CHAPTER 6 SEVEN MINUTES TO BURN
The countdown continued.
Seven minutes and thirty-nine seconds.
Seven minutes and thirty-eight.
Seven minutes and thirty-seven.
Each number flashed across the screen in cold red light.
Alejandro stared at the metal plate beneath the hospital bed.
ELENA RÍOS — SUBJECT 01
Then he looked at the woman lying on the floor.
She had his wife’s face.
His wife’s voice.
His wife’s eyes.
But she had called herself Luciana.
The wounded attacker smiled through bloodied teeth.
“That woman is not Elena’s sister.”
The woman’s expression tightened.
“Do not listen to him.”
Alejandro raised his pistol.
“Who are you?”
She looked toward Mateo.
Not toward the gun.
Not toward the countdown.
Toward the boy.
“I am the person who kept him alive.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only answer that matters right now.”
Alejandro pressed the barrel against her forehead.
“Seven minutes from now, my house burns with everyone inside it. I do not have time for another lie.”
Valeria stepped closer.
“Alejandro.”
He did not lower the weapon.
The woman’s face remained calm.
Too calm.
“Your wife was placed into this program when she was sixteen,” she said.
Alejandro’s eyes narrowed.
“Elena did not know my father when she was sixteen.”
“She did not need to.”
“What are you saying?”
The woman looked toward the empty glass stations.
“Rafael Ríos selected her long before you met.”
The countdown reached seven minutes.
A warning tone sounded through the chamber.
Esteban forced himself upright against the wall.
“Selected her for what?”
“To marry Alejandro.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Alejandro lowered the pistol slightly.
“My marriage was arranged?”
“Not in the way you think.”
“You are telling me my father chose my wife years before I met her.”
“Yes.”
“And Elena knew?”
“Not at first.”
Alejandro’s face changed.
The memory of every chance meeting, every introduction, every moment that had led him to Elena now seemed poisoned.
“She met me at a university event.”
“Organized by a foundation your father funded.”
“She was studying architecture.”
“Because Rafael paid for her scholarship.”
Alejandro looked as though the floor beneath him had disappeared.
Valeria watched him struggle against the truth.
For years, he had believed his father had controlled only the businesses.
Now it appeared Rafael Ríos had designed his son’s life with the same care he used to design a criminal operation.
The woman continued.
“Elena discovered the program after Mateo was born.”
“How?”
“She found medical records inside one of Rafael’s old properties.”
“What records?”
“Genetic profiles. Fertility procedures. Psychological evaluations.”
Esteban looked at Mateo.
“Evaluations of the children?”
“Of the parents.”
Alejandro’s voice became low.
“My father tested me.”
“He tested everyone.”
“Why?”
“To determine which families could be connected, divided, or controlled through children.”
Valeria glanced toward Luna.
The girl had not moved.
Her small hand remained locked around Mateo’s.
Both children were listening.
Understanding too much.
“Enough,” Valeria said.
Alejandro turned toward her.
“They should not hear this.”
“They have lived through it.”
“They are still children.”
“So treat them like children.”
Alejandro looked at Mateo.
The boy’s face was pale.
He was staring at the countdown.
Six minutes and forty seconds.
Alejandro holstered his weapon.
“Can the incineration system be stopped?”
The woman shook her head.
“Not from this room.”
“Where is the control station?”
“Beneath the main hall.”
Esteban cursed.
“That puts it directly under de la Vega’s men.”
The wounded attacker laughed again.
Alejandro kicked him in the ribs.
The man coughed but kept smiling.
“You can’t stop it,” he said. “The system requires two biometric identities.”
“Whose?”
“Subject Seven and Subject Eight.”
Luna and Mateo.
Valeria stepped in front of them.
“No.”
Alejandro ignored the attacker.
“What do they have to do?”
“Both children must place their hands on separate scanners at the same time.”
“Where?”
“The control station.”
“Inside the main hall?”
“Below it.”
Esteban wiped sweat from his face.
“There must be another route.”
The woman nodded toward the far end of the laboratory.
“Maintenance shaft.”
Alejandro looked at her.
“You know the tunnels.”
“I was held here for years.”
“Then lead us.”
She tried to stand.
Her knees collapsed.
Valeria caught her before she struck the floor.
