Chapter 10 - The Number Written in Blood
Rafael survived.
The bullet missed his heart, but the surgeons could not wake him.
We had eleven numbers and no final digit.
The Central Bank vault was scheduled to be emptied in forty-eight hours because Esteban had ordered officials to transfer all private records overseas.
We had two days to solve a number Rafael had carried for twelve years.
Mateo questioned his wife Isabel.
She did not know the code.
His son Daniel remembered his father repeating numbers in his sleep, but never the full sequence.
Valeria searched Rafael’s room and found nothing except an old family Bible, photographs, and letters he had written but never sent.
I sat beside my father’s hospital bed.
Gabriel remained unconscious.
Machines breathed and counted for him.
“Everyone knows something except me,” I said. “Grandmother hid the truth. Mateo hid the truth. Rafael hid the truth. You hid the truth.”
My father’s face did not change.
“I saved a man from drowning because I thought it was right. Now people are dead because of who he is.”
The heart monitor continued its steady rhythm.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
His fingers moved.
I stood so quickly that the chair fell.
“Papa?”
His eyes opened slightly.
“Aurelio.”
Doctor Elena rushed in, but he gripped my hand.
“The code,” I said. “Rafael gave us eleven numbers.”
I repeated them.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“That is not a bank code.”
“What is it?”
“A date. Three dates.”
Mateo and Valeria entered behind Elena.
Gabriel spoke weakly.
“The first four numbers are the day Esperanza found the accounts. The next four are the night of the fire. The final four are Aurelio’s birth.”
“We only have three of the last four,” Valeria said.
Mateo looked at me.
“What time were you born?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel smiled faintly.
“Sunrise.”
Mateo checked the historical records.
On the day I was born, sunrise had occurred at 6:17.
The final number was seven.
The Central Bank occupied an entire block downtown. Esteban controlled its director, several guards, and the police station across the street.
We could not enter by force.
So Valeria entered legally.
Wearing a gray suit and carrying forged court papers, she arrived with Mateo posing as a financial representative. I walked beside them in clean clothes and polished shoes.
For the first time in my life, no one tried to remove me from the front entrance.
Rafael’s wife carried a medical authorization claiming he had sent us to retrieve family records.
The bank director studied the papers.
“This request is highly irregular.”
Valeria smiled.
“So is obstructing a court order.”
He called someone.
Esteban, probably.
We had minutes.
The vault opened with a preserved handprint copied from Rafael while he was in surgery. The code worked.
Inside the deposit box lay a black notebook and a list of names sealed in plastic.
The Sun Ledger.
My grandmother had hidden the copies across the city, but Rafael had preserved the original.
Mateo opened the first page.
There were judges, police commanders, ministers, businessmen, and captains inside his own organization.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Lucio Serrano.
Another name had been circled in red.
Mateo Vargas.
I stared at him.
“What did you do?”
Mateo read the entry.
“It says I authorized the transfer of three children through Pier Nine.”
Gabriel had told us Mateo turned against Esteban after discovering the trafficking.
But the ledger placed Mateo inside the operation.
Valeria looked at her uncle.
“Is it true?”
“No.”
The vault alarm began screaming.
Metal doors sealed behind us.
The bank director’s voice came through a speaker.
“Don Vargas, please remain where you are. The police are coming.”
Mateo grabbed the ledger.
“There is another exit.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because my family helped build this bank.”
He opened a maintenance panel behind the vault shelves. A tunnel descended beneath the street.
We escaped into the old sewer system as police entered above us.
Halfway through the tunnel, Mateo stopped.
He held the ledger beneath a flashlight.
“The pages with my name are different.”
Valeria examined them.
The ink was newer.
Someone had added false entries to destroy Mateo if the book surfaced.
Lucio had altered the ledger.
But he had made one mistake.
The false pages contained the current seal of Pier Nine.
That seal had not existed twelve years ago.
We now had proof the records were forged.
When we reached the end of the tunnel, Daniel waited with a vehicle.
He was bleeding from the temple.
“Esteban took my mother,” he said.
Mateo seized him.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago. He sent a message.”
Daniel held out his phone.
A video showed Isabel tied to a chair on Pier Nine.
Lucio stood behind her.
“Bring the original ledger before dawn,” he said. “Come without an army.”
Then Esteban stepped into view.
“And bring Aurelio. This began with a Mendoza.”
May you like
He smiled at the camera.
“It will end with one.”
