed beside Lucía.
They reached a small opening cut into the wall.
One by one, they squeezed through.
The maintenance chamber ended at an old vertical shaft.
Lucía looked up.
“Ladder.”
Álex tested it.
“Rusty.”
“Better than bullets.”
Marcos climbed first.
Rounds struck metal below.
He reached the top and kicked a wooden cover aside.
Daylight poured in.
“Go!”
Álvaro pushed Lucía upward.
Then Álex.
Iván struggled.
His injured arm barely worked.
Marcos looked down.
“Come on!”
Iván climbed.
Méndez appeared below.
He raised his gun.
Lucía saw him.
“Marcos!”
She fired past Marcos.
Méndez ducked.
Iván climbed the last few feet.
They ran.
The shaft opened on the opposite side of the ridge.
Trees provided cover.
Marcos checked their ammunition.
“Not enough.”
Álex looked at the sky.
“Maybe enough to reach the river.”
Lucía shook her head.
“We don’t need the river.”
“What do we need?”
“A signal.”
She pulled a satellite beacon from her damaged pack.
Iván stared at it.
“You had that the whole time?”
“It broke during the fall.”
She opened the casing.
“I might be able to fix it.”
Marcos looked behind them.
“We have maybe ten minutes.”
Lucía worked quickly.
Her fingers shook.
Not from fear.
From pain.
Álex helped reconnect the battery.
The device flickered.
Then powered on.
Lucía smiled.
“Got it.”
A signal bar appeared.
Then another.
She uploaded the files.
SCREEN: 12%.
Marcos heard distant voices.
“Faster.”
“Uploading doesn’t work that way.”
25%.
Branches snapped nearby.
41%.
Álvaro raised his rifle.
56%.
A shot hit the tree above Lucía.
Marcos fired back.
73%.
Iván suddenly grabbed the beacon.
Lucía pulled it away.
“What are you doing?”
“If you send that, Serrano kills everyone connected to us.”
Lucía stared at him.
“You still think protecting Serrano protects anyone?”
“He has people everywhere.”
“So we expose all of them.”
Upload: 91%.
Iván looked at the screen.
Then toward the approaching gunmen.
For the first time, he seemed to understand.
There was no deal left to make.
100%.
Upload complete.
Lucía exhaled.
Then the screen changed.
DELIVERY FAILED.
DESTINATION SERVER REJECTED.
Álex whispered, “What?”
May you like
Lucía’s face drained of color.
Someone at base had just blocked the evidence.