The woman’s body felt unnaturally cold.
Her breathing was shallow.
“You cannot walk,” Valeria said.
“I can crawl.”
“You will die.”
“We all will if I stay here.”
Alejandro lifted her into his arms.
She stared up at him.
For one second, they looked like husband and wife again.
Then Alejandro’s expression hardened.
“You explain everything after we stop the fire.”
She nodded.
“If we survive.”
He looked toward Mateo and Luna.
“Stay with Valeria.”
Luna shook her head.
“The scanners need us.”
“You will go when the path is safe.”
“There won’t be time.”
Alejandro looked toward the countdown.
Six minutes and twelve seconds.
She was right.
He turned to Esteban.
“Can you move?”
“Yes.”
“You are bleeding through your shirt.”
“I have survived worse.”
“That was not confidence. That was stupidity.”
Esteban almost smiled.
It disappeared when the screen beside them activated again.
The main hall appeared.
Governor Santiago de la Vega stood in front of the kneeling servants.
Doña Socorro lay on the stretcher.
Her eyes were open now.
Santiago looked directly into the camera.
“You have six minutes, Alejandro.”
Alejandro remained silent.
Santiago tilted his head.
“I know you can hear me.”
One of his men pulled a young kitchen worker to her feet.
She could not have been older than nineteen.
The girl was crying.
Santiago placed his pistol against her temple.
“Bring Luna upstairs.”
Alejandro stepped toward the screen.
“If you harm her, I will erase your entire family.”
Santiago smiled.
“There you are.”
“How are you hearing me?”
“The laboratory was designed for observation.”
“You will not leave this property alive.”
“That sounds like your father.”
“Do not compare me to him.”
“Why not? You inherited his house, his businesses, his enemies, and his talent for believing fear is the same thing as loyalty.”
Alejandro’s eyes darkened.
“Let the servants go.”
“Bring me the girl.”
“No.”
Santiago’s smile disappeared.
He fired.
The young kitchen worker collapsed.
Several servants screamed.
Valeria covered Luna’s ears too late.
Mateo shut his eyes.
Alejandro did not move.
His face became empty.
The most dangerous kind of calm.
Santiago looked at the camera.
“Five minutes.”
The screen went black.
Valeria stared at Alejandro.
“You cannot let him keep doing that.”
“I know.”
“Then we take the children to the control station.”
“No.”
“You just watched him kill someone.”
“I watched him prove that he will kill everyone whether I cooperate or not.”
“Then what is your plan?”
Alejandro looked toward the unconscious attacker.
He crouched beside him and pulled the man’s radio from his vest.
Then he removed the attacker’s tactical jacket.
“We make Santiago believe he has already won.”
Esteban understood first.
“You dress as one of his men.”
Alejandro nodded.
“You take Luna upstairs,” Valeria said.
“No.”
He pointed toward the maintenance shaft.
“You take both children below the main hall. Esteban goes with you.”
“What will you do?”
“Walk into the main hall carrying the woman Santiago believes is Luna.”
Everyone looked toward the scarred woman.
Her body was small beneath the hospital gown, but no one could mistake her for a five-year-old child.
Valeria frowned.
“That will never work.”
Alejandro tore a white sheet from one of the medical beds.
“I do not need it to work for long.”
He wrapped the cloth around the woman’s body and face.
“From a distance, in low light, he will see what he expects.”
“He has cameras.”
“I will destroy the cameras before I enter.”
Esteban shook his head.
“There are at least twelve armed men upstairs.”
“Then I only need them looking at me instead of the tunnel.”
The woman caught Alejandro’s wrist.
“Santiago knows your face.”
“Not beneath a mask.”
“He knows the way you move.”
Alejandro looked at her.
“Then pray he is distracted by you.”
Five minutes and twenty seconds.
A new alarm began pulsing.
The chamber lights flashed faster.
Valeria looked toward Luna and Mateo.
The children were whispering to each other.
“What are you saying?” she asked.
Mateo looked up.
“There is another way.”
His voice was still weak.
But each word came easier now.
Alejandro froze again at the sound of his son speaking.
“What way?”
Mateo pointed toward the glass chamber where the woman had been held.
“Mother showed me.”
The scarred woman closed her eyes.
Alejandro looked at her.
“You showed him the tunnels?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Before Elena died.”
