Chapter 4 - MIDNIGHT AT CENTRAL STATION
Vargas said the photograph was fake.
Elena said nothing.
I said he was wrong.
“You saw your grandmother buried,” Vargas reminded me.
“I saw a closed coffin.”
That silenced him.
The coffin had remained closed because police claimed her injuries were too severe.
At twelve years old, grief made me accept things I would question now.
“What if Grandma never died?”
Marco shook his head.
“There was a death certificate.”
“Signed by people Salazar controls.”
“A burial permit too.”
“Same problem.”
Vargas looked at me with new respect.
Elena sat staring at the photograph.
“She would have contacted me.”
“Unless she couldn’t.”
Teresa touched her shoulder.
“Or unless she thought contacting you would endanger Aurelio.”
The possibility hung over us.
Vargas ordered his men to verify the burial records.
Then I said the thing everyone knew I would eventually say.
“I’m going to Central Station.”
“No,” Vargas answered.
“They have Grandma.”
“We don’t know that.”
“You want answers too.”
“I want answers without burying you tomorrow.”
“What if she’s really alive?”
Vargas turned away.
I understood then.
Esperanza wasn’t only my grandmother to him.
She was the person who had once saved him from becoming someone even worse.
“You said you owed her.”
“I do.”
“Then help me.”
He stared out the window.
Finally, he said, “We do it my way.”
Old Central Station had been abandoned after an earthquake damaged the western terminal.
By eleven thirty that night, Vargas had men hidden across surrounding rooftops.
Marco placed a tracking device inside the brass key’s red string.
“You stay beside me,” he told me.
“I know.”
“If I say run, you run.”
“I know.”
“If shooting starts—”
“I know.”
“You don’t know nearly as much as you think.”
“Neither do you.”
He almost smiled.
At 11:58, Vargas, Elena, Marco, and I entered the station.
Dust coated the cracked tile.
Moonlight streamed through broken windows.
Rows of old benches sat beneath a giant clock frozen at 2:17.
A voice echoed from the darkness.
“You brought an army, Mateo.”
Salazar stepped into the light.
He wore no police uniform this time.
Just black trousers and a white shirt.
“Where is Esperanza?” Vargas demanded.
Salazar smiled.
“You always did skip the polite conversation.”
“Where is she?”
“Key first.”
I stepped forward.
“Grandma!”
Vargas grabbed my shoulder.
No response.
Salazar looked at me.
“You’ve grown.”
“You came to my apartment.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened me.”
His smile disappeared.
“I was warning you.”
“With this?”
I dragged my finger across my throat the way he had.
Salazar stared at Vargas.
“You told him I killed Esperanza.”
“Didn’t you?”
“No.”
“Convenient.”
Salazar looked exhausted.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Then explain,” I shouted.
His eyes softened.
“You think Mateo Vargas saved your grandmother.”
“He did.”
“No. He delayed her death.”
Vargas reached inside his jacket.
Marco stopped him.
Salazar continued.
“Ask him what happened to Tomas.”
The station went silent.
I looked at Vargas.
His face gave me the answer before his mouth did.
“What happened to Tomas?”
“Aurelio—”
“What happened?”
Salazar laughed bitterly.
“There it is.”
Elena stepped toward Vargas.
“Mateo?”
Vargas looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
“You told me he disappeared.”
“He did.”
“That’s not what Salazar is saying.”
Salazar reached into his pocket.
Every guard raised a weapon.
“Relax.”
He tossed an old photograph onto the floor.
It showed Tomas Vargas tied to a chair.
Date stamped in the corner.
Two weeks after my birth.
I stared at Mateo.
“You saw this?”
“No.”
“Liar,” Salazar said.
Vargas’s eyes burned.
“I swear to you.”
Salazar looked at me.
“Your father didn’t simply disappear. Cortez took him.”
My throat closed.
“Why?”
“Because he wanted your grandmother’s files.”
“And?”
“Tomas refused to help.”
“What happened to him?”
Salazar hesitated.
“That answer is why Mateo hates me.”
Vargas took one step forward.
“I hate you for a thousand reasons.”
“Your brother died because of La Corona.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Salazar looked at Elena.
“Her.”
Elena recoiled.
“No.”
I stared at my mother.
She looked genuinely confused.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Vargas raised his gun.
“Enough.”
Salazar shouted, “Ask her why she has no memories of the year she was captive!”
Elena froze.
Vargas’s gun lowered slightly.
“What?”
Salazar stepped closer.
“Cortez didn’t only imprison her. He drugged her. Used her to lure Tomas. He made her believe she was escaping.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
“She led them to him.”
“No.”
“She didn’t know.”
“Stop.”
“Tomas saw her and came out of hiding.”
“STOP!”
Her scream echoed across the station.
I watched her collapse against a bench.
Salazar’s voice softened.
“You didn’t kill him, Elena. But Cortez made you believe you had.”
She covered her ears.
“Then where is his body?” Vargas demanded.
Salazar looked at him.
“There isn’t one.”
My heart jumped.
“What does that mean?”
“He survived.”
Vargas stared.
Salazar nodded.
“Tomas Vargas is alive.”
A gunshot exploded.
Salazar spun.
Blood appeared on his shoulder.
“Down!” Marco shouted.
The station erupted.
Bullets tore through windows.
Vargas dragged me behind a stone pillar.
Elena crawled toward Salazar.
“Stay down!”
More gunfire.
Men were shooting from the upper platforms.
