Chapter 4 - Ten Minutes of Air
Alejandro lunged for the steel door and struck the release panel with his palm.
ACCESS DENIED.
He entered a code. The panel flashed red.
Sophia scanned the chamber. There were no visible vents, no windows, and no emergency handle. The timer continued its silent descent.
08:41.
"How much air?" she asked.
Alejandro did not look at her. "Enough for perhaps forty minutes. The timer is not about oxygen."
"Then what seals?"
"The archive."
Sophia moved to the blue ledger on the table. "Meaning?"
"If we fail the challenge, every file in this room is destroyed. Thermite strips are embedded behind the cabinets."
Sophia stared at him. "Your family installed an incinerator beneath my daughter's bedroom?"
"This house existed before Valeria was born."
"That is not an answer."
"No. It isn't."
The monitors changed. Isabela's face disappeared, replaced by a single question.
WHO OWNS THE FUTURE OF VALE MERIDIAN?
Below it were two biometric squares.
Alejandro looked toward Sophia. "It wants us to choose."
"Choose what?"
"One of us transfers control to the other. The archive opens only if there is a single recognized successor."
"Convenient for you."
"I did not know this protocol existed."
Sophia picked up the ledger. Its pages were filled with handwritten entries, account numbers, names, dates, and small symbols in red ink. Near the center, she found Valeria's full legal name beside a figure that made her stop.
Two hundred and forty million dollars.
"What is this?"
Alejandro came closer. "A beneficiary reserve."
"For a five-year-old?"
"It was created before she was born."
Sophia turned the page. Her own name appeared above a series of transfers from companies she had never seen. Each one was marked approved, though she had approved nothing.
The timer reached seven minutes.
On the far wall, a printer woke and produced a single sheet. Sophia tore it free.
TRANSFER OF PRIMARY FAMILY AUTHORITY.
At the bottom were two signature lines.
Alejandro exhaled. "Sign control to me. Once we are outside, I will reverse it."
Sophia laughed, a sharp sound without humor. "You brought Camila into my home, let her hurt our child, concealed your living mother, and now you want me to hand you everything because a machine says we have seven minutes?"
"I am trying to keep us alive."
"No. You are trying to preserve the archive."
"Because it may explain why someone is targeting Valeria."
Sophia held up the ledger. "Or it may explain why your family created the target."
Alejandro ran both hands through his hair. "My mother believed Vale Meridian needed a blood successor. When doctors told us I might never have children, she began building contingencies. Then Valeria was born."
Sophia's stomach turned.
"Doctors told us both that the fertility treatment worked."
"It did."
"Then why was Isabela planning for Valeria before she existed?"
Alejandro did not answer.
The timer reached five minutes.
A new video began.
This time the screen showed a hospital nursery. Rows of bassinets stood beneath dim blue lights. A nurse carried an infant wrapped in a pink blanket toward a woman whose face remained outside the frame.
Sophia stepped closer.
The date in the corner was the night Valeria was born.
The nurse placed the baby in the woman's arms.
A voice said, "Specimen V is stable. Maternal party remains unaware."
Sophia stopped breathing.
Alejandro whispered, "I have never seen this."
The infant turned her face toward the camera. Even as a newborn, Valeria had the same small crescent-shaped mark near her left ear.
Sophia gripped the edge of the table.
"What did they do to my daughter?"
The screen changed again.
A second infant appeared.
This baby wore Valeria's hospital identification band.
Sophia felt the room tilt.
"No."
Alejandro moved toward her. "Sophia—"
She shoved him back.
The timer showed 03:19.
The printer produced another page.
DNA AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
Two sample wells opened in the table. A needle extended from each.
Alejandro understood first. "It needs blood from both of us."
Sophia looked at the screen. "Why?"
"To determine whether the recognized parents match the archive."
"Recognized by whom?"
The red lights brightened. Somewhere behind the walls, metal shutters began closing over the cabinets.
02:44.
Alejandro pressed his finger to one needle. Blood filled the first well.
MATCH ACCEPTED: PATERNAL LINE.
Sophia stared at the second needle.
If she gave the system her blood, she might learn whether the child she had raised was biologically hers. She might also activate a protocol designed by Isabela, a woman who had watched Sophia for years and apparently arranged events around Valeria's birth.
01:57.
Alejandro said, "We have no time."
Sophia pressed her finger to the needle.
The second well glowed.
ANALYZING.
The timer reached one minute.
The result appeared.
MATERNAL LINE: NO MATCH.
Sophia could not move.
Alejandro stared at the words.
"No," he said. "That has to be false."
The archive shutters locked into place. A chemical odor entered the room.
The monitor displayed one final prompt.
IDENTIFY THE CHILD'S TRUE MOTHER.
Three names appeared.
CAMILA ORTEGA.
ISABELA VALE.
UNKNOWN.
The timer showed twenty seconds.
Sophia's hand hovered over the screen.
Camila was only thirty-two, too young to have given birth to Valeria under Isabela's old plan unless everything they knew about her was false. Isabela was impossible by age and biology. Unknown was the only honest answer.
But honesty had never been the language of this room.
At eight seconds, Sophia pressed CAMILA ORTEGA.
The timer stopped.
The steel door opened.
On every monitor, Isabela smiled.
May you like
"Correct," she said.
Then the lights went out.