The answer made no sense.
Alejandro stepped closer.
“You said you were imprisoned here.”
“I was.”
“Then how did you speak to Mateo?”
“Through the cameras.”
Mateo shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone turned toward him.
The boy pointed at her.
“You came to my room.”
The woman’s face went pale.
“I never entered your room.”
Mateo’s small hands clenched.
“You wore her face.”
The chamber became silent.
Alejandro slowly drew his pistol again.
The woman looked frightened for the first time.
Mateo stepped behind Valeria.
“You sang.”
Alejandro aimed at the woman.
“Elena sang to him every night.”
“She taught me the lullaby.”
“You entered my son’s room pretending to be my wife.”
“No.”
Mateo’s eyes filled with tears.
“You took me downstairs.”
The woman shook her head.
“That was not me.”
“Who was it?” Valeria asked.
The woman stared toward the empty glass chambers.
“There were others.”
Alejandro’s face tightened.
“Others with Elena’s face?”
She nodded.
The countdown reached four minutes and fifty seconds.
“There were three women in the original program,” she said. “Elena. Luciana. And me.”
Alejandro stared at her.
“Then who are you?”
“My name was Camila Ortega.”
“Was?”
“They removed my name when they altered my face.”
Valeria felt sick.
The resemblance was not natural.
It had been created.
Surgery.
Training.
Years of forced imitation.
Alejandro looked at the metal plate beneath the hospital bed.
“Why does it say Elena Ríos?”
“Because we were all recorded under her identity.”
“For what purpose?”
“To replace her if necessary.”
The words hung in the air.
Esteban stared at Camila.
“A substitute wife.”
“A substitute mother,” she corrected.
Alejandro’s hand tightened around the pistol.
“How many times were you inside my home?”
“Never.”
“Mateo says otherwise.”
“Then Luciana entered.”
“You said Luciana died.”
“I said Elena believed she died.”
“Is she alive?”
Camila looked toward Luna.
“I do not know.”
Luna’s face changed.
She stepped away from Mateo.
Valeria noticed immediately.
“What is it?”
Luna did not answer.
She looked toward the maintenance shaft.
Then toward the countdown.
Four minutes and twenty seconds.
“Luna,” Valeria said softly. “Do you know where Luciana is?”
The girl’s lips trembled.
“She told me not to say.”
Alejandro crouched in front of her.
“I will not hurt you.”
Luna looked at his pistol.
He placed it on the floor.
Then he moved farther away from it.
“Who told you not to say?”
“My mother.”
“Which mother?”
The girl pointed toward the ceiling.
Alejandro looked up.
“Santiago has her?”
Luna shook her head.
“She has Santiago.”
The screen activated again.
This time, the camera showed the mansion’s main entrance.
Santiago stood beside Doña Socorro.
But something had changed.
One of his armed men lay dead behind him.
Another was missing.
Santiago looked over his shoulder.
For the first time, he appeared nervous.
A woman’s voice came from somewhere outside the camera frame.
“Tell Alejandro to bring the children.”
Santiago turned toward the voice.
His confidence disappeared.
“Stay back.”
The woman stepped into view.
She looked exactly like Elena.
No scar.
No hospital gown.
She wore a black dress and held a pistol against the back of Santiago’s head.
Alejandro stared at the screen.
“Elena.”
The woman smiled.
“Hello, husband.”
Mateo began crying.
Not from fear.
From recognition.
“Mamá.”
Alejandro moved closer to the monitor.
The woman looked directly into the camera.
“You have four minutes to stop the incineration system.”
“Are you alive?”
“That depends on what you call living.”
“Where have you been?”
“Cleaning up your father’s mistakes.”
Santiago tried to move.
She pressed the pistol harder against his skull.
“Do not test me.”
Alejandro’s voice shook.
“Elena, is that really you?”
She looked toward the camera.
A sadness entered her eyes.
“Ask me what I said the night Mateo was born.”
Alejandro stopped breathing.
Then he whispered, “You said he had my angry eyebrows.”
Elena smiled through tears.
“And your terrible timing.”
Alejandro nearly collapsed.
Valeria had never seen a powerful man look so helpless.
“You died in my arms,” he said.
“No. A woman died in your arms.”
“Who?”
“Luciana.”