Not Vargas’s men.
Marco yelled into his radio.
“North balcony! North balcony!”
Salazar grabbed Elena.
“The tunnel!”
“What tunnel?”
“Move!”
We ran through a maintenance door while guards returned fire.
Behind us, an explosion shook the station.
Dust filled the passage.
I stumbled.
Vargas caught me.
Salazar led us down rusted stairs into an underground tunnel.
“How do you know this place?” I asked.
“I grew up near here.”
“Where’s Grandma?”
He didn’t answer.
“Where is she?”
“Not here.”
I stopped.
“You lied.”
“We needed the key.”
Vargas slammed Salazar against the wall.
“You used Esperanza’s image.”
Salazar grimaced from his wounded shoulder.
“I used what Cortez gave me.”
“What?”
“He has her.”
Everyone froze.
“So she’s alive?” I whispered.
Salazar looked at me.
“Yes.”
My legs weakened.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Cortez contacted me yesterday. He sent the photograph and ordered me to recover the key.”
“So you still work for him.”
“I’m trying to get close enough to kill him.”
Vargas laughed without humor.
“You had twenty years.”
“I spent twenty years keeping him from finding Aurelio.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
Salazar leaned against the tunnel wall.
“The money Elena sent? I didn’t steal it.”
“She never received it.”
“I redirected it.”
“To where?”
“To pay people to erase school records, hospital records, photographs, fingerprints—anything that could lead Cortez to him.”
My anger shifted into confusion.
“Then why did Grandma live poor?”
“Because poverty was believable.”
“You made us starve so I could hide?”
“I made sure you survived.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
“No.”
Again, an adult who admitted the ugly truth without pretending it was noble.
Salazar reached inside his shirt and removed a chain.
A silver pendant hung from it.
Elena gasped.
Tomas’s.
She grabbed it.
“Where did you get this?”
“From Tomas.”
“When?”
“Six days ago.”
Mateo’s face changed.
“My brother is alive.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Cortez keeps him beneath San Jerónimo Clinic.”
“Why?”
“Because Tomas knows where the Black Ledger is.”
I held up the key.
“And this?”
“One part.”
“Why didn’t Tomas tell Cortez?”
Salazar looked at me.
“Because he doesn’t know all of it.”
Then he reached into his pocket and handed me a torn piece of paper.
On it was a child’s drawing.
A yellow bird.
A blue house.
Seven black stars.
I stared.
Memory struck like lightning.
I had drawn it.
I remembered sitting on Grandma’s floor.
She told me it was a game.
“Hide the stars where bad men can’t see them,” she said.
I turned the paper over.
Numbers were written on the back.
21-5-19-20.
Marco frowned.
“A code?”
I whispered the answer before anyone else could.
“WEST.”
Everyone stared at me.
I suddenly remembered the lullaby.
Fly north, little bird.
Sleep where the sun falls west.
The bird.
The direction.
The numbers.
It wasn’t a lullaby.
It was instructions.
A deep rumble shook the tunnel.
Marco looked behind us.
“They’re coming.”
Salazar pushed himself upright.
“There’s an exit two hundred meters ahead.”
Vargas stared at him.
“If this is another trap—”
“It isn’t.”
We ran.
Halfway down the tunnel, my foot hit something metallic.
A pressure plate clicked.
Salazar’s face changed.
“Don’t move.”
I froze.
“What?”
He slowly knelt.
“A bomb.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Marco whispered a curse.
Salazar studied the floor.
“You stepped on the trigger.”
“Can I move?”
“No.”
Vargas crouched beside him.
“Can you disarm it?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s not comforting.”
Sweat ran down my face.
Salazar looked at me.
“Aurelio.”
“What?”
“When I tell you, jump toward Mateo.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Then none of us will have time to complain.”
He reached beneath the plate.
My legs shook.
“Three…”
Elena started crying.
“Two…”
I looked at Vargas.
His arms were ready.
“One.”
Salazar yanked a wire.
“NOW!”
I jumped.
Vargas caught me.
Nothing happened.
For one second.
Then Salazar shouted.
“RUN!”
The tunnel exploded behind us.
Heat slammed into my back.
Vargas and I crashed to the ground.
Smoke swallowed the passage.
I heard Elena scream.
Then—
Nothing.
When I woke, I was lying beneath the night sky near an abandoned rail yard.
My ears rang.
Vargas leaned over me.
“You alive?”
“I think so.”
Marco helped Elena from the tunnel.
Salazar stumbled behind them, face blackened with soot.
We had all made it.
Then headlights appeared.
One vehicle.
Old.
White.
It stopped fifty feet away.
The door opened.
A man stepped out.
Tall.
Thin.
Gray at the temples.
He looked at Mateo first.
Then Elena.
Finally me.
Elena made a sound I had never heard from another human being.
“Tomas?”
The man’s eyes filled with tears.
Mateo dropped his weapon.
For perhaps the first time in his entire adult life, Mateo Vargas looked completely defenseless.
“My brother.”
Tomas ignored him.
He walked straight toward me.
My heart hammered.
He stopped three feet away.
His gaze moved over my face.
Then he whispered:
“You have Elena’s eyes.”
He smiled through tears.
“And my mother’s stubborn chin.”
I couldn’t speak.
Tomas reached for me.
Before his hand touched my shoulder, Salazar raised his gun.
“Don’t.”
Everyone froze.
Elena stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
May you like
Salazar’s face was pale.
“That man isn’t Tomas.”
