Chapter 8 - The Mole at Base
“No.”
Lucía tried again.
Same message.
REJECTED.
Marcos fired two shots into the trees.
“We need to move.”
Lucía stared at the beacon.
“They blocked my credentials.”
Iván laughed bitterly.
“You finally understand.”
“Who?”
“Serrano doesn’t control just field teams.”
Álvaro asked, “Then who can receive the files?”
Lucía thought fast.
“Federal prosecutor Elena Cruz.”
Iván’s expression changed.
“No.”
Lucía looked at him.
“You know her?”
“Everyone knows her. Serrano hates her.”
“Good.”
“She won’t trust a random encrypted upload.”
“She’ll trust my father’s code.”
Marcos blinked.
“Your father?”
Lucía rarely talked about him.
Colonel Javier Navarro had died six years earlier in what the official report called a training accident.
Lucía opened a hidden menu.
“My father suspected corruption before he died.”
Iván stared.
“You never told us that.”
“I didn’t trust you.”
“Smart.”
She entered an old emergency sequence.
The beacon found a secondary route.
UPLOAD STARTED.
Marcos heard movement.
“Thirty seconds.”
Álvaro fired.
A man fell behind the trees.
Méndez shouted from somewhere uphill.
“You’re surrounded!”
Lucía kept typing.
Iván called back.
“Then come get us!”
Marcos looked at him.
Iván shrugged.
“What? I’m dying anyway.”
“You’re not dying.”
“Comforting.”
Upload 38%.
Álex took a position beside Marcos.
“I see two left.”
Gunfire.
60%.
Lucía whispered, “Come on.”
82%.
Méndez appeared between two trees.
His weapon aimed directly at her.
Iván saw him first.
He threw himself into Lucía.
The shot hit Iván in the side.
Marcos fired.
Méndez vanished behind cover.
Upload complete.
This time:
DELIVERED.
Lucía looked at Iván.
Blood spread rapidly across his shirt.
“Why did you do that?”
He laughed weakly.
“Maybe I’m tired of being the worst man in every room.”
Álvaro pressed his hands against the wound.
“Stay awake.”
Iván grabbed Lucía’s sleeve.
“Serrano has another team.”
“Where?”
“Your apartment.”
Lucía froze.
“My apartment?”
“He thinks the original evidence is there.”
“My sister is there.”
Marcos turned.
“Your sister?”
Lucía’s voice broke for the first time.
“Sofia came to stay with me yesterday.”
The radio crackled.
A new voice.
Female.
Professional.
“This is Prosecutor Elena Cruz. Navarro, if you can hear me, your transmission was received.”
Lucía grabbed the radio.
“Cruz, listen to me. There’s an armed team at my apartment.”
A pause.
Then Cruz said, “Lucía, I’m already seeing movement there.”
Lucía’s heart stopped.
“Is my sister alive?”
May you like
Cruz answered after two terrible seconds.
“We don’t know.”