The chamber went still.
Camila closed her eyes.
Alejandro looked at her.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
On the screen, Elena continued.
“My sister took my place in the car because we knew someone was following me.”
Alejandro’s face twisted.
“You let me bury her as you.”
“I was trying to protect Mateo.”
“By leaving him?”
“By hunting the people who wanted him dead.”
“You left him alone for two years.”
“I left him with you.”
The words cut deeper than she intended.
Elena saw it.
Her expression softened.
“I was wrong.”
Mateo pressed his hands against the screen.
“Mamá.”
Elena looked directly at him.
Her face broke.
“My baby.”
The countdown reached three minutes and forty seconds.
Santiago laughed bitterly.
“This reunion will be very short.”
Elena struck him across the head with the pistol.
He fell to one knee.
Then she looked toward Alejandro.
“Take Mateo and Luna to the control room.”
“How do we reach it?”
“Through the maintenance shaft behind Station Four.”
“Who is waiting there?”
“No one loyal to Santiago.”
“That was not my question.”
Elena hesitated.
Alejandro noticed.
“Who is waiting there?”
“My people.”
“You have people inside my house?”
“I have people inside your organization.”
Esteban looked up sharply.
“How many?”
“Enough.”
Alejandro’s face hardened.
“You replaced my men?”
“No. I discovered which ones your father bought before you inherited them.”
The countdown reached three minutes and twenty seconds.
“Elena,” Valeria said, “what do the children need to do?”
Elena looked at her for the first time.
“You must be Valeria.”
Valeria froze.
“How do you know my name?”
“Socorro told me.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
Valeria looked toward the screen showing Doña Socorro.
The wounded housekeeper had been in contact with Elena.
All along.
Elena continued.
“The children must reach the central panel. Mateo places his right hand on the black scanner. Luna places her left hand on the white one.”
“And then?”
“They must speak their names.”
Mateo looked frightened.
Luna shook her head.
“I can’t.”
Elena’s eyes softened.
“Yes, you can.”
“No.”
“Luna, listen to me.”
The girl stepped closer to the monitor.
“You are not Subject Seven.”
Luna began to cry.
“You are Luna Elena Ríos.”
The girl stared at her.
“You were not created to be a weapon. You were not born to divide this family.”
Alejandro looked at Elena.
“You named her after yourself.”
“I named her after the woman I hoped she would become.”
The countdown reached three minutes.
Alejandro lifted Camila again.
“Lead us to Station Four.”
Camila pointed toward a shattered glass room near the back wall.
Esteban grabbed the wounded attacker’s rifle and forced himself to stand.
Valeria took Mateo and Luna by the hands.
They ran.
Behind Station Four, Camila pressed a hidden switch.
A section of wall slid open.
A steep metal staircase descended.
Cold air rushed upward.
Alejandro carried Camila first.
Valeria followed with the children.
Esteban came last.
As they entered, the laboratory doors opened behind them.
Armed men poured into the room.
Esteban fired several shots.
Then he pulled the hidden door shut.
Bullets struck the other side.
The staircase shook.
They descended into darkness.
Two minutes and thirty seconds.
The passage was narrow.
Pipes lined both walls.
Steam hissed from broken valves.
At the bottom, they reached another steel door.
Two scanners glowed beside it.
Black.
White.
Mateo placed his right hand on the black scanner.
Luna placed her left hand on the white one.
Nothing happened.
A mechanical voice spoke.
“Identity verification required.”
Mateo swallowed.
“Mateo Ríos.”
The black scanner turned green.
Luna stared at the white scanner.
“Say your name,” Valeria whispered.
The girl shook her head.
Behind them, the hidden stairway door began to shake under heavy impacts.
The attackers were trying to break through.
Two minutes.
“Luna,” Alejandro said.
She looked at him.
His face softened.
“You do not have to call me your father.”
Her lower lip trembled.
“You do not have to trust me today.”
The pounding behind them grew louder.
“But your name belongs to you.”
Luna looked toward the scanner.
Then she whispered, “Subject Seven.”
The scanner flashed red.
“Identity rejected.”
One minute and forty-five seconds.
Valeria crouched beside her.
“That is not your name.”
“It’s what they called me.”
“That is what they used to control you.”
Luna began sobbing.
The door behind them bent inward.
