Chapter 15 - The Boy Who Stopped Screaming
In the panic room of the north wing, Mateo woke up to total darkness. For two years, darkness had meant his mother’s tortured screams and the terrifying night of the ambush. His chest tightened, and for a split second, the old panic clawed at his throat.
He opened his mouth to scream.
Then he remembered Valeria’s voice: “Look at my eyes. I've got you.”
Mateo didn't cry. He slid quietly out of bed, grabbed his small plastic flashlight from the nightstand, and crept out of the bedroom. He didn't run toward the main hall where the gunfire echoed. Instead, he headed for the service elevators—the old industrial shaft that connected the basement bunker directly to the perimeter security gates.
As he reached the heavy steel service door, he heard rough voices whispering just outside.
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"The girl is in the library," one of the mercenaries muttered into a tactical comms unit. "Take her alive. Navarro wants her as leverage to force the boss to hand over the offshore decryption keys."
Mateo’s dark eyes narrowed with a fierce, quiet courage that mirrored his father’s. He reached up, found the manual emergency override lever for the service doors, and pulled it down with all his might.
