Chapter 9 - The Copy She Never Knew About
Sofia met them in the street barefoot.
“The van went east.”
Mateo was already in a second car.
Marcus grabbed traffic feeds.
Daniel called every private transport vendor Helena had ever used.
Nothing.
Adrian crouched beside Sofia.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
“Two people. Woman and man. Badges. Court order.”
“Names?”
She gave them.
Both real caseworkers.
Neither had left their offices.
Forged badges.
Forged order.
Real state formatting.
Helena had planned it.
Mateo slammed his fist into the car roof.
“I’m going to kill her.”
Adrian grabbed his jacket.
“No.”
“She took my son.”
“And if you disappear into prison, he loses you twice.”
Mateo’s face twisted.
Then he nodded once.
They followed camera pings east.
Van changed plates twice.
Then vanished beneath a warehouse viaduct.
Ernesto woke on a mattress in a windowless office.
His wrists were not tied.
That scared him more.
A woman brought him water.
“Where is the book?”
He stared at her.
“What book?”
“Your father’s.”
“My dad doesn’t read much.”
The woman’s mouth tightened.
“The black ledger.”
Ernesto knew the phrase.
He had heard adults whisper it.
He shrugged.
“Never saw it.”
A man entered.
“Your father taught you to hide things.”
Ernesto looked at his shoes.
Mateo had taught him something else.
When lost, leave marks adults overlook.
He scraped the side of his sneaker against the metal chair leg.
A strip of red rubber peeled away.
He dropped it beside the door when they moved him.
Then another piece near the hallway corner.
Adrian’s team found the abandoned van thirty minutes later.
No Ernesto.
But Marcus saw the red fragment.
“His shoe.”
Mateo grabbed it.
“He’s marking the route.”
They followed.
Red scrape.
Broken lace thread.
A candy wrapper folded into a triangle.
Ernesto was thinking.
Surviving.
The trail ended at an old switching warehouse owned by a Cross Foundation shell.
Adrian’s phone rang.
Disposable number.
He answered.
Silence.
Then Ernesto’s whisper.
“Uncle Adrian?”
Adrian closed his eyes for half a second.
First time.
“Ernesto. Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you see anything?”
“Blue door. Train sounds. Smells like oil.”
A door opened on Ernesto’s end.
His breathing stopped.
A woman spoke.
Not the guard.
Helena.
“Now you know why I needed both heirs in one place.”
May you like
The line went dead.
CUT.
