Chapter 7 - THE UNHOLY ALLIANCEThe underground tunnel led to an abandoned mining shaft two miles away, where a hidden tactical SUV was waiting.
Valeria drove, her hands shaking on the steering wheel, while Ignacio bandaged his chest in the passenger seat. The pain in his body was nothing compared to the roaring fire in his soul.
Estela. It was Estela all along.
"Where are we going?" Valeria asked, tears blurring her vision as she negotiated the dark mountain roads. "The police are looking for you. The syndicate knows where we are. We have nowhere left to go."
"We don't need to run," Ignacio said, his voice terrifyingly calm as he reloaded his weapons. "We have the original flash drive. Did Vargas finish the extraction before the servers went down?"
Valeria reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, encrypted memory card. "He gave this to me right before the roof fell. He said the decryption completed."
Ignacio took the card and inserted it into the vehicle's onboard encrypted screen.
Files opened. Thousands of pages of bank transfers, shipping manifests, and video files illuminated the dark interior of the car.
As Ignacio scrolled through the names of the syndicate’s board members, his eyes widened in absolute horror.
It wasn't just criminals and corrupt businessmen.
The list contained the names of high-ranking government officials, supreme court judges, and...
The Governor of the State.
The very man who was currently broadcasting a nationwide emergency alert demanding Ignacio Alcázar’s arrest for "domestic terrorism and kidnapping."
"They own the entire state," Valeria whispered in horror. "We can't go to the media. We can't go to the government. They control everything."
"They control the system," Ignacio corrected her, his eyes cold as ice. "But they don't control the shadow."
Ignacio tapped a button on his dashboard, dialing an unlisted, unregistered frequency.
A raspy, elderly voice picked up after one ring. "I thought you swore you would never call this number again, Ignacio."
"The Serpent’s Order destroyed my sister," Ignacio said into the microphone. "And now they have my city. I’m activating the Contingency."
Silence hung on the line for three seconds.
May you like
"The Contingency will burn Mexico’s financial market to the ground," the voice replied. "It will trigger an economic collapse."
"Then let it burn," Ignacio hissed. "I want every media station, every social media network, and every television screen in this country hijacked in one hour. I'm going to show the world who really runs this country."
