Chapter 5 - THE FIVE-BILLION-DOLLAR HEIR
"The Secret in the Vault."Using the dim light of the afternoon sun filtering through the shattered glass entrance, Garza and Mateo slipped through the partially opened three-ton vault door, pulling it shut behind them. The manual emergency lock clicked into place, sealing them inside the pitch-black concrete bunker.
"Are you okay, Mateo?" Garza whispered, coughing from the dust.
"I'm okay," Mateo whispered back, though his voice was shaking. "But my grandfather... we have to save him. What time is it?"
Garza checked his mechanical, non-electronic luxury watch. The hands glowed faintly in the dark. 2:40 PM.
"Twenty minutes left," Garza said. "We have to act fast."
He turned on a manual, hand-cranked emergency lantern, illuminating the massive vault. The walls were lined with rows of safety deposit boxes made of solid steel. But in the very center of the room sat an ancient, mechanical terminal—an analog Telex machine connected to a dedicated underground copper line that bypassed the entire internet.
This was the "Sovereign Vault," built during the Cold War to survive a nuclear attack.
"This is it," Garza said, his eyes wide with hope. "The Genesis Syndicate can hack the servers, they can destroy the satellite links, but they cannot hack a physical copper wire that runs directly to the vaults of the Bank of Mexico."
In the center of the Telex machine was a single, silver keyhole.
"Mateo, the key," Garza urged.
Mateo unlooped the silver key from his neck and handed it to the Director. Garza's hands were sweating as he inserted the key into the lock and turned it.
With a heavy, mechanical CLICK, the Telex machine came to life with a low, rumbling hum. A roll of paper began to slowly feed through the rollers.
"Biometric?" Garza gasped. "But Don Alejandro isn't here!"
"My grandfather told me that the card recorded my DNA when he gave it to me," Mateo said. He pointed to the small, dried drop of blood on his hand from where the key had cut him earlier. "He said my blood is the key."
Garza realized the genius of the old man. The gold card wasn't just metal; it was a highly advanced bio-synthetic storage device that had bonded with Mateo's DNA when he carried it.
Garza carefully took Mateo's hand and pressed his cut finger onto the small, copper biometric pad on the side of the Telex machine.
The machine whirred.
"Ragnarok?" Garza whispered, his eyes widening. "Don Alejandro... he didn't just build a vault. He built a bomb."
Suddenly, the heavy steel door of the vault groaned.
Outside, the mercenaries had brought in heavy thermite charges. A blinding, white-hot spark began to burn through the reinforced steel door. They were melting their way in.
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"They are going to get through, Garza!" Mateo cried. "What do we do?!"
"We execute all of them," Garza said, his face hardening with absolute resolve. "Mateo, press all three buttons. We are going to save your grandfather, and we are going to burn their empire to the ground."
