“Hey! She’s running!” one of the orderlies shouted.
I didn’t look back. I didn’t run toward the street where they could easily catch me in a car. Instead, I tore off the hospital gown, revealing the dark sweatpants and t-shirt I had been wearing underneath when Rodrigo dragged me in. I bolted down the narrow, dark concrete ramp leading to the hospital’s basement loading dock—the waste management and laundry exit.
I knew this hospital. Three years ago, I audited their financial records for a tax fraud investigation. I knew that the basement loading dock connected to the municipal drainage and maintenance tunnels that ran right beneath the Avenida Américas.
Behind me, I heard the heavy footsteps of the orderlies echoing down the concrete ramp.
“Lucía!” Doña Beatriz’s voice shrieked from the top of the ramp, no longer sounding like an elegant aristocrat, but a monster losing its prey. “Catch her! Do not let her leave this perimeter!”
I slammed my body against the heavy metal push-bar of the basement door. It burst open, plunging me into the dim, industrial underworld of the hospital. The air smelled of bleach, dirty linens, and diesel fuel.
I ran past giant, roaring industrial washing machines, startling a night-shift janitor.
“Senora, you can’t be in here!” he yelled.
“Call the federal police!” I screamed back, not stopping.
I reached the far end of the basement, where the massive emergency generators were housed. Beside them was a heavy iron grate leading to the city’s old utility tunnels. It was secured with a heavy chain, but the padlock was rusted.
Looking around wildly, I grabbed a heavy iron wrench from a maintenance cart. With a desperate, primal scream, I slammed the wrench down onto the padlock.
CLANG.
The lock didn’t break.
Behind me, the door to the laundry room flew open. The two orderlies burst through, accompanied by a third man—a private security guard drawing a matte-black pistol from his jacket.
“Stop right there, Señora Santillán,” the guard said, raising the weapon, his laser sight painting a bright red dot directly over my heart. “Your mother-in-law wants you back. Dead or alive, she said it doesn’t matter anymore. A suicide looks just as good in the papers.”
I looked at the red dot on my chest. I looked at the rusted lock. My breath came in ragged, painful gasps.
Then, a sudden, violent vibration shook the concrete floor beneath our feet. The lights in the basement flickered, and the massive emergency generators suddenly roared to life with a deafening, ear-splitting whine, filling the room with a cloud of thick, white exhaust smoke.
The security guard blinked, his vision obscured by the sudden blast of smoke.
This was my only chance.
I raised the wrench one last time, aiming not for the lock, but for the glass high-voltage control panel right above the generator.
What did Lucía do to the control panel? Will she survive the dark tunnels beneath Guadalajara, or will the Santillán family silencers find her before she can unlock the data that could destroy them all?
(The story gets even more intense in Part 3! To unlock the next chapter immediately, please leave a comment saying ‘PART 3’ below and give this post a ‘Like’! Your support keeps the story alive!)