Esteban raised the rifle.
Alejandro placed one hand on Luna’s shoulder.
“You are Luna Elena Ríos.”
She looked at him.
He nodded.
“My daughter.”
The word changed something in her face.
Luna pressed her palm firmly against the scanner.
“My name is Luna Elena Ríos.”
The white scanner turned green.
The steel door opened.
They rushed into the control station.
A circular console stood in the center.
The countdown showed one minute and twenty seconds.
Two large biometric panels waited on opposite sides.
Mateo and Luna placed their hands on them.
“Containment override available,” the system announced.
A new message appeared.
SELECT PRESERVATION PRIORITY
Two options glowed on the screen.
MANSION OCCUPANTS
SUBJECT ARCHIVE
Valeria stared at the words.
“What does that mean?”
Camila’s face went white.
“The system does not have enough power to save both.”
Alejandro looked at her.
“What is the subject archive?”
“Medical records. Genetic samples. Embryos.”
“How many?”
“Hundreds.”
Valeria looked toward the countdown.
Fifty-eight seconds.
“If we save the people upstairs, the archive burns.”
“Yes.”
“And if we save the archive?”
“The mansion incinerates.”
Dozens of servants.
Socorro.
Elena.
Everyone in the main hall.
Or the only evidence proving what Rafael Ríos and the de la Vega family had done.
Fifty seconds.
Alejandro reached toward the mansion option.
Camila grabbed his wrist.
“If you destroy the archive, they will deny everything.”
“I will not sacrifice living people for evidence.”
“The archive may contain children.”
His hand stopped.
“What?”
“Embryos. Possibly infants in suspended medical support.”
Valeria felt the room spin.
“There may be children below us?”
Camila nodded.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
Thirty-eight seconds.
On the monitor, Elena appeared again.
She had heard everything.
“Save the mansion,” she said.
Alejandro looked at her.
“What about the archive?”
“I already copied the records.”
Camila stared at the screen.
“That is impossible.”
Elena smiled faintly.
“I had two years.”
Twenty-eight seconds.
Alejandro selected MANSION OCCUPANTS.
The console asked for confirmation.
Mateo and Luna looked at each other.
Then they pressed their hands down together.
“Override confirmed.”
The countdown stopped at eighteen seconds.
For one moment, nothing happened.
Then the station shook violently.
A deep explosion rolled beneath them.
The lights flickered.
The screen displayed a new message.
MANSION PRESERVED
SUBJECT ARCHIVE PURGE INITIATED
Camila screamed.
“No!”
She ran toward a secondary control panel.
Alejandro caught her.
“You said they were only records.”
She fought against him with unexpected strength.
“My son is down there!”
Everyone froze.
Alejandro tightened his grip.
“You have a child in the archive?”
Camila stared at the floor.
Tears streamed down her reconstructed face.
“Subject Nine.”
A second countdown appeared.
Thirty seconds.
ARCHIVE PURGE
Luna looked toward a sealed door at the far end of the control station.
A child began pounding from the other side.
Once.
Twice.
Then a small voice cried out.
“Mother!”
Camila tore herself from Alejandro’s arms.
She ran toward the door.
The system announced twenty seconds remaining.
Alejandro followed her.
“Open it!”
“I can’t!”
“Why?”
Camila turned toward Mateo.
“Because only Subject Eight can release him.”
Mateo stared at the sealed door.
The pounding continued.
Fifteen seconds.
He stepped toward the scanner.
Elena’s voice exploded through the monitor.
“Mateo, don’t touch it!”
Alejandro turned.
“Why?”
Elena’s face filled with terror.
“Subject Nine is not a child.”
Ten seconds.
Camila reached for Mateo.
Valeria pulled him back.
The sealed door buckled from the other side.
Something struck it with enough force to bend the steel.
Eight seconds.
Luna screamed.
Camila looked toward the door.
Her expression changed from desperation to horror.
A low growl came from behind the metal.
Five seconds.
Elena shouted through the screen.
“Get away from the door!”
Three.
Two.
One.
The archive purge began.
And from behind the sealed door, a man’s voice whispered with perfect calm.
“Alejandro.”
Alejandro stopped.
He knew that voice.
May you like
It belonged to his father.
Rafael Ríos had been dead for seven years.
